• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.141-145
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• 2020

Background: For children and adolescents with cancer, going back to school is a key milestone in returning to "normal life." Purpose: To identify the support vital for a successful transition, we evaluated the parents' needs and the challenges they face when their children return to school. Methods: This multi-institutional study was conducted by the Korean Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. The written survey comprised 24 questions and was completed by 210 parents without an interviewer. Results: Most parents (165 of 206) reported that their children experienced difficulties with physical status (n=60), peer relationships (n=30), academic performance (n=27), emotional/behavioral issues (n=11), and relationships with teachers (n=4) on reentering school. Parents wanted to be kept informed about and remain involved in their children's school lives and reported good parent-teacher communication (88 of 209, 42.1%). Parents reported that 83.1% and 44.9% of teachers and peers, respectively, displayed an adequate understanding of their children's condition. Most parents (197 of 208) answered that a special program is necessary to facilitate return to school after cancer therapy that offers emotional support (n=85), facilitates social adaptation (n=61), and provides tutoring to accelerate catch up (n=56), and continued health care by hospital outreach and school personnel (n=50). Conclusion: In addition to scholastic aptitude-oriented programs, emotional and psychosocial support is necessary for a successful return to school. Pediatric oncologists should actively improve oncology practices to better integrate individualized school plans and educate peers and teachers to improve health literacy to aid them in understanding the needs of children with cancer.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.267-275
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• 1995

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy can effectively control cancer but can also cause new second cancers to develop as long-term complications especially in childhood cancer. We experienced two patients with second malignant solid neoplasm who had been treated with radiation and chemotherapy for childhood cancers One female patient with rhabdomyosarcoma of the right popliteal fossa was treated with radiotherapy at total dose of 54Gy Three years and seven months later, osteosarcoma developed in the field of radiation therapy The other male patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the small bowel was treated with radiotherapy and leiomyosarcoma developed in the field of radiotherapy 18 years later. We reviewed the literature of the second malignant neoplasm in children in respect of risk factors. The risk for a second primary cancer following radiotherapy or chemotherapy emphasizes the need for life long follow-up of patients receiving such treatments, particularly patients treated for childhood cancers.

• 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.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.4595-4598
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• 2013

We conducted a comprehensive study to investigate the role of genes involved in transport pathways in response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome of osteosarcoma cases. Genotyping of six SNPs was performed in a 384-well plate format on the Sequenom MassARRAY platform for 208 osteosarcoma patients to reveal any correlations of the six SNPs with response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome. Individuals with the ABCB1 rs1128503 TT and ABCC3 rs4148416 TT genotypes had a higher probability of responding poorly to chemotherapy, indicated by odds ratios (ORs) of 2.46 (95%CI, 1.21-5.74) and 3.78 (95% CI, 1.20-13.85), respectively. Moreover, the ABCB1 rs1128503 TT and ABCC3 rs4148416 TT genotypes were significantly associated with shorter diseasefree survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Our study found the two SNPs in two transporter genes and one phase II metabolism enzyme to be associated with response to chemotherapy and overall survival in osteosarcoma patients, suggesting potential prognostic biomarker applications of the two SNPs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.139-145
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• 2016

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a major public health problem for all ages. Despite the high prevalence of smoking among the Saudi population, there is limited information about levels of urinary cotinine in Saudi children exposed to SHS. The aim of the study was to assess the exposure of schoolchildren to ETS, and measure their urinary cotinine levels. Multistage cluster sampling was carried out, where schoolchildren from 4 schools were randomly chosen from primary schools in Taif city. A questionnaire including questions on SHS exposure and smoking rules in the residence were sent to students parents/guardians. Urine samples were taken and analyzed for total cotinine using chemiluminescent immunoassay. Of the studied children, 38.4% had a smoking father, 61.8%, 41.2% and 49.3% of them were exposed to ETS indoors, outdoors and both indoors and outdoors respectively. The mean urinary cotinine was significantly higher among children exposed to ETS compared to unexposed children. Urinary cotinine levels in children with both indoor and outdoor exposure was significantly higher compared with its level in children with single exposure. A significant positive correlation was found between urinary cotinine concentrations and the number of cigarette packs smoked by parents, and the number of smokers in the residence. The mean urinary cotinine level was significantly higher in children who reported no smoking rules at the residence.. The study revealed a high exposure of Saudi children to ETS. An antismoking media awareness campaign on the harmful effects of ETS should be carried out, in addition to family counseling programs targeted to parents to protect their children from ETS.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2655-2661
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• 2012

Validation of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) utilising a short-term measurement method is challenging when the reference method does not accurately reflect the usual food intake. In addition, food group intake that is not consumed on daily basis is more critical when episodically consumed foods are related and compared. To overcome these challenges, several statistical approaches have been developed to determine usual food intake distributions. The Multiple Source Method (MSM) can calculate the usual food intake by combining the frequency questions of an FFQ with the short-term food intake amount data. In this study, we applied the MSM to estimate the usual food group intake and evaluate the validity of an FFQ with a group of 333 Korean children (aged 3-6 y) who completed two 24-hour recalls (24HR) and one FFQ in 2010. After adjusting the data using the MSM procedure, the true rate of non-consumption for all food groups was less than 1% except for the beans group. The median Spearman correlation coefficients against FFQ of the mean of 2-d 24HRs data and the MSM-adjusted data were 0.20 (range: 0.11 to 0.40) and 0.35 (range: 0.14 to 0.60), respectively. The weighted kappa values against FFQ ranged from 0.08 to 0.25 for the mean of 2-d 24HRs data and from 0.10 to 0.41 for the MSM-adjusted data. For most food groups, the MSM-adjusted data showed relatively stronger correlations against FFQ than raw 2-d 24HRs data, from 0.03 (beverages) to 0.34 (mushrooms). The results of this study indicated that the application of the MSM, which was a better estimate of the usual intake, could be worth considering in FFQ validation studies among Korean children.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8467-8471
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• 2016

