• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.471-471
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• 2005

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2015

Objectives: In Korea, cancer is one of the most important causes of death. Cancer patients have sought alternative methods, like complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) together with Western medicine, to treat cancer. Also, there are many kinds of providers of CAM therapy, including providers of Korean oriental medicine therapy. The purpose of this study is to identify the behaviors of Korean oriental medicine therapy and CAM therapy providers who treat cancer patients and to provide background knowledge for establishing a new policy with the management and quality control of CAM. Methods: Structured and well organized questionnaires were made, and 350 persons were surveyed concerning the providers of CAM or Korean oriental medicine. The questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Results: The questionnaires (182) were collected. The questionnaires identified a total of 73 known providers, such as medicinal professionals or other providers of CAM suppliers, 35.6% of whom had had experience with treating cancer patients (52.6% vs. 29.6%). The treatment methods were a little different: alternative therapy and nutritional therapy being preferred by medicinal professionals and mind body modulation therapy and alternative therapy being preferred by other CAM providers. Four patients (7.4%) experienced side effects, and 6 patients (12.5%) experienced legal problems. As the method for managing the therapy, CAM providers, medicinal professionals, and other CAM providers had different viewpoints. For example, some CAM providers stated that both legislation and an official education on CAM or a national examination were needed as a first step to establish the provider's qualifications and that as a second step, a license test was needed for quality control. To the contrary, medicinal professionals stated that a license test was needed before legislation. Conclusion: Adequate management and quality control of CAM providers is thought to involve both education and legislation.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.559-565
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• 2023

Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM), a master kinase of the DNA damage response (DDR), phosphorylates a multitude of substrates to activate signaling pathways after DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). ATM inhibitors have been evaluated as anticancer drugs to potentiate the cytotoxicity of DNA damage-based cancer therapy. ATM is also involved in autophagy, a conserved cellular process that maintains homeostasis by degrading unnecessary proteins and dysfunctional organelles. In this study, we report that ATM inhibitors (KU-55933 and KU-60019) provoked accumulation of autophagosomes and p62 and restrained autolysosome formation. Under autophagy-inducing conditions, the ATM inhibitors caused excessive autophagosome accumulation and cell death. This new function of ATM in autophagy was also observed in numerous cell lines. Repression of ATM expression using an siRNA inhibited autophagic flux at the autolysosome formation step and induced cell death under autophagy-inducing conditions. Taken together, our results suggest that ATM is involved in autolysosome formation and that the use of ATM inhibitors in cancer therapy may be expanded.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.599-603
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• 2014

Background: Reproductive cancers are those that affect the human organs that are involved in producing offspring. An attempt is made in the present communication to assess the magnitude and pattern of reproductive cancers, including their treatment modalities, in India. The cancer incidence data related to reproductive cancers collected by five population-based urban registries, namely Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, for the years 2006-08 were utilized. The reproductive cancers among females constituted around 25% of the total and around 9% among males. Among females, the three major contributors were cervix (55.5%), ovary (26.1%) and corpus uteri (12.4%). Similarly among males, the three major contributors were prostate (77.6%), penis (11.6%) and testis (10.5%). For females, the AAR of reproductive cancers varied between 30.5 in the registry of Mumbai to 37.3 in the registry of Delhi. In males, it ranged between 6.5 in the registry of Bhopal to 14.7 in the registry of Delhi. For both males and females, the individual reproductive cancer sites showed increasing trends with age. The leading treatment provided was: radio-therapy in combination with chemo-therapy for cancers of cervix (48.3%) and vagina (43.9%); surgery in combination with chemo-therapy (54.9%) for ovarian cancer; and surgery in combination with radio-therapy for the cancers of the corpus uteri (39.8%). In males, the leading treatment provided was hormone-therapy for prostate cancer (39.6%), surgery for penile cancer (81.3%) and surgery in combination with chemo-therapy for cancer of the testis (57.6%).

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.319-324
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• 2021

The abscopal effect refers to the phenomenon in which local radiotherapy is associated with the regression of metastatic cancer that is distantly located from the irradiated site. Here, we present a case of a patient with advanced gastric cancer and brain metastases who was successfully treated with brain radiotherapy and anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) therapy-induced abscopal effect. Although anti-PD-1 therapy alone could not prevent disease progression, the metastatic lesions in the brain and also in the abdominal lymph node showed a drastic response after brain radiotherapy and anti-PD-1 therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of successful treatment of advanced gastric cancer with multiple brain and abdominal lymph node metastases, possibly through anti-PD-1 therapy combined with brain radiotherapy-induced abscopal effect. We suggest that the combination of brain radiotherapy and anti-PD-1 therapy may be considered as a therapeutic option for advanced gastric cancer, especially when there is brain metastasis.

