Living with the financial consequences of cancer: A life course perspective

Abstract

Purpose

Financial hardship can be a major cause of distress among persons with cancer, resulting in chronic stress and impacting physical and emotional health. This paper provides an analysis of the lived experience of cancer patients’ financial hardship from diagnosis to post-treatment.     

Vergiftungen. Giftnachweis (einschl. Blutalkoholbestimmung)

International Journal of Legal Medicine -     

Lipid-drug conjugate nanoparticles of the hydrophilic drug diminazene-cytotoxicity testing and mouse serum adsorption.

Sleeping sickness is a widely distributed disease in great parts of Africa. It is caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense and rhodiense, transmitted by the Tse-Tse fly. After a hemolymphatic stage, the parasites enter the central nervous system where they cannot be reached by hydrophilic drugs. To potentially deliver the hydrophilic antitrypanosomal drug diminazene diaceturate to the brain of infected mice, the drug was formulated as lipid-drug conjugate (LDC) nanoparticles (NP) by combination with stearic- (SA) and oleic acid (OA). To estimate the in vivo compatibility, the particles were incubated with human granulocytes. Because as potential delivery mechanism the absorption of specific serum proteins (ApoE, Apo AI and Apo AIV) was found to be responsible for the delivery of nanoparticles to the brain, demonstrated using PBCA nanoparticles coated with polysorbate 80 (LDL uptake mechanism) the nanoparticles were incubated with mouse serum and the adsorption pattern was determined using the 2-D PAGE technique. As a result of this study, the cytotoxic potential was shown to decrease when diminazene is part of the particle matrix compared to pure fatty acid nanoparticles and the mouse serum protein adsorption pattern differs from the samples studied earlier in human serum. Especially, the fact concerning Apo-E that could be detected when the particles were incubated in human serum is absent after the mouse serum incubation, potentially, is a critical point for the delivery via the LDL-uptake mechanism but the data demonstrate that LDC nanoparticles, with 33% (wt/wt) drug loading capacity possess the potential to act as a delivery system for hydrophilic drugs like diminazene diaceturate and that further studies have to demonstrate the usability as a brain delivery system.     

In vitro activity of oral cephalosporin BAY v 3522 compared with other oral cephalosporins

Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the oral cephalosporin BAY v 3522, and of cephprozyl, cefaclor, cefixime, cefuroxime, cefetamet, cefpodoxime and cefotaxime were determined against Gram-positive and Gram-negative clinical isolates with the NCCLS agar dilution procedures. BAY was the most active drug against Gram-positive organisms. MICs ranged from 0.01 mg/l against group A streptococci to 16 mg/l against S. faecium. Although mean MICs of BAY against methicillin-resistant S. aureus and S. epidermidis were between 0.9-1.8 mg/l, respectively, such strains showed typical heteroresistance in population studies. In addition, the biochemical correlate of methicillin-resistance, the PBP-2', showed similar low affinity to BAY as methicillin. beta-lactamase-producing H. influenzae and B. catarrhalis were inhibited by 2-8 and 0.25-2 mg/l, respectively, whereas non-producers were inhibited by 0.25-2 and 0.12-1 mg/l of the drug. The activity of BAY against enterobacteriaceae was rather low. Ampicillin-susceptible E. coli strains were inhibited by 2-8 and resistant strains by 8-32 mg/l. The mean MIC against cephalothin-susceptible K. pneumoniae strains was 2.8, and that against resistant strains 27.4 mg/l. MICs against beta-lactamase-producing enterobacteriaceae determined in broth dilution were 4-8 times higher than those determined in agar dilution. Bactericidal activity was measured in killing-curve experiments at 4 times the MIC. BAY killed equally well as standard control drugs.     

Inkomplette Resektionen bei Bronchialcarcinom: Morbidität und Prognose

Zusammenfassung. Nach Lungenresektion und ipsilateraler Lymphknotendissektion wegen Bronchialcarcinoms verblieb in 88 von 2464 F?llen (3,6 %) mikroskopisch Residualtumor (R1) am zentralen Bronchusresektionsrand. Sieben Patienten entwickelten eine Insuffizienz der Bronchusnaht, 2 weitere eine Nachblutung bzw. eine Herzluxation (Morbidit?t 8,0 %). Die Hospitalletalit?t betrug 16,6 %. Todesursachen waren Bronchusnahtinsuffizienz (n = 7), Arrosionsblutung (n = 4), respiratorische Insuffizienz (n = 1) und Pleuraempyem (n = 1). Eine postoperative Bestrahlung wurde bei 43 Patienten durchgeführt. Die mediane überlebenszeit aller Patienten nach R1-Resektion war 16 Monate gegenüber 37 Monaten nach R0-Resektion (p < 0,001). Die überlebenszeit war unabh?ngig von Tumorstadium und -histologie, Lokalisation des Residualtumors in der Bronchuswand und einer Nachbestrahlung. Inkomplette Resektionen sind durch intraoperativen Schnellschnitt zu verifizieren. Sofern funktionell vertretbar, sollte in den Stadien I und II eine Nachresektion (R0) angestrebt werden; auch in den Stadien III a und III b ist bei R0-Resektion ein statistisch signifikanter überlebensvorteil gegenüber R1-Resektion zu verzeichnen, jedoch weniger deutlich als in niedrigeren Stadien.