Survey of Policies and Guidelines on Antioxidant Use for Cancer Prevention, Treatment, and Survivorship in North American Cancer Centers: What Do Institutions Perceive as Evidence?

Counseling on Complementary Methods in the Treatment of Side Effects of Oncological Therapies: A Project of the Breast and Bowel Center Nahe at the Hospital Sankt Marienwoerth Bad Kreuznach

BACKGROUND

Increasingly, patients with cancer are asking for additional, complementary therapy options for treating the side effects of oncological therapy. Thus, the members of the Breast and Bowel Center Nahe at the Sankt Marienwörth Hospital Bad Kreuznach decided to define the content of this type of counseling for patients before treatment.

METHODS

In 2018, a team of internal oncologists, gynecological oncologists, radio-oncologists, nutritionists, psycho-oncologists, and study nurses met several times to define the content of counseling. To inform the team, an intensive literature review was conducted.

RESULTS

Counseling content was determined for complementary treatment options for the most frequent side effects of oncological therapies. Counseling sessions were formulated as frontal lectures (slide presentations), given at regular intervals for patients and relatives. These lectures were highly appreciated by patients.

CONCLUSION

These counseling sessions increased patient understanding of both useful complementary measures and harmful measures they should not use.

The Role of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Cardiometabolic Health of Children During Cancer Treatment and Potential Impact of Key Nutrients

Significance: The 5-year survival rate of childhood cancers is now reaching 84%. However, treatments cause numerous acute and long-term side effects. These include cardiometabolic complications, namely hypertension, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and increased fat mass. Recent Advances: Many antineoplastic treatments can induce oxidative stress (OxS) and trigger an inflammatory response, which may cause acute and chronic side effects. Critical Issues: Clinical studies have reported a state of heightened OxS and inflammation during cancer treatment in children as the result of treatment cytotoxic action on both cancerous and noncancerous cells. Higher levels of OxS and inflammation are associated with treatment side effects and with the development of cardiometabolic complications. Key nutrients (omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, dietary antioxidants, probiotics, and prebiotics) have the potential to modulate inflammatory and oxidative responses and, therefore, could be considered in the search for adverse complication prevention means as long as antineoplastic treatment efficiency is maintained. Future Directions: There is a need to better understand the relationship between cardiometabolic complications, OxS, inflammation and diet during pediatric cancer treatment, which represents the ultimate goal of this review. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 35, 293-318.

National Policies to Prevent and Manage Cervical Cancer in East African Countries: A Policy Mapping Analysis

Policy mapping is used to provide evidence on effective interventions and highlight the necessary refinements of health policies. The goal of this work is to carry out legal mapping to identify and assess health policies for the prevention and management of cervical cancer in East African countries. Cervical cancer, as a largely preventable disease, is the cause of most cancer deaths among women in East African countries. Legal documents were searched uniformly from government websites, national cancer institute sites, and international and national legal databases, then the data were analyzed using the Nvivo12 software package. The sample of 24 documents includes policies, plans, guidelines, acts, and strategies from 12 East African countries. The emerging themes were screening, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, challenges, and mitigation efforts. A few binding policies, a significant discrepancy to international standards in at least four countries, patchy screening registries, and a lack of prophylactic vaccination against human papillomavirus incorporation into national immunization schedules are the main findings. This paper underlies the role of law in health and the need for transparent legal and regulatory tools to achieve a further reduction in cervical cancer mortality in East African countries.