Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women over the world. To reducing reoccurrence and mortality rates, adjuvant hormonal therapy (AHT) is used for a long period. The major barrier to the effectiveness of the treatment is adherence. Adherence to medicines among patients is challenging. Patient beliefs in medications can be positively or negatively correlated to adherence. Objectives: To investigate the extent of adherence and factors affecting adherence, as well as to investigate the association between beliefs and adherence in women with breast cancer taking AHT. Method: A cross-sectional study included 124 Iraqi women with breast cancer recruited from Middle Euphrates Cancer Center. Morisky medication adherence scale (MMAS) and beliefs about medication questionnaires (BMQ) are used to assess adherence and beliefs respectively. Result: 25% of women were fully adherent (MMAS = 8). 83.06% of all women developed side effects from medications received. Side effects and unemployed women were significantly associated with non-adherence. Additionally, there is no significant association between beliefs in medications and adherence. conclusion The enormous percent of poor adherence caused by side effects suggests the need for interventions by educating patients about the importance of their treatment and how to overcome side effects.
Objective(s): To determine the impact of psychological distress in women upon coping with breast cancer.
Methodology: A descriptive design is carried throughout the present study. Convenient sample of (60) woman with breast cancer is recruited from the community. Two instruments, psychological distress scale and coping scale are developed for the study. Internal consistency reliability and content validity are obtained for the study instruments. Data are collect through the application of the study instruments. Data are analyzed through the use of descriptive statistical data analysis approach and inferential statistical data analysis approach.
Results: The study findings depict that women with breast cancer have experien
... Show MoreBackground : To assess the actual practice of breast self-examination (BSE), as an early detection tool for breast cancer, among a sample of patients affected with breast cancer in Iraq.Methods: A random sample of 200 female patients with breast cancer was analyzed to evaluate the extent of their actual practice of breast self-examination before the diagnosis of the disease. The examined variables included the age of the patients, marital status, education, occupation, smoking habit, family history of cancer, frequency of gravidity, parity and abortions. Results: The age of patients ranged from (24-70) years with a mean age of 48 years. The highest frequency of the examined sample
... Show MoreTyphoid fever (TF) is a systemic infection caused by Salmonella Typhi (Salmonella Enterica) transmitted through contaminated water, food, or contact with infected individuals. In various infectious diseases, blood viscosity (BV) is affected by changes in hemoglobin concentrations and acute phase reactants. Inflammatory responses can lead to elevated plasma protein levels and further affect BV. This study aimed to investigate BV changes in patients with acute TF. A cross-sectional study was performed involving 55 patients with acute TF compared to 38 healthy controls. BV and inflammatory parameters were measured in both groups. TF patients showed reduced blood cells compared to healthy controls (p=0.001). Additionally, plasma total protein (
... Show MoreObjective: We hypothesized that attacking cancer cells by combining various modes of action can hinder them from taking the chance to evolve resistance to treatment. Incorporation of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with oncolytic virotherapy might be a promising dual approach to cancer treatment. Methods: NDV AMHA1 strain as virotherapy in integration with aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) using low power He-Ne laser as PDT in the existing work was examined against breast cancer cells derived from Iraqi cancer patients named (AMJ13). This combination was evaluated using Chou–Talalay analysis. Results: The results showed an increased killing rate when using both 0.01 and 0.1 Multiplicity of infection (MOI) of the virus when combined with a dose of 617
... Show MoreThe current study was conducted in the period extending from November 2018 to October 2019 and designed as a case-control study and aimed to assess the seroprevalence of HCMV. However, a total number of 91serum specimens were collected to fulfill this purpose from females (71 breast cancer patients, and control group of 20 females) attending Al-Amal hospital for cancer management and Baghdad teaching hospital and the practical part was performed in College of Science, University of Baghdad. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee at the Department of Biology (Reference: BEC/0220/0011). The immunological part for evaluation of seroprevalence of HCMV was accomplished by ELISA technique which revealed that anti-HCMV IgG was sco
... Show MoreHuman cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has a worldwide distribution and extremely common infections. The presence of HCMV genome and antigens has been detected in many kinds of human cancers especially breast cancer. In Iraq, the incidence of breast cancer generally exceeds any other type of malignancies among Iraqi population. The study was performed in the period between October 2016 and June 2017 in Central public health laboratory/Baghdad. It involve samples from 90 women including 60 breast cancer patients, 20 benign tumor patients, and 10 normal breast tissues. A blood sample was obtained from each woman included in this study. Anti-HCMV IgG antibody was presented in 9/10 (90%) of normal women, benign breast tumor patients 19/20 (95%) and malig
... Show MoreRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common inflammatory disease that associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to accelerated atherosclerosis. Rosuvastatin is a unique hydroxy methyl glutaryl Co A (HMGCoA) reductase inhibitor that has anti inflammatory effects.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of rosuvastatin as adjuvant therapy to methotrexate (MTX) on lipid profile and its possible cardioprotective effect in RA patients. A double blinded placebo controlled clinical trial with 8 weeks follow up periods at which 40 patients with active RA using MTX were randomized into 2 groups to receive either rosuvastatin 10mg or placebo as adjuvant therapy to MTX. In addition to twenty healthy subjects as control group.
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