Gan to kagaku ryoho. Cancer & chemotherapy
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Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · May 2006
[Essentials for transition of palliative care patients to palliative home care and for management of their cancer pain].
Multi-disciplinary team work among visiting doctors, nurses, care managers and pharmacists located close to the patient's home is essential for smooth transition of a palliative care patient from hospital care to palliative home care and should be set up prior to the patient's discharge from the hospital. Palliative home care physicians should have knowledge of the fundamental support by the government to spare excessive cost to the patients. ⋯ In Japan, although oxycodone SRs and fentanyl patches are available besides morphine, there is no rescue opioid other than morphine. On the other hand, some cancer pain refractory to opioids such as neuropathic cancer pain should be carefully treated by adjuvant analgesics in conjunction with non-pharmacological treatments.
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Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Apr 2006
Case Reports[Efficacy of controlled-release oxycodone for dyspnea in cancer patients--three case series].
Dyspnea is a common symptom in patients with advanced cancer. Systemic morphine administration has been reported as an effective pharmacological treatment to control dyspnea. ⋯ In all cases, both opioids provided equivalent effects for the palliation of cancer dyspnea with no significant adverse effects. Future studies in the appropriate clinical designs will be needed to confirm our findings.
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Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Mar 2006
Review[Efficacy of postoperative adjuvant therapy for resected non-small cell lung cancer--an evidence-based review].
Efficacy of postoperative adjuvant therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was examined based on recent evidence. In 2003, when a clinical guideline for lung cancer had been published, the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant therapy had not been established. However, results of randomized controlled studies and metaanalysis on the efficacy of postoperative chemotherapy, platinum-based chemotherapy or UFT, were presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held in 2003-2005. Thus, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for completely resected NSCLC cases is now a standard care of therapy.
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Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Mar 2006
Case Reports[A case of long-term, high-dose transdermal fentanyl application for lung cancer pain].
Transdermal fentanyl patch represents a new administration route for cancer pain relief. We reported here a successful experience with a high-dose of transdermal fentanyl for cancer pain therapy. ⋯ During the past 15 months, she has been treated with 30 mg or more of transdermal fentanyl for cancer pain relief. No severe side effects were observed, and she experienced a better quality of life at home using this patch long-term.
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Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Feb 2006
Comparative Study[Direct conversion from low-dose morphine to transdermal fentanyl: efficacy for cancer pain and quality of life].
The efficacy and QOL in a cancer pain patient who converted to transdermal fentanyl from low-dose morphine (n=5) or high-dose morphine (n=5) were retrospectively compared. Cancer pain control was evaluated by visual analogue scales (VAS) score. ⋯ The number of morphine rescues was also significantly less in the low-dose conversion group. In conclusion, conversion from low-dose morphine is useful for cancer pain control from the aspect of efficacy and QOL.