Gan to kagaku ryoho. Cancer & chemotherapy
-
Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Apr 1989
[Induction of phenotypic reverse transformation by plant glycosides in cultured cancer cells].
Crude ginsenosides extracted from the root of Panax ginseng C. A. ⋯ We have called such a phenomenon "reverse transformation" or "redifferentiation" which can be regarded as decarcinogenesis. In this report, the results of our recent investigations are presented with particular reference to reverse transformation of B16 melanoma cells induced by ginsenoside Rh2 isolated from the methanol extract of crude ginseng saponin fraction and action mechanisms of ginsenoside Rh2 are also discussed.
-
Pain, the most frequent subjective symptom in cancer patients, can and must be treated. Satisfactory pain relief helps whatever patients achieve their remaining potential. This transforms his experience and the memories of his family. ⋯ In patients with moderate pain, if non-opioids do not provide adequate relief, codeine or an alternative weak opioid should be prescribed. In patients with severe pain, morphine, a strong opioid, is the drug of choice. A series of principles established on the basis of considerable clinical experience and of controlled studies of analgesics indicate that the dose of an analgesic should be determined on an individual basis, and administered on a regular basis by the clock.
-
Pain is a major symptom in more than two-thirds of patients with far-advanced cancer. Pain control is thus one of the most significant ways to enable terminally ill cancer patients to live full lives up until the moment of death. Analgesic drug therapy is the mainstay of cancer pain management. ⋯ For mild to moderate pain, a nonopioid analgesic such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug or acetaminophen should be prescribed for the patient. If and when this treatment no longer relieves the pain, the patient should receive a strong opioid such as morphine or buprenorphine, together with a co-analgesic, if appropriate. The patient must receive careful and frequent supervision to ensure that the treatment continues to match the pain effectively and to take precautionary measures against side effects.
-
Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Apr 1989
[Preoperative systemic chemotherapy of patients with osteosarcoma: a preliminary study of nine cases].
Nine patients with osteosarcoma were treated with cisplatinum and high-dose methotrexate therapy. According to the clinical responses to each drug, we selected and used the effective one with adriamycin or bleomycin, cyclophosphamide and actinomycin-D combination therapy. We treated patients with these protocols for several months (two and one-half to eight months). ⋯ No differences between any drug in the pattern of effective drug response. It is possible to exclude non-effective drugs from the preoperative schedule according to the degree of clinical responses manifested within one or two weeks. This preliminary study suggested that intensive systemic preoperative chemotherapy will control primary and micrometastatic lesions of osteosarcoma and improve the treatment for primary and advanced osteosarcoma.
-
Gan To Kagaku Ryoho · Apr 1989
[On the activity of the Japanese Research Society for Surgical Cancer Immunology].
The recent progress in immunology has shown depression of immunological competence, especially cellular immunity in tumor bearing host due to anesthesia, blood transfusion and operative trauma itself and disappearance of host's concomitant immunity caused by removal of primary tumor, resulting the enhancement of growth of residual tumor or metastatic foci. The prophylactic lymph node dissection in cancer operation must be reconsidered through immunological studies of lymph node as immunological surveillance system. Splenectomy combined with the operation of stomach cancer must also be reconsidered. ⋯ Cancer treatment using IL-2, TNF. 10. Host defense factors and cancer metastasis. In addition, 14 educational lectures dealing with recent immunology have been given by immunological specialists.