• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.97-108
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the life-sustaining treatment decisions of terminal cancer patients. Methods: Data on 10 terminal cancer patients who decided to withhold or withdraw from treatment were collected using in-depth interviews conducted from February 8 to October 30, 2019. Data were collected until saturation was reached and then analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Results: In this study, six thematic clusters were identified: "having complicated feelings", "making choices to protect everyone", "accepting and preparing for death", "feeling distress", "pursuing spiritual wellbeing", and "evaluating the new system". Conclusion: When facing death, terminal cancer patients often made choices to protect their family and their dignity with uneasiness of mind when deciding to withdraw from life-sustaining treatments. Though many patients had accepted and prepared for death, they experienced distress about leaving children behind after death. They also pursued spiritual well-being to find peace after deciding to withdraw from life-sustaining treatment. In addition, participants evaluated the new system of policies pertaining to decisions on life-sustaining treatment. Thus, various approaches regarding acceptance and preparation for death, communication with family, hope, and spiritual comfort should be taken in educational interventions to assist terminal cancer patients as they decide whether to withdraw from life-sustaining treatment.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.222-228
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of forestry exercise on the quality of life and physical self-concept of breast cancer survivors. The subjects of this study were eight breast cancer survivors 6 months after mastectomy. The forest combined exercise program consisted of aerobic exercise through forest walking and resistance exercise using elastic bands. The forest combined exercise was conducted twice for 8 weeks. Forest trekking consisted of a 2km walking speed and resistance exercise consisted of three levels of sets and intensity. The format was divided into gradual increases. The exercise time was 40 to 60 minutes for forest trekking, 20 to 30 minutes for descent, and 40 to 60 minutes for resistance exercise, for a total of 120 to 130 minutes per day. Breast cancer survivors' quality of life was measured using a questionnaire, and changes in quality of life were measured using a t-test (α=.05). Physical self-concept was assessed through in-depth interviews. There was no statistically significant difference in quality of life before and after 8 weeks of combined forestry exercise, but there was a slight tendency to increase in the area of physical well-being. Physical self-concept showed positive changes in motivation, physical strength improvement, health promotion, physical competence, and self-confidence through the forest composite exercise. Therefore, the forest composite exercise is believed to have a positive effect on the physical self-concept of breast cancer survivors.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.240-249
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• 2022

This study explored the public's response to an incident involving publicity about how physicians broke bad news to a terminal cancer patient by analyzing 1,960 comments from three online news websites that reported on this event using Braun and Clarke's theme analysis methods. Three themes and 10 subthemes emerged from the public's responses to the way the physicians broke the bad news. Theme 1 (a physician is a person who tells the facts) contained the following subthemes: physicians are responsible for delivering facts, but it is a matter of consideration for patients to deliver bad news to them, empathy and consolation should be expected from people other than physicians, and physicians who say what patients want to hear are cheaters. Theme 2 (there is a problem with physicians) included the following subthemes: the physicians' empathy or personality and problems with their communication methods. Theme 3 (there are obstacles to communication with dying patients) had the following subthemes: physicians become emotionally dull and find it very stressful to break bad news, giving hope to dying patients can lead to medical disputes, and empathy and consolation are also costly. When breaking bad news, the physicians delivered factual information, but they did so inappropriately, and emotional support for the patient was insufficient. In medical communication education, it is necessary to emphasize training in emotional support. In the medical field, an environment should be created where physicians can communicate as they have learned.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.877-881
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• 2021

Customer satisfaction is a very important factor in the Korean medical system. However, the field of medical imaging is very difficult for the general public to understand. Therefore, in this study, as a way to solve the communication problem between the medical staff and the patient, the PET/CT image was reconstructed using the Volume Rendering technique to increase patient satisfaction. VRT was performed on 360 cancer patients who had undergone PET/CT examination. As a result of a satisfaction survey on 100 patients, all 100 patients showed that the VRT image was superior to the existing image. PET/CT is not a device that observes detailed anatomical shapes, such as CT or MRI, but an image that shows a strong signal of cancer and can easily produce a VRT image. These VRT images can be expressed three-dimensionally so that the general public can easily understand them, so communication between medical staff and patients can be improved more efficiently, and it is expected that the patient's "right to know" will be satisfied.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.201-210
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• 2013

Objectives: The public relies on the news media to understand health risks. To examine the surveillance function of Korean health journalism, this study compared the rank-order of the 10 most frequently diagnosed cancers with that of the 10 cancers most frequently covered by three major Korean newspapers. Methods: News stories published between 1999 and 2010 by the Chosun-Ilbo, Joong-Ang-Ilbo, and Dong-A-Ilbo were examined. Data on cancer incidence were collected using the epidemiological data published by a governmental public health institution. To compare the level of the crude rates and the amount of news coverage, rank-order correlation tests and regression analyses were employed. Results: A reduction in the rank-ordered correlation coefficient was observed despite an increase in the overall number of cancer news stories released. The significance of the correlation disappeared after 2006. The big difference of the rank order between the crude rate and the amount of news coverage was observed in the cancer of breast, uteri, thyroid, and gallbladder/biliary. Finally, the three newspapers did not follow the amount change in stomach, lung, liver, and uterine cervix cancer. The four cancers' rank orders of crude rate were lowering, signifying a reduction of the comparative dangerousness of the four cancers. Conclusions: The news media's customization of news content and the negative bias in journalism are suggested as possible influences on the news media's inaccurate representation of cancer risk.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.9
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• pp.763-773
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• 2020

