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Biomedical subjects

L W McCallum

Publications and source records attributed to L W McCallum.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Stressors and rewards of being an AIDS emotional-support volunteer: a scale for use by care-givers for people with AIDS.

This study describes scales which can be used to identify the levels of stress and reward associated with being a AIDS emotional-support volunteer. Four categories of stressors were identified. These were 'emotional overload', 'client problems', 'lack of support' and 'lack of training'. The reward categories were 'personal effectiveness', 'emotional support', 'social support' and 'empathy/self-knowing'. There were low, but positive correlations between these stressor scales and other measures of psychological morbidity, the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Levels of stress and reward were positively correlated and, taken together, the scales may be of use as a measure of the degree of involvement of volunteers in the AIDS care-giving process. Although these scales were derived from items provided from AIDS emotional-support volunteers many of the items may also be relevant to other health workers providing care for people with AIDS.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1989

The Ankali project: a model for the use of volunteers to provide emotional support in terminal illness.

The Ankali project has provided emotional support to about 250 persons with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, their partners, family members and friends. Volunteers act as a "supportive friend" and allow subjects the opportunity to express their feelings. The project's model easily could be adapted to meet the needs of persons with other terminal illnesses. One of the most important features of the model is the compulsory support-group structure for volunteers.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1983

The use of a tumor colony assay in predicting chemotherapeutic drug response in murine bladder cancer.

A tumor colony assay (TCA) was evaluated for its ability to predict anticancer drug responses in an N-[4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-2-thiazolyl]-formamide (FANFT)-induced murine bladder tumor (MBT) model. Ten anticancer drugs were evaluated in vivo and in vitro using four MBT cell lines (40 drug responses). Using the optimum criteria for drug response, the TCA accurately predicted drug responses in the murine model 65% of the time with a true-positive predictive rate of 54% and a true-negative predictive rate of 70%. Drug testing tumor cells immediately on removal from the mouse resulted in a true-positive predictive rate of 77% and a true-negative predictive rate of 100%. The authors conclude that the TCA can predict response to chemotherapy in the MBT model and may be useful in screening investigation compounds for the subsequent evaluation in this murine bladder tumor model.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Single and sequential combination intravesical chemotherapy of murine bladder cancer.

We investigated the effectiveness of intravesically administered drugs on the tumor incidence and tumor size in a FANFT-induced animal model for bladder cancer. In the first experiment 106 C3H/He mice were divided into a control and three treatment groups. Therapy consisted of either cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (DDP), mitomycin C, or thio-tepa. There was a reduction in the tumor incidence in all treated groups; this was statistically significant for those receiving mitomycin C (p less than 0.04) and DDP (p less than 0.001). No significant difference in the mean or median tumor weight (an index of tumor volume) between the treated and control groups was found. In a second experiment intravesical combination chemotherapy was compared to single-agent therapy. Animals received either doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin), mitomycin C, thio-tepa, mitomycin C + doxorubicin, or mitomycin C + thio-tepa. Although there was no significant difference in tumor incidence among the groups with the exception of mice receiving thio-tepa, animals receiving sequential combination chemotherapy had lower mean and median bladder weights suggesting an improved therapeutic effect.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Comparison between a purified and standard diet on FANFT-induced murine bladder cancer.

We investigated the effect of two diets containing equal amounts of the carcinogen FANFT on the incidence and induction time of murine bladder carcinoma in mice. At each time interval, the tumor incidence in the mice ingesting a purified, high-calorie diet, was equal or greater than the tumor incidence in the animals fed standard mouse chow. The mean animal weight of the mice ingesting the purified diet was consistently higher than that of the mice fed the standard diet. The bladder weights (an index of tumor volume) showed no significant difference between the mice receiving the two diets. Since mice eat to fulfill their caloric requirements, the animals ate less of the purified diet and the cost per year was lower.

Animal Feed↗