• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6833-6838
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• 2013

The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the hopelessness and depression levels of parents of children diagnosed with cancer and undergoing cancer treatment and factors affecting these levels. The study was carried out with parents of 44 children receiving treatment in a paediatric haematology clinic of a university hospital. Data were collected using a survey form, the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and the Beck Depression Scale (BDS). The mean BDS score of the mothers and fathers was $18.3{\pm}11.30$ and $15.2{\pm}11.33$, respectively. The mean BHS score of the mothers was $6.45{\pm}4.40$, whereas the mean BHS score of the fathers was $5.88{\pm}4.27$. The results showed that the levels of hopelessness and depression among the mothers were higher than among the fathers (p<0.001). There was a positive relationship between the hopelessness and depression scores of the mothers and the fathers (p<0.05), and the levels of hopelessness and depression scores of the fathers increased as those of the mothers increased. A weak financial situation of the family increased the hopelessness and depression levels of the fathers. The hopelessness and depression levels of the mothers who were supported by their families and relatives were decreased compared to those without such support (p<0.05). The results show that the parents of children with cancer face many psychosocial and spiritual problems. Using simple screening tools, nurses can identify at-risk parents and direct them to support services. We conclude that actively encouraging families to avail themselves of support resources and supporting them financially would positively affect the levels of depression and hopelessness of parents of children with cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3229-3232
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• 2015

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is known to be associated with aggressive biologic features and a poor clinical outcome. Therefore, early detection of TNBC without missed diagnosis is a requirement to improve prognosis. Preoperative ultrasound features of TNBC may potentially assist in early diagnosis as characteristics of disease. Purpose: To retrospectively evaluate the sonographic features of TNBC compared to ER (+) cancers which include HER(-) and HER2 (+), and HER2 (+) cancers which are ER (-). Materials and Methods: From June 2012 through June 2014, sonographic features of 321 surgically confirmed ER (+) cancers (n=214), HER2 (+) cancers (n=66), and TNBC (n=41) were retrospectively reviewed by two ultrasound specialists in consensus. The preoperative ultrasound and clinicopathological features were compared between the three subtypes. In addition, all cases were analyzed using morphologic criteria of the ACR BI-RADS lexicon. Results: Ultrasonographically, TNBC presented as microlobulated nodules without microcalcification (p=0.034). A lower incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ (p<0.001), invasive tumor size that is>2 cm (p=0.011) and BI-RADS category 4 (p<0.001) were significantly associated with TNBC. With regard to morphologic features of 41 TNBC cases, ultrasonographically were most likely to be masses with irregular (70.7%) microlobulated shape (48.8%), be circumscribed (17.1%) or have indistinct margins (17.1%) and parallel orientation (68.9%). Especially TNBC microlobulated mass margins were more more frequent than with ER (+) (2.0%) and HER2 (+) (4.8%) cancers. Conclusions: TNBC have specific characteristic in sonograms. Ultrasonography may be useful to avoid missed diagnosis and false-negative cases of TNBC.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-54
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• 1996

The purpose of the study was to identify the degree of social support and burden in mothers of children with cancer, and to determine a strategy of an effective social support utility for burden relief in these mothers. The subjects of this study were consisted of mothers of cancer children, registered at a'C'University affiliated hospital in Taejon. The data was collected from July 1 to August 31, 1994. Three instruments were used to collect the data : a semi-structured interview questionnaire which was developed by the researcher was used to identify the content of the mother's burden, a Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) that had a 10cm horizontal line was used to measure the degree of mother's burden and the PRQ part I & part Ⅱ were used to measure the degree of mother's social support. The content of mother's burden collected through in depth interviews was analyzed using content analysis. Also burden and social support data were analyzed by SAS program. The result of this study were summarized as follows : 1. The data on burden content from the interview were categorized as psychological, physiological, family interaction with maternal role, financial burden and personal interaction with social relational burden. 2. The degree of burden measured by VAS had a mean of 8.04(range from 0.5 to 10). 3. The score for social support measured by PRQ part Ⅱ had a mean of 88.9(range from 71 to 113). The highest scores was for reassurance of worth. The lowest score was for opportunity for nuturance. Most of the 15 mothers received the greatest amount of support from their sisters, spouse, friends, neighbors, relations, priest were perceived as eaningful resource person. 4. The correlation coefficient of burden and social support was somewhat negative correlation but no statistical significance(r=-.072). Therefore, a further study is necessary to repeat the qualitative research for exploring factor to be affected family caregiver's burden according to disease proceeding stage. On the basis of the results from this study, future research will be promoted valid and reliable tool development. Through this study, nurses understand and assess the individual psychologic burden and further it would be recommendated to produce professional education program for pediatric oncologic specialist nurse.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.792-796
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• 2008