Background: One of the major mechanisms for drug resistance is associated with altered anticancer drug transport, mediated by the human-adenosine triphosphate binding cassette (ABC) transporter superfamily proteins. The overexpression of adenosine triphosphate binding cassette, sub-family B, member 1 (ABCB1) by multidrug-resistant cancer cells is a serious impediment to chemotherapy. In our study we have studied the possibility that structural single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) are the mechanism of ABCB1 overexpression. Materials and Methods: A total of 101 gastric cancer multidrug resistant cases and 100 controls were genotyped with sequence-specific primed PCR (SSP-PCR). Gene expression was evaluated for 70 multidrug resistant cases and 54 controls by real time PCR. The correlation between the two groups was based on secondary structures of RNA predicted by bioinformatics tool. Results: The results of genotyping showed that among 3 studied SNPs, rs28381943 and rs2032586 had significant differences between patient and control groups but there were no differences in the two groups for C3435T. The results of real time PCR showed over-expression of ABCB1 when we compared our data with each of the genotypes in average mode. Prediction of secondary structures in the existence of 2 related SNPs (rs28381943 and rs2032586) showed that the amount of ${\Delta}G$ for original mRNA is higher than the amount of ${\Delta}G$ for the two mentioned SNPs. Conclusions: We have observed that 2 of our studied SNPs (rs283821943 and rs2032586) may elevate the expression of ABCB1 gene, through increase in mRNA stability, while this was not the case for C3435T.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify effects of EMLA (Eutectic Mixture of Local Anesthetics) cream application on pain perception and pain response during insertion of implanted venous access port needle in children with cancer. Methods: From December 2010 to August 2011, at U university hospital, 20 patients scheduled for implanted venous access port needle insertion were recruited, and randomly assigned to receive either EMLA or a placebo cream 1 hour before the implanted venous access port needle insertion. While conducting needle insertion, changes in pulse and oxygen saturation on the pulse oxymeter monitor were measured and pain behavior reaction was also measured during needle insertion in the treatment room. After conducting needle insertion, self-reported pain reaction, and mothers' perception of the children's pain reaction were measured. Collected data were statistically processed using SPSS version 17.0 for Windows, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test. Results: Children's self-reported degree of pain, degree of pain as perceived by mothers and pain behavior reaction decreased significantly in the EMLA application group compared with the placebo group. Conclusion: Findings indicate that application of EMLA cream is effective in relieving pain in these children during implanted venous access port needle insertion.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.571-578
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• 2013

Background: Patients with breast cancer can experience a feeling of hopelessness very deeply in the adjustment process, and the social support provided during this period can be effective in increasing the level of hope. The present study aimed to identify breast cancer patients' social support and hopelessness level. Materials and Methods: The target population of this analytical study was all breast cancer patients (total of 85) who had treatment in the oncology department of a university hospital located in Adana/Turkey and who met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected through "Personal Information Form", "Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS)" and "Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support" (MSPSS). Analysis was performed using Shapiro Wilk, One Way ANOVA Welch, Student t-test, Mann Whitney U, and Kruskall Wallis tests. Homogeneity of variance was tested with the Levene, Bonferroni and Games Howell tests. Mean scores and standard deviation values are given as descriptive statistics. Results: Average age of the participants with breast cancer is $48.6{\pm}10.6$. Of all the participants, 84.7% are married, 49.4% graduated from primary school, 81.2% are housewives, and 82.4% had children. The participants' multidimensional perceived social support total scores were found to be high ($57.41{\pm}13.97$) and hopelessness scale scores low ($5.49{\pm}3.80$). There was a reverse, linear relationship between hopelessness scale scores and social support total scores (r=-0.259, p=0.017). A statistically significant relationship was found between hopelessness scores and education level and having children, occupation, income status, and education level of spouses (p<0.05). Conclusions: The present study indicates that hopelessness of the patients with breast cancer decreased with the increase in their social support. Therefore, activating patient social support systems is of importance in increasing their level of hope.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.42 no.8
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• pp.723-731
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• 2009

Instant noodle is one of the most popular foods in Korea. The objective of this study was to examine the association of instant noodle consumption and food and nutrient intake among children and teenagers in Korea. We used dietary data from 24-h recall of 1,748 subjects aged 7-19 years who participated in the 2005 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Those who consumed instant noodle once or more during the survey period were categorized as "instant noodle consumer (INC)" and were compared for food and nutrient intakes with the others (non-INC). The average age of the INC was 13.4 and that of the non-INC was 12.4; girls consumed more instant noodles than boys (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in BMI between the two groups. With the exception of grains, as compared to the non-INC, the INC consumed significantly less amounts of potatoes, vegetables, mush-rooms, fruits, spices, seafood, and milk and dairy products. With respect to nutrient intakes, the INC-group showed significantly higher nutrient intakes of energy, fat, carbohydrate, sodium, thiamine, and riboflavin; however, as compared to the non-INC-group, the INC-group showed significantly less intakes of calcium, niacin, and vitamin C. The overall result suggests that consuming instant noodles may lead to excessive intake of fat and sodium, but it may cause an increased intake of thiamine and riboflavin. Therefore, nutrition education that helps children and teenagers choose a balanced meal while consuming instant noodle should be carried out. In addition, manufactures of instant noodles should consider nutritional aspects in product development processes.