Iranian Journal of Blood and Cancer
Volume:13 Issue: 3, Sep 2021

prevention of stomatitis can significantly reduce the cost of treatment and even increase the survival rate of patients. considering large side-effects of chemotherapy induced stomatitis, the aim of current study was to investigate the effect of sage  aqueous  extracts on the prevention of pain associated with stomatitis in children with chemotherapy-dependent leukemia admitted to hematology department of Be’sat Hospital in Hamadan during 1396.

This double-blind and clinical study was conducted on children admitted to hematology department of Be’sat Hospital, Hamedan; during 1396.  The mouth of all patients before and after the intervention was checked and recorded in the checklist in terms of severity of pain caused by stomatitis.

Current study was conducted on 60 children aged 6 to 14 years old. Comparison of the severity of the pain in the intervention group before intervention was not significant but after the intervention it was significant (P<0.001). Comparison of pain intensity in the control group before intervention was not significant but after the intervention it was significant (P<0.001). Comparison of pain intensity between intervention and control groups before intervention was not significant but after intervention, it was significant (P<0.001).

According to results of current study, the aqueous extract of the sage has a significant effect on pain relief from stomatitis in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Breast cancer is an important preventable health problem, worldwide. In this study, the frequency of breast cancer risk factors and the level of individuals risk using different risk assessment instruments were assessed.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Kerman, Iran, 2018. Seven hundred women referred to the comprehensive health care centers were participated in the study using a cluster sampling method. The International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS) and Breast Cancer Screening (BCS) risk assessment models were used. The frequency of different breast cancer risk factors was asked using the self-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into the SPSS software. The descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation test were used. 

The frequency of being overweight/obesity, having a sedentary lifestyle, second-hand exposure to tobacco, and having anxiety was 54.1%, 54.7%, 21.3%, 26%, respectively. Considering the lifetime risk ≥20% according to the IBIS and BCS models, 2.8% and 0.1% of participants were high risks. There was a significant positive correlation between the IBIS 5-year risk of breast cancer and the BCS chart risk (r=0.716, P≤0.001). There was not any significant correlation between the IBIS lifetime risk of breast cancer and the BCS chart risk (r=0.035, P=0.358).

The prevalence of modifiable risk factors of breast cancer is considerable in Iranian women. Community-based, primordial and primary prevention intervention should design. There are some national and international breast cancer risk assessment models, but their accuracy in the Iranian population and the perfect threshold score to determine high-risk individuals is not clear.

This study aimed to estimate the incidence of thyroid cancer and completeness of thyroid cancer case registration in Kerman province, Iran using three source capture-recapture approach during years 2008-2015.

All new cases of thyroid cancers reported during 2008-2015 which were registered by pathology, nuclear medicine and medical records were included in this study. Using the personal identifiers, common cases between sources were linked. The log-linear Poisson regression analysis was applied to estimate the number of unregistered cases. The incidence rate per 100,000 population was calculated. To study the trend, Joint-point regression analysis was performed. 

Overall, 1153 new cases of thyroid cancer were reported by three sources. Most cases were female (81/7%). The mean age at diagnosis was 41.53±15.69 years. The estimated number of thyroid cancer cases was 1323. The estimated incidence per 100,000 population varied from 4.5 in 2011 to 11 in 2015. The female to male ratio varied from 3.1 in 2015 to 6.7 in 2011. The completeness of registration for all three sources varied from 33.7% in 2008 to 95.1% in 2013. The completeness of medical records, pathology reports, and nuclear medicine reports were 33.1%, 50.7%, and 66.2%, respectively.

Despite some improvements in completeness of thyroid cancer registration during the study period, there are still fluctuations within the study period. Furthermore, considering each source separately, the completeness of registration is not satisfactory. Therefore, more effort should be done to increase the completeness of thyroid cancer registration specially through the pathology source.

Red blood cell concentrates (RBCs) undergo biochemical and structural changes during storage, commonly referred to as the RBC storage lesion (RSL) which reduces the survival of RBCs and affect transfusion efficiency. Lipid peroxidation and oxidative damage are the most important side effect of RSL. We aimed to evaluate oxidative damage and some related parameters in RBCs during storage. 

In this experimental study, eight RBCs bags were randomly selected from healthy blood donors and stored at 2-6 °C for 35 days. Oxidative stress markers, trace elements and RBCs metabolism parameters including total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA), zinc, copper, manganese, selenium, iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, lactate, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme activity, pH and also RBCs hematological indexes including hemoglobin, hematocrit, MCV, MCH, MCHC and free plasma hemoglobin were evaluated during of RBCs storage. 

The results showed a significant increase in hemoglobin, hematocrit, calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, lactate, potassium, free plasma hemoglobin, TAC and LDH activity during RBCs storage according to one way analysis of variance (P<0.05), while a significant decrease was shown in pH, sodium and glucose concentration (P<0.05). No significant mean changes were seen in MDA, zinc, copper, manganese and selenium concentration during RBC storage.

It seems that RBCs at the end of the storage period have a lower quality than newly prepared ones. Therefore, we commend that RBC products rather be used before third week of storage due to post transfusion side effects in blood recipients.

Oral mucositis is considered a frequent complication of conditioning regimen in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Mucositis develops due to direct and indirect damage to the epithelial cells and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Vitamin E has shown positive effects in reducing production of ROS or improving its elimination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of vitamin E mouthwash in lowering the incidence and severity of acute mucositis in patients undergoing allogenic HSCT.

The current study was designed as a double bind, placebo controlled randomized clinical trial. Eighty patients were randomized in a 1 to 1 method to receive either placebo or vitamin E mouthwash. Patients in vitamin E group received 400 International Units of vitamin E in form of mouthwash twice daily and placebo group received a mouthwash with equal composition but without vitamin E, starting the day of the chemotherapy initiation and continuing it for 14 days.  

Vitamin E mouthwash effectively reduced the duration of oral mucositis compared to placebo (P-value 0.02). The difference between placebo and vitamin E groups in terms of mucositis severity did not reach statistical significance (P=0.35). No difference in length of hospital stay was observed (P=0.46).

Vitamin E mouthwash could effectively reduce the duration of oral mucositis in allogenic HSCT patients. Further studies are required to show the effects of topical vitamin E in preventing the development of oral mucositis.

Hematidrosis and hemolacria are both extremely rare clinical entities with different etiologies. The authors herein report two cases of both hematidrosis and hemolacria in an 11-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man. While the etiology of these disorders are still unknown, there are a large number of associated disorders linked with hematidrosis and hemolacria mainly psychological distress, vicarious menstruation and rarely pathological conditions.