Bone pain in a child could be associated with cancer as an initial manifestation of the disease. The childhood malignancies that frequently present bone pain are leukemia, neuroblastoma, and primary bone tumors such as osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. Persistent bone or joint pain associated with swelling, mass, or limitation of motion implies underlying serious causes. Systemic manifestations such as lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, fever, fatigue, night sweat, and laboratory abnormalities are also suggestive of malignancy. The index of suspicion tends to be low since less than 1% of children who complain of bone pain are diagnosed as cancer. Nonetheless, pediatricians should be alert to the possibilities of cancer since early detection and prompt treatment might reduce mortality.

• Journal of Gynecologic Oncology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.100.1-100.13
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• 2018

Objective: To investigate survival outcomes in endometrioid endometrial cancer (EEC) patients with single vs. multiple positive pelvic lymph nodes. Methods: We performed a retrospective evaluation of all consecutive patients with histologically proven International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IIIC1 EEC who underwent primary surgical treatment between 2004 and 2014 at seven Italian gynecologic oncology referral centers. Patients with pre- or intra-operative evidence of extra-uterine disease (including the presence of bulky nodes) and patients with stage IIIC2 disease were excluded, in order to obtain a homogeneous population. Results: Overall 140 patients met the inclusion criteria. The presence of >1 metastatic pelvic node was significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence and mortality, compared to only 1 metastatic node, at both univariate (recurrence: hazard ratio [HR]=2.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.2-3.99; p=0.01; mortality: HR=2.8; 95% CI=1.24-6.29; p=0.01) and multivariable analysis (recurrence: HR=1.91; 95% CI=1.02-3.56; p=0.04; mortality: HR=2.62; 95% CI=1.13-6.05; p=0.02) and it was the only independent predictor of prognosis in this subset of patients. Disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were significantly longer in patients with only 1 metastatic node compared to those with more than 1 metastatic node (p=0.008 and 0.009, respectively). Conclusion: The presence of multiple metastatic nodes in stage IIIC1 EEC represents an independent predictor of worse survival, compared to only one positive node. Our data suggest that EEC patients may be categorized according to the number of positive nodes.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.286-293
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of anxiety for the mothers of leukemic children and to provide the fundamental data for the better performance of caring to them. The subjects were 292 mothers : 100 mothers whose children had a leukemia, 80 mothers whose children had taken a tonsillectomy, 112 mothers whose children with medical disease except cancer. The data were collected through The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory of Spilberger and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA Scheffe test. The results were as follows ; 1. The state anxiety mean score of mothers with leukemic children was 54.16. 2. The state anxiety of mothers with leukemic children was higher than that of the rest (F=8.00, P=0.0004). 3. There was no significant difference in anxiety of mothers with leukemic children in relation to leukemic children's and their mother's general characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.17-27
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• 2021

Objectives: Deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) is the most common suicide method and can be life-threatening. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors related to the lethality of DSP and the characteristics of the adolescent group. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on patients who had visited an academic hospital's regional emergency medical center between 2015 and 2018. The data reviewed through their medical records included sociodemographic factors, clinical variables, and psychiatric treatment. Four groups (Q1-Q4) were categorized by descriptive analysis using the risk-rescue rating scale. Results: A total of 491 patients were enrolled in this study. This study showed that high lethality had statistically significant associations with male sex, older age, admitting suicidal intentions, and the use of herbicides for suicide. Logistic regression analyses showed a significant association between high-lethality and female [odds ratio (OR)=0.50, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.30-0.81, p=0.01], non-psychiatric drugs (over-the-counter drug: OR=2.49, 95% CI=1.08-5.74, p=0.03; herbicide: OR=8.65, 95% CI=3.91-19.13, p<0.01), and denial of suicide intent (OR=0.28, 95% CI=0.15-0.55, p<0.01). Conclusion: This study showed the clinical factors associated with the high lethality of DSP and suggested that efforts were needed to care for and thoroughly examine patients with DSP.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.69-75
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• 2020

