• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.27-33
• /
• 2016

Background : This case is to report a gallbladder cancer patient treated with Korean Medicine who could not receive conventional cancer therapies such as operation and chemotherapy due to her underlying diseases, old age and poor performance. Method and Results : An eighty-year-old female patient was diagnosed with stage IV gallbladder cancer on Feb. 2014 and she already had hypertension, diabetes and Parkinsonism. Comprehensive Korean Medicine (KM) treatments instead of operation and chemotherapy were administrated due to her poor condition and old age. KM treatments were done focused on improving symptoms and quality of life combined with best supportive care. During KM treatments her abdominal pain was generally managed and she survived for 22 months. Conclusion : Further studies should be performed in the future to clarify the survival benefit and symptom management of comprehensive KM treatments.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1675-1682
• /
• 2012

Aim: The study aim was to determine the frequency with which women decline clinicians' treatment recommendations and variations in this frequency by age, cancer and service descriptors. Design: The study included 36,775 women diagnosed with early invasive breast cancer in 1998-2005 and attending Australian and New Zealand breast surgeons. Rate ratios for declining treatment were examined by descriptor, using bilateral and multiple logistic regression analyses. Proportional hazards regression was used in exploratory analyses of associations with breast cancer death. Results: 3.4% of women declined a recommended treatment of some type, ranging from 2.6% for women under 40 years to 5.8% for those aged 80 years or more, and with parallel increases by age presenting for declining radiotherapy (p<0.001) and axillary surgery (p=0.006). Multiple regression confirmed that common predictors of declining various treatments included low surgeon case load, treatment outside major city centres, and older age. Histological features suggesting a favourable prognosis were often predictive of declining various treatments, although reverse findings also applied with women with positive nodal status being more likely to decline a mastectomy and those with larger tumours more likely to decline chemotherapy. While survival analyses lacked statistical power due to small numbers, higher risks of breast cancer death were suggested, after adjusting for age and conventional clinical risk factors, (1) for women not receiving breast surgery for unstated reasons (RR=2.29; p<0.001); and (2) although not approaching statistical significance $p{\geq}0.200$), for women declining radiotherapy (RR=1.22), a systemic therapy (RR1.11), and more specifically, chemotherapy (RR=1.41). Conclusions: Women have the right to choose their treatments but reasons for declining recommendations require further study to ensure that choices are well informed and clinical outcomes are optimized.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.1885-1887
• /
• 2014

Skin metastases of breast cancer are usually late events in the course of tumor progression and signify a poor prognosis. They may remain as a therapeutic challenge especially after failure of standard treatments. Topical interventions, together with or without radiotherapy, may only palliate the symptoms temporarily. However, there may be alternative treatment modalities for unresectable breast cancer skin metastases resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. There are various genetic alterations in tumors and therapeutic potential of expression patterns for factors like epidermal growth factor receptor may have important clinical implications in case of disease refractory to the conventional treatments. Here, we clarified the therapeutic options and genetic alterations in skin metastatic breast cancer patients refractory to standard chemotherapeutics.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2014

Cancer, especially GI cancer itself and any associated treatments have profound effect on the patient's nutritional status. It is therefore very important to understand various nutritional issues in GI cancer patients for the cure and for increasing the compliance during the course of the treatment. Screening and identification of nutritional risk for the GI cancer patients is very essential and is plays a critical part of the treatment to help improve patient outcomes. Maintaining optimal nutritional status is an important goal in the management of individuals diagnosed, treated with cancer. Maintenance of adequate nutritional intake is important whether patients are undergoing active therapy, recovering from cancer therapy, or are in remission and striving to avoid cancer recurrence. The goals of nutrition therapy are to prevent or reverse nutrient deficiencies, preserve lean body mass, help patients better tolerate treatments and minimize nutrition-related side effects and complications, etc. Recent interest in clinical settings is also in maximizing quality of life of the patients which can also be modulated by appropriate nutrition.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.81-88
• /
• 2011

Objectives: The purpose of this report is to find out how Mountain Ginseng Pharmacopuncture(MGP) and Sweet Bee Venom(SBV) treatments are effective on prostate cancer patients by monitoring Prostate specific antigen(PSA) values. Methods: We treated two prostate cancer patients with MGP and SBV from October 2008 to April 2011. One patient had localized prostate cancer, the other was in the terminal stage of prostate cancer with lung and bone metastasis and both had been receiving western anticancer therapy. We had monitored the changes of PSA value. Results: In case 1, MGP and SBV treatments seemed to be helpful in preventing the recurrence of localized prostate cancer. In case 2, PSA value was decreased by MGP treatment. Conclusions: It is conceivable that MGP and SBV are effective treatments for patients with prostate cancer.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.15-31
• /
• 2011

