MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive study involved 58 Malays and 15 Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer prior to treatment. Quality of life was measured using the Malay version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast-specific module (QLQ-BR23). Socio-demographic and clinical data were also collected. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0.
RESULTS: Most of the women were married with at least a secondary education and were in late stages of breast cancer. The Malay women had lower incomes (p=0.046) and more children (p=0.001) when compared to the Chinese women. Generally, both the Malay and Chinese women had good functioning quality-of-life scores [mean score range: 60.3-84.8 (Malays); 65.0-91.1 (Chinese)] and global quality of life [mean score 60.3, SD 22.2 (Malays); mean score 65.0, SD 26.6 (Chinese)]. The Malay women experienced more symptoms such as nausea and vomiting (p=0.002), dyspnoea (p=0.004), constipation (p<0.001) and breast-specific symptoms (p=0.041) when compared to the Chinese.
CONCLUSIONS: Quality of life was satisfactory in both Malays and Chinese women newly diagnosed with breast cancer in Kelantan. However, Malay women had a lower quality of life due to high general as well as breast-specific symptoms. This study finding underlined the importance of measuring quality of life in the newly diagnosed breast cancer patient, as it will provide a broader picture on how a cancer diagnosis impacts multi-ethnic patients. Once health care professionals understand this, they might then be able to determine how to best support and improve the quality of life of these women during the difficult times of their disease and on-going cancer treatments.
METHODS: All cases of IO-IBD, defined as onset of disease before 12 mo of age, seen at University Malaya Medical Center, Malaysia were reviewed. We performed mutational analysis for IL10 and IL10R genes in patients with presenting clinical features of Crohn's disease (CD).
RESULTS: Six [13%; CD = 3, ulcerative colitis (UC) = 2, IBD-unclassified (IBD-U) = 1] of the 48 children (CD = 25; UC = 23) with IBD have IO-IBD. At final review [median (range) duration of follow-up: 6.5 (3.0-20) years], three patients were in remission without immunosuppression [one each for post-colostomy (IBD-U), after standard immunosuppression (CD), and after total colectomy (UC)]. Three patients were on immunosuppression: one (UC) was in remission while two (both CD) had persistent disease. As compared with later-onset disease, IO-IBD were more likely to present with bloody diarrhea (100% vs 55%, P = 0.039) but were similar in terms of an associated autoimmune liver disease (0% vs 19%, P = 0.31), requiring biologics therapy (50% vs 36%, P = 0.40), surgery (50% vs 29%, P = 0.27), or achieving remission (50% vs 64%, P = 0.40). No mutations in either IL10 or IL10R in the three patients with CD and the only patient with IBD-U were identified.
CONCLUSION: The clinical features of IO-IBD in this Asian cohort of children who were negative for IL-10 or IL-10R mutations were variable. As compared to childhood IBD with onset of disease after 12 mo of age, IO-IBD achieved remission at a similar rate.