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Biomedical subjects

A Re

Publications and source records attributed to A Re.

53 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Evaluation of the CASPAR alcohol education curriculum.

The CASPAR education-prevention program was initiated when experimental results indicated that a 5-hr alcohol education curriculum at a Catholic high school was able to reduce frequent intoxication among teenagers. Attempts to institutionalize such a program in the public schools shows that (1) alcohol education can generate widespread community and school support; (2) workshops can successfully train teachers to adopt a decision-making approach, though close supervision is needed to ensure that this approach is adhered to in classroom teaching; (3) the CASPAR model of alcohol education produces classroom situations conducive to many children feeling free to express alcohol-related concerns; (4) trained teachers can serve as intermediaries between students with alcohol-related concerns and community resources, in particular those resources that are designed to help children from families with alcoholism; (5) the CASPAR curriculum, implemented by trained teachers, produces statistically significant knowledge and attitude gains, whereas alternate programs such as a special-events approach produce smaller knowledge gains and little attitude change; and (6) to a considerable extent, knowledge and attitude gains persist over time, although retention is greater on knowledge items and among older students. The results suggest that there may be a behavioral impact of instruction in the form of reduced alcohol misuse among teenagers, although if there is, it requires intensive and repeated exposure and can be demonstrated in these data only among younger students while they remain in junior high school. Although such results may be viewed as less supportive than the original experiment with which this work began, they do suggest that alcohol education remains an effective prevention strategy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

[Findings on the knowledge of self-examination of the breast].

A research on the degree of knowledge about the problem of breast self-examination was carried out in a group of 500 women in the Out-patients Department of the Cancer Institute in Milan. The women were given a questionnaire to fill up at home and to return at the moment of the medical examination. The analysis of data showed that, though the level of education of the subjects was fairly good, the knowledge and the practise of the periodical self-examination as a method for an early diagnosis was very low. 70% of the women declared to have some knowledge about the method, but only 9% declared to practise it regularly.

Breast↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Further trial of clinical diagnostic index for the malignancy diagnosis of mammary nodules. (author's transl)].

The results of a further trial of a clinical dianostic index (CDI) for ill-defined mammary nodules, based on the algebrical results of positive numerical values (for a suspect feature), or negative numerical values (for non suspect feature), attributed to 10 characteristic semeiological features, previously described, are reported. 222 nodules were clinically examined, all subsequently subjected to mammography and 188 of them to thermography; they were then operated and examined histologically. Of 106 malignant nodules the accuracy of the CDI was 88.6% with 4.7% false negatives; for mammography 65% with 21.7% false negatives; for termography (out of 87 cases) 66.6 with 21% false negatives. The accuracy in 116 benign nodules was 45.6% for the CDI, 32.7% for mammography and 29.7% for termography (out of 101 cases). In three cases of malignant nodules in women below 35 years of age, all three examinations gave negative results. The relations between the diagnostic errors of the three examinations, as well as the dimensions and histo-type of the nodules are also considered. It may be concluded, that the CDI is a simple rapid and highly accurate clinical investigation for early diagnosis of mammary carcinoma.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An analysis of 800 breast cancer patients relapsed after radical mastectomy.

The chronology of first recurrences, their topographic distribution and survival from mastectomy were retrospectively studied in a series of 800 mastectomized women with special reference to the relationship between these data and treatment delay, TN categories and free interval. Visceral metastases were more frequent in patients under 50 years, whereas local recurrences were more common in patients over 50. The average free interval was 26 months (over 5 years in 18% of cases) and seemed to be influenced little by the treatment delay or by tumor size; it was shorter in patients under 50 years and shorter still in patients with lymph node involvement at operation. A similar correlation exists between these parameters and survival. The 5 years survival rate of the 800 cases with recurrence was 52%, which is quite different from the rate generally indicated for surgical cases, and much higher than the rate for the natural history of untreated breast cancer. The survival rate in cases with first metastases confined to the soft tissues is much higher than in those with bone and/or with visceral metastases. The survival after recurrence proves to be significantly influenced by the length of the free interval, but much more by the presence or absence of regional lymph node involvement so that the lymph nodes status (N--or N+) turns out to be a prognostic item of primary importance, even after the onset recurrence.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Usefulness of breast self-examination for an early detection of breast cancer results of a study on 500 breast cancer patients and 652 controls.

The knowledge and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) was investigated among 500 women with operable breast tumors between 35 and 64 years of age (all successively operated) and 652 healthy women, matched with the previous group for 5-year age groups from 35 to 54 years. Only 39.9% of breast cancer women and 34.5% of the controls practiced BSE, starting from 45 years, and it is used less frequency by the women with a poor education and those in a lower economic bracket. Among the 500 breast cancer patients, those who practiced the self-examination had a higher number of tumors with a diameter no greater than 2 cm and a lower number with a diameter larger than 4 cm. In addition, in this group the percentage of unaffected axillary lymph nodes (N-) was 58.8% compared to 48.8% for the group that did not practice self-examination, and the percentage of the cases with more than 3 metastatic lymph nodes (N+ greater than 3) was 20.0% in the first group and 27.3% of the second one. These differences were statistically significant. The correlation between tumor diameter and the histologic lymph node stage is equally evident, since there is a progressive reduction in N- cases and a contemporary progressive increase in N+ (greater than 3) cases with increasing breast tumor diameter. Therefore, we can infer that the lack of practice of BSE causes a diagnostic and therapeutic delay, which is responsible for aggravation of the prognosis.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of D-methionine as a cytoprotectant in cisplatin treatment of an animal model for ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the use of D-methionine(D-met) as a cytoprotectant in the context of clinically relevant doses of cisplatin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty five Fischer rats were injected intraperitoneally with 10(6) NuTu-19 cells and treated as follows: group 1 was the control group and received no treatment, group 2 received cisplatin 4 mg/kg and group 3 received cisplatin 4 mg/kg plus D-met. There were two groups that received high dose cisplatin. Group 4 received cisplatin 8 mg/kg and group 5 received cisplatin 8 mg/kg plus D-met. Treatment was initiated four weeks after injection of the NuTu-19 cells, and consisted of four weekly intraperitoneal injections. Serum BUN and creatinine levels in the high dose groups evaluated nephrotoxicity and clinical outcome was measured by mean survival using Kaplan Meier analysis. RESULTS: There were no significant elevations in serum BUN or creatinine levels in any of the rats treated with high dose cisplatin. In the animals given cisplatin 8 mg/kg plus D-met, death from toxicity was prevented and all animals completed four treatments. In contrast, only two animals in group 4 (cisplatin 8 mg/kg alone) completed 4 treatments. There was a significant improvement in survival for the animals given D-met. (p = .0001) In all treated groups except for group 4, there was an improvement in survival compared to the control group. When comparing groups 2 and 3 (4 mg/kg +/- D-met), there was a subjective decrease in tumor response for group 3 but mean survival was not statistically different. (91 vs. 81 days; p = 0.07) A comparison of groups 2 and 5 revealed no survival benefit using high dose cisplatin with D-met. (91 vs. 79 days; p = 0.10). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that D-methionine provides cytoprotection against cisplatin toxicity without significant compromise of antitumor activity. All though D-methionine allowed for significant dose intensification of cisplatin above standard doses, there was no survival advantage noted in this group of animals. The indications for its use in the treatment of ovarian cancer remain to be determined.

Animals↗