Objective : The study aims to investigate the effect of moxibustion treatments on autonomic nervous system function of cancer patients through the evaluation of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback testing. Materials and Methods : Six cancer patients from inpatient care unit of Dunsan Oriental Hospital, Daejeon University were given three moxibustion treatment sessions every other day over one week period on five Oriental Medicine meridian points CV4, CV6, CV12, KD1, and PC8. HRV biofeedback was conducted before and after each treatment sessions. Three areas of analyses were done from the test conducted; Time Domain Analysis, Frequency Domain Analysis and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) balance analysis. Results : Time Domain Analysis has shown increased Standard Deviation of all Normal R-R Intervals (SDNN), and decreased Mean Heart Rate and Physical Stress Index (PSI) levels, with statistical significance (P<0.05). In Frequency Domain Analysis, series of moxa treatments have increased Total Power (TP), Very Low Frequency Oscillation Power (VLF), High Frequency Oscillation Power (HF), normalized HF values while decreasing Low Frequency Oscillation Power (LF), normalized LF and LF/HF ratio with statistical significance (P<0.05). The values of ANS activity, ANS balance, Stress resistance, Stress index, have also shown significant changes. For cardiac stability stroke volume power (SP) and Blood Vessel Tension (BVT) were followed, which were both increased after treatment. All changes were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion : The results have shown a positive correlation between the moxibustion treatments and autonomic nervous system responses on cancer patients through the HRV biofeedback testing. This study suggests possible application of moxibustion treatments for managing ANS functions of cancer patients, although additional studies with larger population are necessary to confirm the data.

• Journal of Haehwa Medicine
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.189-195
• /
• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to report the effect of just oriental treatments to the breast cancer. Methods: A 37-year-old woman had breast cancer of stage II according AJCC staging system, but she dosen't want be operated for a tumor. So, she was treated with herbal medicine, acuputure, moxa, patch made from herb medicine and depletion for four weeks. In herbal theraphy sihosogansan and saengmaksan. The patch made from herb medicine is put on the skin of the cancer. Depletion is done on the breast cancer, too. In acuputure theraphy, Sojangjeonggyeok(小腸正格) was used. In Moxa theraphy Chungwan, Kwanwon were used. Results: After oriental medicine for 27 days, she was on the mend about the size, complexion, solidity and pain of the breast cancer. Conclusion: This study shows that breast cancer is improved if only oriental treatments. But after this, further approach and studys on the breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.2039-2043
• /
• 2012

Objectives: Depression is common in cancer patients. However, only limited evidence is available for Asian populations. The authors therefore examine the prevalence of depression in Thai patients with cancer. In addition, associated factors were determined. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in cancer patients admitted to a university hospital during December 2006 - December 2007. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used to assess all cancer patients. Suicidal risk was assessed by using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) in the module of suicidal risk assessment. Results: Of 108 cancer patients, 29.6 % were diagnosed with a depressive disorder (mild, 14.8 %; moderate, 5.6 %; severe, 9.3 %). However, only 25.0 % of these were recognized as being depressed by the primary physician. According to the MINI., 28.1 % of these depressed cancer patients had a moderate to severe level of suicidal risk. In addition, the findings suggest that increased risk of depression is significantly associated with increased pain score, lower number of cancer treatments (< 2 methods), increased educational duration (>13 years), increased age (> 50 years old) and being female. Conclusions: The prevalence of depression is high in Thai cancer patients. However, depressive disorder in those patients is frequently undiagnosed. It is associated with several factors including pain, a number of cancer treatments, education duration, age and sex. To improve quality of life, increase compliance with treatments and prevent of suicide, screening for depressive disorders in this patient group is strongly recommended.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.262-262
• /
• 2012

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.129-135
• /
• 2013

Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. In advanced and metastatic gastric cancer, the conventional chemotherapy with limited efficacy shows an overall survival period of about 10 months. Patient specific and effective treatments known as personalized cancer therapy is of significant importance. Advances in high-throughput technologies such as microarray and next generation sequencing for genes, protein expression profiles and oncogenic signaling pathways have reinforced the discovery of treatment targets and personalized treatments. However, there are numerous challenges from cancer target discoveries to practical clinical benefits. Although there is a flood of biomarkers and target agents, only a minority of patients are tested and treated accordingly. Numerous molecular target agents have been under investigation for gastric cancer. Currently, targets for gastric cancer include the epidermal growth factor receptor family, mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor axis, and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-AKT-mammalian target of rapamycin pathways. Deeper insights of molecular characteristics for gastric cancer has enabled the molecular classification of gastric cancer, the diagnosis of gastric cancer, the prediction of prognosis, the recognition of gastric cancer driver genes, and the discovery of potential therapeutic targets. Not only have we deeper insights for the molecular diversity of gastric cancer, but we have also prospected both affirmative potentials and hurdles to molecular diagnostics. New paradigm of transdisciplinary team science, which is composed of innovative explorations and clinical investigations of oncologists, geneticists, pathologists, biologists, and bio-informaticians, is mandatory to recognize personalized target therapy.