The impact of chemo-induced menopause on the quality of life of young women with non-metastatic breast cancer in Algeria

Imene Bedhrani, Sidi Mousa Nesrine, Samuel Mulondo — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females worldwide. Young women with breast cancer are treated with chemotherapy, which may exhibit gonadotoxicity thus inducing chemo- induced menopause with a risk of deterioration in their quality of life.

Method: A prospective study first of its kind in Algeria was carried out on 57 patients aged between 30 and 49 years that went for consultation at the oncology department of Pierre and Marie Curie Medical Centre Algiers. The medical files obtained and criteria of questionnaires: Quality of Life Questionnaire for Breast Cancer (QLQ-BR23) and the Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30 (QLQ-C30) were used to assess the quality of life in patients.

Results: From the medical files, patients had a dominant histological type of invasive ductal carcinoma at 96% and Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) II grade and luminal B profile were the most frequent. The (QLQ-C30) having averages of global health status, symptom score, and functional score with 56.34, 63.7, and 45.75 respectively. QLQ-BR23 having averages for symptom, functional score of 61.6 and 49.71 respectively.

Conclusion: Chemotherapy induces gonadotoxicity, which results in chemo-induced menopause that has a negative impact on the quality of life of young women. QLQ-BR23 is more suitable than QLQ-C30 to access the context of this study.

The current state of knowledge on small cell and non-small cell lung cancer and the position of durvalumab immunotherapy in lung cancer treatment. A review.

Kamil Poboży, Julia Domańska, Paweł Domański — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Lung cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. These statistics make lung cancer one of the most important targets for modern medicine.

The identification of multiple risk factors, including tobacco smoking, has been fundamental in understanding the disease. Late-stage detection is a significant contributor to the high mortality rate of lung cancer. Nonetheless, the role of screening is still debatable. The selection of therapy is primarily based on distinguishing between small-cell and non-small cell lung cancer. Despite the major differences in treatment, in both types in specific situations the treatment involves durvalumab – a monoclonal antibody targeting the programmed cell death ligand 1 molecule, which is often present on tumor cells and protects them against the patient’s immune system. The efficacy of durvalumab has been demonstrated in two randomized, multicenter clinical trials.

The aim of this study is to summarize the current state of knowledge about lung cancer and durvalumab. Despite the current 5-year survival rate of 19% in lung cancer, the development of immunotherapeutics such as durvalumab may be the key to improving the unfavorable prognosis of lung cancer in the future.

OncoReview

The impact of chemo-induced menopause on the quality of life of young women with non-metastatic breast cancer in Algeria

The current state of knowledge on small cell and non-small cell lung cancer and the position of durvalumab immunotherapy in lung cancer treatment. A review.