• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.517-520
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• 2012

Single original gemcitabine is commonly used as salvage treatment in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer and primary peritoneal adenocarcinoma (PPA) with a satisfactory outcome. However, efficacy data fro this regimen are limited. We therefore conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the outcome of patients who received single-agent generic gemcitabine (GEMITA) after development of clinical platinum resistance. The study period was between May 2008 and December 2010. Gemcitabine was administered intravenously in two different schedules: 1,000 $mg/m^2$ on day 1,8, and 15 every 28 days; and on days 1 and 8 every 21 days with the same dosage. Administration was until disease progression was noted. The response rate was evaluated using the Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG) criteria while toxicity was evaluated according to WHO criteria. Sixty-six patients met the inclusion criteria in the study period. Two-thirds of them received gemcitabine as the second and third line regimen. The overall response rate was 12.1%. The median progression free survival and overall survival was 2 and 10 months, respectively. With the total 550 courses of chemotherapy,the patients developed grades 3 and 4 hematologic toxicity as follows: anemia, 1.5%; leukopenia, 13.7%; neutropenia, 27.3%; and thrombocytopenia, 3.0%. In conclusion, single agent generic gemcitabine revealed a modest efficacy in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer and PPA without serious toxicity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4703-4706
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• 2012

Objective: To compare efficacy and safety profile of vinorelbine, ifosfamide and cisplatin (NIP) with etoposide and cisplatin (EP) in the treatment of advanced combined small cell lung cancer (c-SCLC). Methods: From January 2006 to December 2010, 176 patients with advanced c-SCLC were enrolled. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS) and the secondary endpoints were progression free survival (PFS), response rate (RR) and toxicity. Results: Overall RR was 30.0% in the NIP and 38.5% in the EP group; there was no significant difference (P=0.236). The PFS in the EP group was little longer than that of NIP group, with 6.5 months for EP and 6.0 months for NIP group, but the difference was statistically non-significant (P=0.163). The median OS and one year survival rates were 10.4 months and 36.3% for NIP group, and 10.8 months and 49.0% for EP respectively, EP showing a survival benefit, although this was not statistically significant. Both groups well tolerated the adverse effects. The incidence of grade I-II leucopenia and alopecia in the NIP group was significantly higher than that of EP group (32.5% vs. 10.4% (P<0.001, 35.0% vs. 12.5%, P<0.001). Conclusion: the ORR, PFS and OS in NIP were slightly inferior to traditional regimen EP. The toxicity of NIP can be considered tolerable. The usage of three drugs combination in the treatment of mixed SCLC remains uncertain. Nevertheless, the results need to be further confirmed by large, prospective clinical trials.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4623-4626
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• 2012

Background: The risk of treatment-related death (TRD) and febrile neutropaenia (FN) with adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy for early breast cancer is unknown in Malaysia despite its widespread usage in recent years. This study aims to determine these rates in patients treated in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC). Patients and Methods: Patients who were treated with adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy for early breast cancer stages I, II or III from 2007-2011 in UMMC were identified from our UMMC Breast Cancer Registry. The TRD and FN rates were then determined retrospectively from medical records. TRD was defined as death occurring during or within 30 days of completing chemotherapy as a consequence of the chemotherapy treatment. FN was defined as an oral temperature > $38.5^{\circ}C$ or two consecutive readings of > $38.0^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours and an absolute neutrophil count < $0.5{\times}10^9/L$, or expected to fall below $0.5{\times}10^9/L$. Results: A total of 622 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy during this period. Of these patients 209 (33.6%) received taxane-based chemotherapy. 4 taxane-based regimens were used namely the FEC-D, TC, TAC and AC-PCX regimens. The commonest regimen employed was the FEC-D regimen accounting for 79.9% of the patients. The FN rate was 10% and there was no TRD. Conclusion: Adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy in UMMC for early breast cancer has a FN rate of 10%. Primary prophylactic G-CSF should be considered for patients with any additional risk factor for FN.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.293-303
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• 1995

