فهرست مطالب suresh rao

Ethical problems routinely arise in the healthcare profession and more so in hospitals providing cancer diagnosis and care. Literature study indicates that almost all studies addressing ethical issues in cancer have been qualitative and reported from the developed countries, while there has been no study reported from developing countries. For the first time, we performed a questionnaire study to quantify the ethical issues plaguing the healthcare fraternity in the diagnosis and care of people with cancer. This prospective study was conducted under the aegis of UNESCO Bioethics Education and Research Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics, Haifa at Mangalore Institute of Oncology Mangalore, India. The investigators approached the healthcare professionals involved in diagnosis, treating, and caring for patients with cancer and ascertained various ethical issues they faced. Data were tabulated and subjected to frequency and percentage. The results indicated that discussing end-of-life issues with the patient and breaking bad news were the two most difficult ones while discussing end of life issues with family caregivers was the least. According to this study, oncology treatment involves a series of dilemmatic issues and breaking bad news. Based on the detailed studies and emphasis on handling these issues, it is possible to develop a teaching module for training the health care professionals and workers for managing the ethical issues effectively.

In this study, we sought to understand the usefulness of salivary lactatedehydrogenase as a predictive marker for the development of radiation-inducedmucositis. This was a prospective study with head and neck cancer patients whorequired curative radiotherapy (>60Gy). We collected patients’ saliva before the onsetof radiation and after 2 Gy of radiation to assess lactate dehydrogenase levels. The patientsreceived the stipulated oral and dental care. Data on incidence and severity of mucositiswas collected using a preform sheet and oral mucositis assessment scale published bythe Radiation Therapy Oncology Group throughout the 7-week treatment period. Salivary lactate dehydrogenase increased with exposure to radiation(P<0.0001) and there was an observed association with mucositis severity (P<0.0001;r = 0.515). The present results have established, for the first time, that salivarylactate dehydrogenase could be a useful predictive marker to understand the developmentof radiation-induced mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer. The proximityof the oral cavity for regular observation and saliva collection is an added advantage.

This study evaluates the predictive significance of salivary amylase, glutathione, lipid peroxides, and lactate dehydrogenase in the treatment of head and neck cancer patients who undergo curative radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy.
The volunteers for the study included head and neck cancer patients that required curative radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy. Patients provided saliva and blood samples before the start of radiation treatment and 24 h after the first radiation fraction of 2 Gy (before the start of the second fraction). Samples were assessed for the levels of blood and salivary amylase, glutathione, lipid peroxides, and lactate dehydrogenase by standard laboratory methods. Clinical tumor radioresponse was assessed one month after the completion of treatment as complete responders, partial responders, and nonresponders.
The results indicated a significant increase in the levels of amylase, lactate dehydrogenase, and lipid peroxides; and a concomitant decrease in the levels of glutathione P The results indicate that salivary lactate dehydrogenase can be a useful predictive marker to ascertain radiation-induced tumor regression in head and neck cancers.

A Head and Neck (H&N) cancer severely affect the voice and compromises the patient’s vocal independence. The present study proposed to investigate the difference in the three vital components of voice the pitch, jitter and shimmer in H&N cancer patients and compared it with age matched healthy volunteers.
The voice parameters were ascertained in the freshly diagnosed H&N cancer patients and controls using the voice analysis software PRAAT and Dynamic Unidirectional AUD-59 XLR microphone in a sound proof voice recording laboratory
The result indicates that a considerable change in the three voice indices, the pitch, jitter and shimmer were observed. On a gender perspective it was observed that the changes in all the three indices were significant for men (p The results suggest that all individuals with any form of head and neck cancer will have some amount of voice problems even before the initiation of the cancer treatments and that the voice assessment is a vital aspect to be considered before initiation of the treatment.