Purpose: This study was conducted to explore attitude and practice on using AET among breast cancer patients in Malaysia.
Patients and Methods: Postmenopausal breast cancer patients on at least 3 months of AET attending the outpatient oncology clinic at a tertiary care hospital were interviewed. Patients underwent in-depth interviews exploring their attitude and practices while on AET using a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: There were four main themes for attitude toward the use of AET: 1) benefits of using AET, 2) concerns on taking AET, 3) beliefs on alternative treatment, and 4) beliefs toward the doctor. For practice, six themes were obtained: 1) correct use of AET, 2) appointment adherence, 3) information-seeking behavior, 4) counseling services obtained, 5) experienced side effects of AET, and 6) usage of complementary and alternative medicines.
Conclusion: Several themes concerning attitude and practice of breast cancer patients receiving AET were identified, which may be addressed during treatment consultations in clinical practice.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vivo toxicity (acute and subacute toxicity) study was carried out by oral administration of TQNLC and TQ to BALB/c mice. Animal survival, body weight, organ weight-to-body weight ratio, hematological profile, biochemistry profile, and histopathological changes were analyzed.
RESULTS: In acute toxicity, TQ that is loaded in nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) was found to be less toxic than pure TQ. It can be concluded that encapsulation of TQ in lipid carrier minimizes the toxicity of the compound. In the subacute toxicity study, oral administration of 100 mg/kg of TQNLC and TQ did not cause mortality to either male or female but resulted in toxicity to the liver. It is postulated that long-term consumption of TQNLC and TQ may cause toxicity to the liver but not to the extent of altering the functions of the organ. For both treatments, the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) was found to be 10 mg/kg/d for mice in both sexes.
CONCLUSION: For long-term oral consumption, TQ and TQNLC at a dose of 10 mg/kg is safe in mice and does not exert any toxic effect. The results provide safety information of TQNLC, which would further help researchers in clinical use.
METHODS: Methods involved were MTT assay (cytotoxic activity), morphological cells analysis, flow cytometry and cell cycle analysis and western blot.
RESULTS: MTT assay revealed IC50 concentration was 1.61 µg/mL, 3T3-L1 cell lines were used to determine whether AgNps-CN is cytotoxic to normal cells. At the highest concentration (3 µg/mL), no cytotoxic activity has been observed. Flow cytometry assay revealed AgNps-CN caused apoptosis effects towards HSC-4 cell lines with significant changes were observed at G1 phase when compared with untreated cells. Morphological cells analysis revealed that most of the cells exhibit apoptosis characteristics rather than necrosis. Protein study revealed that ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 increased mainly due to down-regulation of Bcl-2 expression.
CONCLUSION: AgNps-CN have shown potential in inhibiting HSC-4 cell lines. IC50 was low compared to few studies involving biosynthesized of silver nanoparticles. Apoptosis effects were shown towards HSC-4 cell lines by the increased in Bax/Bcl-2 protein ratio. Further study such as PCR or in vivo studies are required.
METHODS: The searched articles were selected based on the available keywords in the title and abstract with the publication restricted between January 2010 and September 2020. Articles generated from the databases must fulfill both inclusion and exclusion criteria in the present systematic review. Our initial search retrieved 221 literature reviews. After excluding articles with irrelevant topics, a total of 23 articles were chosen for this current review.
RESULTS: The factors were classified based on three main factors: patient-related, medication-related, and healthcare workers-related factors. For patient-related factors, gender, age, number of family members, education level, post-hospitalization, comorbidities and cardiovascular disease risk, follow-up status, occupation, socio-economy, insurance, perception, ethnicity, and health plan were among the factors affecting adherence to LLDs. As for medication-related factors, timing, polypharmacy, duration of treatment, generic medication, intensity of medication, side effects, initiating dose, packaging, drug dosing, and type of drugs were revealed as contributing factors. In the light of healthcare workers, related factors shown were counseling, medication optimization, type of provider, and location of the hospital.
CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations to improve adherence include educating patients on the disease itself and the importance of the treatment, modification of the dosing, timing and type of LLDs, and effective consultations by healthcare workers. Further studies need to be done in Malaysia as there is inadequate research on this topic.