| 1. |
- Alevronta, Eleftheria, et al.
(författare)
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Dose-response relationships of intestinal organs and excessive mucus discharge after gynaecological radiotherapy
- 2021
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203 .- 1932-6203. ; 16:4 April
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background The study aims to determine possible dose-volume response relationships between the rectum, sigmoid colon and small intestine and the ‘excessive mucus discharge’ syndrome after pelvic radiotherapy for gynaecological cancer. Methods and materials From a larger cohort, 98 gynaecological cancer survivors were included in this study. These survivors, who were followed for 2 to 14 years, received external beam radiation therapy but not brachytherapy and not did not have stoma. Thirteen of the 98 developed excessive mucus discharge syndrome. Three self-assessed symptoms were weighted together to produce a score interpreted as ‘excessive mucus discharge’ syndrome based on the factor loadings from factor analysis. The dose-volume histograms (DVHs) for rectum, sigmoid colon, small intestine for each survivor were exported from the treatment planning systems. The dose-volume response relationships for excessive mucus discharge and each organ at risk were estimated by fitting the data to the Probit, RS, LKB and gEUD models. Results The small intestine was found to have steep dose-response curves, having estimated dose-response parameters: γ : 1.28, 1.23, 1.32, D : 61.6, 63.1, 60.2 for Probit, RS and LKB respectively. The sigmoid colon (AUC: 0.68) and the small intestine (AUC: 0.65) had the highest AUC values. For the small intestine, the DVHs for survivors with and without excessive mucus discharge were well separated for low to intermediate doses; this was not true for the sigmoid colon. Based on all results, we interpret the results for the small intestine to reflect a relevant link. Conclusion An association was found between the mean dose to the small intestine and the occurrence of ‘excessive mucus discharge’. When trying to reduce and even eliminate the incidence of ‘excessive mucus discharge’, it would be useful and important to separately delineate the small intestine and implement the dose-response estimations reported in the study.
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| 2. |
- Kenne Sarenmalm, Elisabeth, 1956, et al.
(författare)
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Experience and predictors of symptoms, distress and health-related quality of life over time in postmenopausal women with recurrent breast cancer.
- 2008
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Ingår i: Psycho-Oncology. - : Wiley. - 1057-9249 .- 1099-1611. ; 17:5, s. 497-505
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this study was to explore the symptom experience and predictors of distress and quality of life over time in women with recurrent breast cancer. Fifty-six women completed questionnaires at the diagnosis of recurrence, 1 month, 3 and 6 months after recurrence. A majority of women reported multiple, concurrent and distressing symptoms such as lack of energy, difficulty sleeping, pain, worry and problems with sexual interest or activity during the recurrent breast cancer trajectory. The highest level of symptom burden and distress and decreased quality of life was reported 3 months after recurrence. Although distress declined and quality of life improved over time, patients reported persistent symptoms. Of the patients at increased risk of vulnerability to distress were women who experienced multiple and concurrent symptoms. Other risk factors were co-morbidity, prehistory of anxiety and depression and progressive or terminal disease. Fatigue, pain and depression explained 68-72% of the variance in distress. Distress explained 44-46% of the variance in quality of life. These findings suggest that symptoms are important contributors to the distress experience, and that distress has a severe impact on quality of life. The care of women with recurrent breast cancer must be based upon the awareness of critical factors that exacerbate the vulnerability to distress throughout the disease trajectory.
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| 3. |
- Smith, Frida, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Readability, suitability and comprehensibility in patient education materials for Swedish patients with colorectal cancer undergoing elective surgery: a mixed method design
- 2014
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Ingår i: Patient Education and Counseling. - : Elsevier BV. - 0738-3991 .- 1873-5134. ; 94:2, s. 202-209
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective: To characterize education materials provided to patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery to gain a better understanding of how to design readable, suitable, comprehensible materials. Method: Mixed method design. Deductive quantitative analysis using a validated suitability and comprehensibility assessment instrument (SAM. +. CAM) was applied to patient education materials from 27 Swedish hospitals, supplemented by language technology analysis and deductive and inductive analysis of data from focus groups involving 15 former patients. Results: Of 125 patient education materials used during the colorectal cancer surgery process, 13.6% were rated 'not suitable', 76.8% 'adequate' and 9.6% 'superior'. Professionally developed stoma care brochures were rated 'superior' and 44% of discharge brochures were 'not suitable'. Language technology analysis showed that up to 29% of materials were difficult to comprehend. Focus group analysis revealed additional areas that needed to be included in patient education materials: general and personal care, personal implications, internet, significant others, accessibility to healthcare, usability, trustworthiness and patient support groups. Conclusion: Most of the patient education materials were rated 'adequate' but did not meet the information needs of patients entirely. Discharge brochures particularly require improvement. Practice implications: Using patients' knowledge and integrating manual and automated methods could result in more appropriate patient education materials.
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| 4. |
- Steineck, Gunnar, 1952, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying radiation-induced survivorship syndromes affecting bowel health in a cohort of gynecological cancer survivors
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 12:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2017 Steineck et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Background: During radiotherapy unwanted radiation to normal tissue surrounding the tumor triggers survivorship diseases; we lack a nosology for radiation-induced survivorship diseases that decrease bowel health and we do not know which symptoms are related to which diseases. Methods: Gynecological-cancer survivors were followed-up two to 15 years after having undergone radiotherapy; they reported in a postal questionnaire the frequency of 28 different symptoms related to bowel health. Population-based controls gave the same information. With a modified factor analysis, we determined the optimal number of factors, factor loadings for each symptom, factor-specific factor-loading cutoffs and factor scores. Results: Altogether data from 623 survivors and 344 population-based controls were analyzed. Six factors best explain the correlation structure of the symptoms; for five of these a statistically significant difference (P< 0.001, Mann-Whitney U test) was found between survivors and controls concerning factor score quantiles. Taken together these five factors explain 42 percent of the variance of the symptoms. We interpreted these five factors as radiation-induced syndromes that may reflect distinct survivorship diseases. We obtained the following frequencies, defined as survivors having a factor loading above the 95 percent percentile of the controls, urgency syndrome (190 of 623, 30 percent), leakage syndrome (164 of 623, 26 percent), excessive gas discharge (93 of 623, 15 percent), excessive mucus discharge (102 of 623, 16 percent) and blood discharge (63 of 623, 10 percent). Conclusion: Late effects of radiotherapy include five syndromes affecting bowel health; studying them and identifying the underlying survivorship diseases, instead of the approximately 30 long-term symptoms they produce, will simplify the search for prevention, alleviation and elimination.
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| 5. |
- Steineck, Gunnar, et al.
(författare)
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Late radiation-induced bowel syndromes, tobacco smoking, age at treatment and time since treatment–gynecological cancer survivors
- 2017
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Ingår i: Acta Oncologica. - 1651-226X .- 0284-186X. ; 56:5, s. 682-691
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: It is unknown whether smoking; age at time of radiotherapy or time since radiotherapy influence the intensity of late radiation-induced bowel syndromes. Material and methods: We have previously identified 28 symptoms decreasing bowel health among 623 gynecological-cancer survivors (three to twelve years after radiotherapy) and 344 matched population-based controls. The 28 symptoms were grouped into five separate late bowel syndromes through factor analysis. Here, we related possible predictors of bowel health to syndrome intensity, by combining factor analysis weights and symptom frequency on a person-incidence scale. Results: A strong (p
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