Health has occupied a position of importance in the human history, whether it be in the East or in the West, and it is a subject in which people have been constantly interested. The concept of health has changed continuously as the society has developed, industrialized and become more structured. The perception of health concept can be an esential factor which is to determine the health behaviors. This study is a descriptive inquiry done to identity high school students' perception of health and what they do as health behaviors. The subject consisted of 503 voctional high school seniors, 129 boys and 374 girls, from a school located in An-san Si, kyong-gi Do. The instruments used for this study were open-ended questionnaires and data were collected by having the students fill out the questionnaires which took 10 minutes, in their first class, April 6, 1995. The collected materials were classified and recorded on the cards according to each question using the terms which students had written. After putting statements which had common meanings together, the representative categories were labelled. The results obtained are as follows. 1. Categorizing and labelling of health concepts What high school students descripted as health concepts were classified as the absence of illness, physical comfort, strong physical strength and physique, not having a deformity, resisting power, self control mental-rest(or psychological comfort), wholesome ideas, self-control, harmony in body and in mind, maintenace of daily life, pleasant life, good friends, peaceful family life and realizing objectives. 2. Categorizing and labelling of health behaviors These were classified as preventive life, good dietary habits and regimen, maintenance of clean body, exercises, preventing obesity, rest, environmental balance or control of environment, limit one's tastes, making use of leisure, peaceful mind, sound thought and regular living habits. The result indicates that the health concepts were positive and included not only absence of illness but also harmony in body and in mind and pleasant life; health behaviors which had high frequency were good dietary habits and regimen, exercises and sound thought. It is hoped that these findings well serve as practical references for teachers when they counsel with, and provide the students with guidance programs which include health care.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.341-348
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of cefuroxime axetil,　semisynthetic cefalosporin, for some putative periodotopathogens; F. nucleatum, A. actinomycetemcomitans P. intermedia and P. gingivalis. To investigate the efficacy of cefuroxime axetil, several antibiotics, amoxicillin, metronidazole, and ciprofoxacine, were used as control. The MIC was measured by Murray' s method. The MIC of cefuroxime axetil against some putative microbes, as a single use regimen, was relatively high in comparison with that of the other antibiotics used in this study. The MIC of cefuroxime axetil/metronidazole against some putative microbes, as a simultaneous regimen, was similar to that of the other antibiotics used in this study. The manimal level of cefuroxime concentration in gingival fluid was 9${\mu}$/ml at 36hr after the first dose. In conclusion, within the limited experiment, metronidazole/ cefuroxime axetil therapy of periodontitis may provide a therapeutic benefits in reducing the periodontopathogens.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

Background: Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects about 350 million people worldwide, which have a high risk of development of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment of chronic HBV infection relies on IFN-${\alpha}$ or lamivudine. However, interferon-${\alpha}$ is effective in only about 30% of patients. Also, the occurrence of escape mutations limits the usage of lamivudine. Therefore, the development and evaluation of new compounds or approaches are urgent. Methods: We comparatively evaluated DNA and adenoviral vaccines expressing HBV antigens, either alone or in combined regimens, for their ability to elicit Th1-type immune responses in Balb / c mice which are believed to be suited to resolve HBV infection. The vaccines were tested with or without a genetically engineered IL-12 (mIL-12 N220L) which was shown to enhance sustained Th1-type immune responses in HCV E2 DNA vaccine. Results: Considering the Th1-type cytokine secretion and the IgG2a titers, the strongest Th1-type immune response was elicited by the DNA prime-adenovirus boost regimen in the presence of mIL-12 N220L. In addition, the codelivery of mIL-12 N220L modulated differentially the immune responses by different vaccination regimens. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the DNA prime-adenovirus boost regimen in the presence of mIL-12 N220L may be the best candidate for HBV vaccine therapy of the regimens tested in this study and will be worthwhile being evaluated in chronic HBV patients.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 2002

Background: To achieve the efficacy and toxic effects of concomitant FP chemoradiotherapy regimen by means of response and survival in patients with advanced head and neck cancer. Patient and Method: Thirty-three previously untreated patients with newly diagnosed advanced head and neck cancer were retrospectively reviewed. Results: Thirty-one patients were evaluable for the tumor response. Total response rate was 93%(complete response 60%, partial response 33%). Disease free survival was 37 month and 3-year overall survival was 63%. Grade 3 or 4 stomatitis was observed in 83% and appeared as the dose limiting toxicity for this regimen. Conclusion: Concomitant chemoradiotherapy with cisplastin and 5-fluorouracil is effective as primary therapy for advanced head and neck cancer. The majority of patients experienced severe stomatitis. Identification of less toxic regiment and improved disease control emerge as important future research goals.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.83 no.1
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• pp.20-30
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• 2020

