BACKGROUND: It is important to know and decide when to end regimen for the quality of life of the patients. However, there is currently no clear agreement on when to terminate palliative chemotherapy. We investigated the duration between the last chemotherapy and death, and associated factors affecting patients receiving palliative care after the last chemotherapy. METHODS: We studied 242 patients who were put into palliative care ward after receiving chemotherapy and died during hospitalization from 2008 to 2009. Electronic medical records were used to gather information on demographic characteristics, types of primary cancer, and palliative chemotherapy. Then we analyzed the relationship between the clinical characteristics of patients and interval between last chemotherapy and death. RESULTS: The average survival time of patients after referral to palliative care was 17.5 days; survival time after discontinuation of chemotherapy was 103 days. Also, 104 (43.0%) patients died within 3 months and 14 (5.8%) patients died within 1 month of persistent palliative chemotherapy. Chemotherapy on patients within 3 months from their death was not associated with the social characteristics of the population. CONCLUSION: The patients who were referred to palliative care were found to have continued to receive chemotherapy within 3 months before death. However, only a small number of patients received chemotherapy within 1 month before death, which confirms that futile chemotherapy that extends to the end of life was less frequent. Doctors should be able to recognize the implications of excessive and aggressive use of chemotherapy and should actively communicate with patients about therapeutic choices.
Electronic Health Records ; Hospitalization ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Quality of Life ; Referral and Consultation ; Sociology

No abstract available.
Humans ; Subacute Combined Degeneration ; Vitamin B 12

Background: When suspicious lesions are observed on computer-tomography (CT), invasive tests are needed to confirm lung cancer. Compared with other procedures, bronchoscopy has fewer complications. However, the sensitivity of peripheral lesion through bronchoscopy including washing cytology is low. A new test with higher sensitivity through bronchoscopy is needed. In our previous study, DNA methylation of PCDHGA12 in bronchial washing cytology has a diagnostic value for lung cancer. In this study, combination of PCDHGA12 and CDO1 methylation obtained through bronchial washing cytology was evaluated as a diagnostic tool for lung cancer. Methods: A total of 187 patients who had suspicious lesions in CT were enrolled. PCDHGA12methylation test, CDO1 methylation test, and cytological examination were performed using 3-plex LTE-qMSP test. Results: Sixty-two patients were diagnosed with benign diseases and 125 patients were diagnosed with lung cancer. The sensitivity of PCDHGA12 was 74.4% and the specificity of PCDHGA12 was 91.9% respectively. CDO1 methylation test had a sensitivity of 57.6% and a specificity of 96.8%. The combination of both PCDHGA12 methylation test and CDO1 methylation test showed a sensitivity of 77.6% and a specificity of 90.3%. The sensitivity of lung cancer diagnosis was increased by combining both PCDHGA12 and CDO1 methylation tests. Conclusion Checking DNA methylation of both PCDHGA12 and CDO1 genes using bronchial washing fluid can reduce the invasive procedure to diagnose lung cancer.

Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is a stress-responsive enzyme that modulates the immune response and oxidative stress associated with spinal cord injury (SCI). This study aimed to investigate neuronal regeneration via transplantation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) overexpressing HO-1. Canine MSCs overexpressing HO-1 were generated by using a lentivirus packaging protocol. Eight beagle dogs with experimentally-induced SCI were divided into GFP-labeled MSC (MSC-GFP) and HO-1-overexpressing MSC (MSC-HO-1) groups. MSCs (1 × 10⁷ cells) were transplanted at 1 week after SCI. Spinal cords were harvested 8 weeks after transplantation, after which histopathological, immunofluorescence, and western blot analyses were performed. The MSC-HO-1 group showed significantly improved functional recovery at 7 weeks after transplantation. Histopathological results showed fibrotic changes and microglial cell infiltration were significantly decreased in the MSC-HO-1 group. Immunohistochemical (IHC) results showed significantly increased expression levels of HO-1 and neuronal markers in the MSC-HO-1 group. Western blot results showed significantly decreased expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, cycloogygenase 2, phosphorylated-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3, and galactosylceramidase in the MSC-HO-1 group, while expression levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein, β3-tubulin, neurofilament medium, and neuronal nuclear antigen were similar to those observed in IHC results. Our results demonstrate that functional recovery after SCI can be promoted to a greater extent by transplantation of HO-1-overexpressing MSCs than by normal MSCs.
Animals ; Blotting, Western ; Dogs ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique ; Galactosylceramidase ; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein ; Heme Oxygenase-1* ; Heme* ; Interleukin-6 ; Intermediate Filaments ; Lentivirus ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells* ; Neurons ; Oxidative Stress ; Product Packaging ; Regeneration ; Spinal Cord Injuries* ; Spinal Cord* ; Transducers ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.

This paper describes a community effort to improve earlier versions of the full-text corpus of Genomics & Informatics by semi-automatically detecting and correcting PDF-to-text conversion errors and optical character recognition errors during the first hackathon of Genomics & Informatics Annotation Hackathon (GIAH) event. Extracting text from multi-column biomedical documents such as Genomics & Informatics is known to be notoriously difficult. The hackathon was piloted as part of a coding competition of the ELTEC College of Engineering at Ewha Womans University in order to enable researchers and students to create or annotate their own versions of the Genomics & Informatics corpus, to gain and create knowledge about corpus linguistics, and simultaneously to acquire tangible and transferable skills. The proposed projects during the hackathon harness an internal database containing different versions of the corpus and annotations.