• Journal of Korean Traditional Oncology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 2022

Objective: Insomnia is a very common symptom and has a great effect on the quality of life in cancer patients. This study was conducted to identify the effects of the aroma therapy on insomnia in cancer patients. Methods: The study was performed with one group in before-after test design. The subjects were 15 cancer patients with insomnia selected by convenience sampling in Daegu. The aroma therapy consists of 10-minute sessions twice a week over 6 weeks. The PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), ISI (Insomnia Severity Index) were measured at baseline and at 3 and 6 weeks, after 6 weeks after finishing treatment. STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), FACT-G (Functional Assessment Cancer Therapy-General), HRV (Heart Rate Variability) were measured at baseline, post-treatment and after 6 weeks after finishing treatments. Results: Fifteen patients (mean age 50.93 ± 7.29 years), with breast, ovarian or gastric cancer, participated this study. At post-treatment, PSQI (from 14.18 ± 2.64 to 6.18 ± 3.03), ISI (from 19.00 ± 3.19 to 8.18 ± 5.14), FACT-G (from 55.65 ± 11.20 to 66.91 ± 12.33), and STAI (from 40.36 ± 8.10 to 34.73 ± 9.81, from 45.64 ± 6.07 to 39.73 ± 9.37) scores improved significantly over baseline(p<0.001). Conclusion: Aroma therapy improved insomnia, anxiety and quality of life on cancer patients.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.220-226
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• 2020

Esophageal cancer is a representative cancer that occur physical deterioration but, physical problems after surgery were not well reported. The purpose of this study is to report on the long thoracic neuropathy after surgery, and to identify the symptoms and effects of physical therapy after esophageal cancer surgery. This is a case of a 61-year-old man who showed winging of the scapula with long thoracic nerve injury on the results of electromyography after an esophageal cancer surgery. Physical therapy programs were implemented 8 sessions during hospitalization. The quality of life, fatigue, shoulder range of motion (ROM), numeric rating scale (NRS), 6-minute walk test, and 30-second chair stand test were assessed. The quality of life, fatigue, shoulder ROM, NRS (pain), 6-minute walk test, and 30-second chair stand test were improved. However, the esophageal-specific symptom was not different after physical therapy program. As esophageal cancer suffers from physical difficulties after surgery, physical therapy programs are thought to be helpful.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2019

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effects of manual lymph drainage (MLD) on women with breast cancer and lymph edema. Methods: This study was carried out with a total of 23 women with breast cancer and lymph edema. By drawing lots, women were assigned to either the manual drainage group (MLD, n=12), a control group (n=11). Outcomes such as the arm size, visual analogue scale, shoulder pain and disability index, and functional assessment cancer therapy-breast (FACT-B) were measured to 0 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks intervention for both groups. Results: A significant difference was found in the arm size, pain, functional disability level, and quality of life between the two groups and time(p<.01). Significant difference in functional disability level between 2 and 8 weeks at 4 weeks and 8 weeks for pain(p<.01), and the quality for life was significantly different at all time points (p<.01). Conclusions: Applying MLD treatment to women with breast cancer proved to have a positive effect.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.99-110
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• 2020

With hope and concern, the first Korean proton therapy facility was introduced to the National Cancer Center (NCC) in 2007. It added a new chapter to the history of Korean radiation therapy. There have been challenging clinical trials using proton beam therapy, which has seen many impressive results in cancer treatment. Compared to the rapidly increasing number of proton therapy facilities in the world, only one more proton therapy center has been added since 2007 in Korea. The Samsung Medical Center installed a proton therapy facility in 2015. Most radiation oncology practitioners would agree that the physical properties of the proton beam provide a clear advantage in radiation treatment. But the expensive cost of proton therapy facilities is still one of the main reasons that hospitals are reluctant to introduce them in Korea. I herein introduce the history of proton therapy and the cutting edge technology used in proton therapy. In addition, I will cover the role of a medical physicist in proton therapy and the future prospects of proton therapy, based on personal experience in participating in proton therapy programs from the beginning at the NCC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6009-6014
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• 2014

Aims: To investigate changes in cellular immune function of patients with lung cancer before and after cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy and to identify variation effects on overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Materials and Methods:A total of 943 lung cancer patients with immune dysfunction were recruited from January 2002 to January 2010, 532 being allocated to conventional therapy and 411 to CIK therapy after a standard treatment according to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines. All the patients were investigated for cellular immune function before and after therapy every three months. and clinical prognostic outcomes were analyzed. Results: After six courses of treatment, immune function was much improved in patients receiving CIK cells therapy as compared to controls. The percentages of recurrence and/or metastases for patients undergoing CIK cell therapy was 56.2% and 49.1% respectively but 78.6% and 70.3% among controls (p<0.001). The median OS times for CIK cell therapy and control groups were 48 and 36 months respectively. The OS rates at 12, 36, 60, 84 months in CIK treated patients were 97.8%, 66.9%, 27.7%, and 4.1% while they were 92.3%, 44.5%, 9.2%, and 1.5% in controls. OS and PFS were significantly different by log rank test between the two groups and across the three immune improvement classes. Conclusions: The immune function of lung cancer patients was improved by CIK cell therapy, associated with an increase in the OS rate and extension of the time to recurrence and/or metastasis.