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- Molassiotis, A., et al.
(författare)
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Use of complementary and alternative medicine in cancer patients : a European survey
- 2005
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Ingår i: Annals of Oncology. - : Oxford University Press. - 0923-7534 .- 1569-8041. ; 16:4, s. 655-663
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The aim of this study was to explore the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer patients across a number of European countries.Methods: A descriptive survey design was developed. Fourteen countries participated in the study and data was collected through a descriptive questionnaire from 956 patients.Results: Data suggest that CAM is popular among cancer patients with 35.9% using some form of CAM (range among countries 14.8% to 73.1%). A heterogeneous group of 58 therapies were identified as being used. Herbal medicines and remedies were the most commonly used CAM therapies, together with homeopathy, vitamins/minerals, medicinal teas, spiritual therapies and relaxation techniques. Herbal medicine use tripled from use before diagnosis to use since diagnosis with cancer. Multivariate analysis suggested that the profile of the CAM user was that of younger people, female and with higher educational level. The source of information was mainly from friends/family and the media, while physicians and nurses played a small part in providing CAM-related information. The majority used CAM to increase the body's ability to fight cancer or improve physical and emotional well-being, and many seemed to have benefited from using CAM (even though the benefits were not necessarily related to the initial reason for using CAM). Some 4.4% of patients, however, reported side-effects, mostly transient.Conclusions: It is imperative that health professionals explore the use of CAM with their cancer patients, educate them about potentially beneficial therapies in light of the limited available evidence of effectiveness, and work towards an integrated model of health-care provision.
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| 2. |
- Fagerlind, Magnus G., et al.
(författare)
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Dynamic modelling of cell death during biofilm development
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Theoretical Biology. - : Academic Press. - 0022-5193 .- 1095-8541. ; 295, s. 23-36
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Biofilms are currently recognised as the predominant bacterial life-style and it has been suggested that biofilm development is influenced by a number of different processes such as adhesion, detachment, mass transport, quorum sensing, cell death and active dispersal. One of the least understood processes and its effects on biofilm development is cell death. However, experimental studies suggest that bacterial death is an important process during biofilm development and many studies show a relationship between cell death and dispersal in microbial biofilms. We present a model of the process of cell death during biofilm development, with a particular focus on the spatial localisation of cell death or cell damage. Three rules governing cell death or cell damage were evaluated which compared the effects of starvation, damage accumulation, and viability during biofilm development and were also used to design laboratory based experiments to test the model. Results from model simulations show that actively growing biofilms develop steep nutrient gradients within the interior of the biofilm that affect neighbouring microcolonies resulting in cell death and detachment. Two of the rules indicated that high substrate concentrations lead to accelerated cell death, in contrast to the third rule, based on the accumulation of damage, which predicted earlier cell death for biofilms grown with low substrate concentrations. Comparison of the modelling results with experimental results suggests that cell death is favoured under low nutrient conditions and that the accumulation of damage may be the main cause of cell death during biofilm development. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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