Recently, tumor microenvironment (TME) and its stromal constituents have provided profound insights into understanding alterations in tumor behavior. After each identification regarding the unique roles of TME compartments, non-malignant stromal cells are found to provide a sufficient tumorigenic niche for cancer cells. Of these TME constituents, adipocytes represent a dynamic population mediating endocrine effects to facilitate the crosstalk between cancer cells and distant organs, as well as the interplay with nearby tumor cells. To date, the prevalence of obesity has emphasized the significance of metabolic homeostasis along with adipose tissue (AT) inflammation, cancer incidence, and multiple pathological disorders. In this review, we summarized distinct characteristics of hypertrophic adipocytes and cancer to highlight the importance of an individual's metabolic health during cancer therapy. As AT undergoes inflammatory alterations inducing tissue remodeling, immune cell infiltration, and vascularization, these features directly influence the TME by favoring tumor progression. A comparison between inflammatory AT and progressing cancer could potentially provide crucial insights into delineating the complex communication network between uncontrolled hyperplastic tumors and their microenvironmental components. In turn, the comparison will unravel the underlying properties of dynamic tumor behavior, advocating possible therapeutic targets within TME constituents.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.205-222
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• 2009

Purpose: The aim of this study was to review systemically journals on the studies for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the treatment of breast cancer. Methods: Through medical websites, foreign clinical literatures about complementary and alternative medicines of breast cancer were searched. The cite used was http://www.Pubmed.gov. And then they were divided into three groups. Medication, Non-medication therapies and questionnaire reports. Results: 1. We researched 23 papers about herb medicines. Most of papers were about single herb and there were rarely about mixed composition. And there were papers about Ocimum gratissimum, elliptilimba, seeds of Livistona chinensis, golden feverfew which were not commonly used in Korea. 2. We researched 16 papers about acupuncture. Acupuncture had a possitive effect on such symptoms like flushing, nausea and vomitting and pain on upper limb caused by anticancer therapy or tamoxifen or surgery. 3. We researched 36 papers about questionnaire study. Most were about research for women who diagnosed as breast cancer or women after breast cancer surgery. Subjects were about proportion of using CAM, purpose of using it, most popular CAM therapy, satisfaction degree, and relation with age, aducation and social position. And most conclusion were that patient-doctor communication was needed. Conclusion: Afterwards we have to focus on realisitic clinical studies about breast cancer patients, especially postsurgery and people who takes anticancer therapy. And we have to be interest in acupuncture therapy on breast cancer patients.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.466-470
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• 2011

This paper proposes the new method based on fuzzy logic which recognizes between normal and abnormal. The object image was the Thyroid Gland cell image that was diagnosed as normal and abnormal(two types of abnormal : follicular neoplastic cell, and papillary neoplastic cell), respectively. The nuclei were successfully diagnosed as normal and abnormal. The multiple feature parameters (pre-obtained 16 feature parameters of image data) were used to extract the features of each nucleus. As a consequence of using fuzzy logic algorithm, proposed in this paper, average recognition rate of 98.25% was obtained.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.250-257
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• 2011

This experiment present the automatic detection algorithm of gastric cancer that take second place among all cancers. If an inflammation and a cancer are not examined carefully, early ones have difficulty in being diagnosed as illnesses than advanced ones. For diagnosis of gastric cancer, and progressing cancer in this study, present 4 algorithm. research team extracted an abnormal part in stomach through the endoscope image. At first, decide to use shading technique or not in each endoscope image for study. it make easy distinguish to whether tumor is existing or not by putting shading technique in or eliminate it by the color. Second. By passing image subjoin shading technique to erosion filter, eliminate noise and make give attention to diagnose. Third. Analyzing out a line and fillet graph from image adding surface shade and detect RED value according to degree of symptoms. Fourth. By suggesting this algorithm, that making each patient's endscope image into subdivision graph including RED graph value, afterward revers the color, revealing the position of tumor, this study desire to help to diagnosing gastric, other cancer and inflammation.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2022

Breast ultrasonic reading is critical as a primary screening test for the early diagnosis of breast cancer. However, breast ultrasound examinations show significant differences in diagnosis based on the difference in image quality according to the ultrasonic equipment, experience, and proficiency of the examiner. Accordingly, studies are being actively conducted to analyze the texture characteristics of normal breast tissue, positive tumors, and malignant tumors using breast ultrasonography and to use them for computer-assisted diagnosis. In this study, breast ultrasonography was conducted to select 247 ultrasound images of 71 normal breast tissues, 87 fibroadenomas among benign tumors, and 89 malignant tumors. The selected images were calculated using a statistical method with 21 feature parameters extracted using the gray level co-occurrence matrix algorithm, and classified as normal breast tissue, benign tumor, and malignancy. In addition, we proposed five feature parameters that are available for computer-aided diagnosis of breast cancer classification. The average classification rate for normal breast tissue, benign tumors, and malignant tumors, using this feature parameter, was 82.8%.