No abstract available.

No abstract available.
Mortality*

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare type of malignancy of thyroid follicular cell origin. It is one of the most aggressive human cancers, and typically associated with a fatal prognosis. Most patients are presenting as locally advanced and systemically disseminated disease. A single mode of therapy, whether it is surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy, fails to afford significantly favorable outcomes. While multimodality approaches may enhance the treatment response to a small degree, such implementations of these modalities are often impractical as many patients are of old age and are unable to tolerate the intensity of treatments. As in many other types of carcinomas, radical resection may be the mainstay of therapy for ATC, but surgery itself is seldom possible for this condition. Even with aggressive surgical therapy for those invasive ATCs, there is no evidence of decreased recurrence rates, while only the post-surgical morbidity rates increase. One chemotherapeutic agent that seems to demonstrate some effect against ATC is adriamycin, which is more effective when administered in combination, and is also known to act synergistically with radiotherapy. A commonly employed treatment modality is the combination therapy of adriamycin and cisplatin administration with hyperfractionated radiation therapy. Other chemotherapeutic agents proven to be effective are taxanes such as paclitaxel and docetaxel. Despite of disappointing result of conventional radiotherapy, however, hyperfractionated radiation therapy and combined chemotherapy has been suggested to improve survival rates by some institutions, while others disagree. The dismal results of conventional treatments for ATCs have stimulated the investigation for new therapeutic methods with improved outcome. There have been a number of trials of new materials or therapeutic methods. In recent studies, some trials were partially successful or promising in vitro or in vivo. The examples of these trials are; redifferentiation therapies, molecular targeted therapies, and some other miscellaneous methods. Although the observations may suggest that some of the methods may have a therapeutic effect on ATCs, or may act as an adjunct to other primary treatment modality, the efficacy and safety have not been ascertained yet in human trials, and further confirmation through in-depth studies are required.
Cisplatin ; Doxorubicin ; Humans ; Molecular Targeted Therapy ; Paclitaxel ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Survival Rate ; Taxoids ; Thyroid Gland ; Thyroid Neoplasms

Sleep problems and disorders are common in patients with cancer. Sleep of the cancer patients is affected by various factors, including thermoregulatory changes associated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, cancer related symptoms, such as pain, fatigue, and emotional difficulties. As one of the most common symptoms in cancer patients, fatigue is positively correlated with sleep difficulties. Cytokine is also frequently associated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It provokes excessive daytime sleepiness and hypersomnia. Medications for controlling pain, depression, and anxiety can affect sleep of the cancer patients. Medications as well as behavior therapy are reported to be effective for controlling sleep problems, and the physicians need to be accustomed to use the modalities appropriately. This paper reviews causative factors, evaluation, and management of sleep problems and disorders, experienced by cancer patients.
Anxiety ; Behavior Therapy ; Depression ; Disorders of Excessive Somnolence ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Sleep Wake Disorders

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Mouth*

OBJECTIVE: This study is to evaluate the efficacy of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection(ICSI) for previous fertilization failure with conventional in vitro fertilization(IVF), compared with ICSI for male factor. METHOD: The author analyzed the 3 years of clinical experience with ICSI retrospectively, between the conventional IVF failure group (IVF failure) and male factor group (male factor). Surgically retrieved epididymal or testicular spermatozoa for ICSI were excluded. The IVF failure group was 13 cycles of 6 patients and male factor group was 30 cycles of 15 patients. RESULTS: The fertilization rates of the IVF failure group and male factor group were 63% and 66% respectively (p=0.635). The clinical pregnancy rates of the both group were 23.1% and 26.7% (p=0.804), and that of live birth rates were 15.4% and 13.3% (p=0.858). There were no significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The author concluded that ICSI can overcome previous fertilization failure, with the same fertilization and clinical pregnancy rates seen in patients with male factor.
Fertilization in Vitro* ; Fertilization* ; Humans ; Live Birth ; Male ; Pregnancy Rate ; Retrospective Studies ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic* ; Spermatozoa

No abstract available.
Ulcer*

No abstract available.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of nitric oxide(NO) in fetal growth. METHOD: We measured umbilical vein serum NO in preeclampsia by Stuehr method and evaluated the association with the fetal birth weight and compared with normal pregnancy and twin pregnancy. RESULTS: 1. The umbilical vein serum nitrite concentration in preeclampsia was higher than that of the normal pregnancy (p<0.005). 2. Umbilical vein serum nitrite concentration of FGR(fetal growth restriction) baby group was higher than that of the non-FGR group in preeclampsia (p<0.005). 3 Umbilical vein serum nitrite concentration of larger baby group was higher than that of the smaller baby group in twin pregnancy but statistically not significant (p>0.005). 4. There were no significant differences of umbilical vein serum nitrite concentration between twin pregnancy and normal single pregnancy group (p>0.005). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the increased nitric oxide production in the umbilical vein may be a compensatory response to improve blood flow and fetal growth in preeclampsia.
Birth Weight ; Fetal Development* ; Nitric Oxide* ; Pre-Eclampsia* ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, Twin ; Umbilical Veins*

The management of chronic empyema remains still disturbing. These patients always have chances to exposure septic conditions. We presents 4 patients of chronic empyema with sepsis who underwent E-flap and Myoplasty with extrathoracic skeletal muscles between December 1994 and March 1997. Two patients who had BPF were treated with intercostal muscle flap as co-procedures. Intervals between first E-flap and second Myoplasty ranged from 5 to 10 months. There was no morbidity or mortality. We think these stepwise procedure offers a chance to terminate these debilitating disease.
Empyema* ; Humans ; Intercostal Muscles ; Mortality ; Muscle, Skeletal ; Sepsis*