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a threat to public health and is the leading cause of death globally. Isoniazid (INH) is an important first-line agent for the treatment of TB considering its early bactericidal activity. Resistance to INH is now the most common type of resistance. Resistance to INH reduces the probability of treatment success and increases the risk of acquiring resistance to other first-line drugs such as rifampicin (RIF), thereby increasing the risk of multidrug-resistant-TB. Studies in the 1970s and 1980s showed high success rates for INH-resistant TB cases receiving regimens comprised of first-line drugs. However, recent data have indicated that INH-resistant TB patients treated with only firs-tline drugs have poor outcomes. Fortunately, based on recent systematic meta-analyses, the World Health Organization published consolidated guidelines on drug-resistant TB in 2019. Their key recommendations are treatment with RIF-ethambutol (EMB)-pyrazinamide (PZA)-levofloxacin (LFX) for 6 months and no addition of injectable agents to the treatment regimen. The guidelines also emphasize the importance of excluding resistance to RIF before starting RIF-EMB-PZA-LFX regimen. Additionally, when the diagnosis of INH-resistant TB is confirmed long after starting the first-line TB treatment, the clinician must decide whether to start a 6-month course of RIF-EMB-PZA-LFX based on the patient's condition. However, these recommendations are based on observational studies, not randomized controlled trials, and are thus conditional and based on low certainty of the effect estimates. Therefore, further work is needed to optimize the treatment of INH-resistant TB.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2016

Purpose: Adherence to immunosuppressants is the key to prevent organ rejection in organ transplant recipients. The purpose of this study was to investigate current interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients. Methods: A systemic literature search was done using PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and four Korean databases to identify experimental studies reported in English or Korean up to and including 2015. We identified eight intervention studies on the adherence to immunosuppressants in liver transplant recipients independently reviewed by two reviewers. The quality and risk of bias of the selected studies were assessed. Results: Education, conversion of regimen, and text messaging were identified as intervention techniques to improve adherence. We found positive results in three out of four studies implementing educational strategies, but the results were not sufficient to draw a definite conclusion. Conversion from a twice-daily tacrolimus-based regimen to a once-daily tacrolimus extended-release formula was used in three adult-only studies and its effectiveness was confirmed. One study showed that improved adherence and outcomes were effected by using text messaging with pediatric patients. Conclusion: Future research is needed to facilitate interventions to improve adherence to immunosuppressants in various ages of patients including pediatric/adolescent liver transplant recipients.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 2008

N-ethyl-N-nitrosoures (ENU) is effective in inducing hypermorphic mutation as well as hypomorphic and antimorphic mutations. Therefore, this mutagen is used to the production of mutant in the mice. In order to perform an effective ENU mutagenesis using BALB/cAnN mice, determination of optimal dosage and dosage regimen of ENU is necessary. And this study tried to develop a suitable screening method and searched for novel and various mutants as model animals in phenotypedriven ENU mutagenesis. We have carried out dosage regimen for mutagenizing dose of 200 mg/kg ENU in the BALB/c mice. Total screened mice were 30,133. As the results of Esaki and Cho's Phenotype Screening, we got 2,516 phenotypic and behavior abnormalities in $G_1,\;G_2\;and\;G_3$ mice. One hundred thirty five $G_1$ phenodeviants were tested for inheritance and 16 dominant mutants were discovered. Forty two recessive mutants were also found in tested 201 micropedigrees. Early-onset mutant mice included the dysmorphology of face, eye, tail, limb, skin, and foot and abnormal behavior like circling, swimming, head tossing, stiff-walking, high cholesterol level, and tremor etc. In this study we could effectively screen $G_3$ recessive mutants. The frequent and concise early-onset screening before weaning will be available for ENU mutagenesis.