Background: Dose conversion coefficients (DCCs) have been commonly used to estimate radiation-dose absorption by human organs based on physical measurements of fluence or kerma. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has reported a library of DCCs, but few studies have been conducted on their applicability to non-Caucasian populations. In the present study, we collected a total of 8 Korean pediatric and adult voxel phantoms to calculate the organ DCCs for idealized external photon-irradiation geometries. Materials and Methods: We adopted one pediatric female phantom (ETRI Child), two adult female phantoms (KORWOMAN and HDRK Female), and five adult male phantoms (KORMAN, ETRI Man, KTMAN1, KTMAN2, and HDRK Man). A general-purpose Monte Carlo radiation transport code, MCNPX2.7 (Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport extended version 2.7), was employed to calculate the DCCs for 13 major radiosensitive organs in six irradiation geometries (anteroposterior, posteroanterior, right lateral, left lateral, rotational, and isotropic) and 33 photon energy bins (0.01-20 MeV). Results and Discussion: The DCCs for major radiosensitive organs (e.g., lungs and colon) in anteroposterior geometry agreed reasonably well across the 8 Korean phantoms, whereas those for deep-seated organs (e.g., gonads) varied significantly. The DCCs of the child phantom were greater than those of the adult phantoms. A comparison with the ICRP Publication 116 data showed reasonable agreements with the Korean phantom-based data. The variations in organ DCCs were well explained using the distribution of organ depths from the phantom surface. Conclusion: A library of dose conversion coefficients for major radiosensitive organs in a series of pediatric and adult Korean voxel phantoms was established and compared with the reference data from the ICRP. This comparison showed that our Korean phantom-based data agrees reasonably with the ICRP reference data.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1717-1723
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• 2016

Background: This study assessed parental experiences with chemotherapy-induced alopecia among children with cancer treated at an Indonesian academic hospital. Materials and Methods: Fifty parents of childhood cancer patients were interviewed using semi-structured questionnaires. Results: The moment that hair fell out was the moment that parents (84%) had to admit their child had cancer. Alopecia was a traumatizing painful experience (46%). Active strategies to hide alopecia, mainly hats, were used by 66% of children, while 34% never covered their bald head. If money had not been an issue, 40% would use another strategy. Alopecia made children limit outdoor daily activities (78%) and engagement with others (60%). Significantly more children from high-educated (95%) than low-educated (60%) parents received sympathy from other people (P=0.012). Significantly more Christian (29%) than Muslim (0%) families confirmed that alopecia lowered the quality of life (P=0.046). Most parents (82%) had no prior plans about alopecia management, yet for significantly more girls (26%) than boys (0%) such plans existed (P=0.044). Parents received most information about alopecia from other parents (66%). Parents (92%) needed more alopecia education from doctors. Of all school-attending children, 53% were bullied and 47% did not want to attend school due to alopecia. Significantly more high-educated than low-educated families received pity from teachers and pupils (94% vs. 0%, P=0.004), and acceptance by pupils (81% vs. 0%, P=0.021). Conclusions: Alopecia is a severe, far-stretching side-effect of chemotherapy with physical, psychological and social consequences for children and parents. Parents should be better informed about occurrence and impact of alopecia. Extra attention is required to facilitate children's return to school. Healthcare providers should facilitate optimal supportive care through open dialogue and provision of educational m aterials for parents, children and their community.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.238-245
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• 2013

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to assess social adjustment of childhood cancer survivors and to identify factors affecting social adjustment. Methods: Data were collected from 79 childhood cancer survivors and his/her parents. The survey consisted of questions related to characteristics, physical functioning, depression, self-esteem and coping strategies. The Social Competence Inventory was used to measure social adjustment in the children. Results: The level of social adjustment of childhood cancer survivors was 83.5 out of a possible 155. Physical functioning, depression, self-esteem, and aggressive or proactive coping strategies were associated with social adjustment. Only physical functioning independently affected social adjustment. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that there are several factors influencing social adjustment of childhood cancer survivors, and therefore there is a need for programs that deal with all aspects of children's physical as well as emotional health in order to enhance their social adjustment.