Iranian Journal of Breast Diseases
Year:2019 | Volume:12 | Issue:3 (46) |Papers Count:6

Introduction: Radiation therapy before mastectomy increases the severity of stress and cortisol hormone. Because of the preference of patients and physicians for nonpharmacologic stress management methods, we conducted the present study with the aim of evaluating the effect of ear acupressure on anxiety and cortisol hormone levels in women receiving premastectomy radiotherapy. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was carried out on 66 patients (based on sample size formula) at Imam Reza Hospital in Tabriz during the years 2018-19. The intervention group was given acupressure, twice a day (8 minutes on each ear), for three days before surgery. Serum cortisol level and latent and manifest anxiety (the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) were measured before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 software. A P value less than 0. 05 were considered significant. Results: There was no significant difference in latent anxiety, manifest anxiety, or cortisol levels between the groups at baseline. Ear acupressure caused a significant decrease in latent anxiety (from 43. 22 ± 6. 41 to 33. 09 ± 4. 91), explicit anxiety (from 49. 50 ± 5. 52 to 32. 18 ± 5. 01), and plasma cortisol levels (from 156. 15 ± 18. 95 to 115. 59 ± 17. 80) (P < 0. 005), while no significant changes were observed in the control group (P > 0. 05). Conclusion: Ear acupressure can reduce anxiety and stress (cortisol) levels in breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy before mastectomy.

Introduction: E-cadherin is expressed in most normal epithelial tissues. Loss of E-cadherin can cause dedifferentiation and invasiveness in human carcinomas, leading E-cadherin to be classified as a tumor suppressor. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of interval training on the expression of tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin in breast cancer-bearing BALB/c mice. Methods: Twenty female BALB/c mice were purchased from the Pasteur Institute and transferred to the Animal Laboratory of Tarbiat Modares University and randomly divided into four groups of training-cancer-rest, training-cancer-training, rest-cancer-rest, and rest-cancer-training. Cancer was induced by subcutaneous injection of 4T1 cell line. The mice performed an average-intensity interval training for 10 weeks, 5 days per week. Forty-eight hours after the last exercise session, the mice were sacrificed to measure the research variables. Gene expression was investigated using real-time PCR. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the statistical differences between groups. Results: There was a significant difference in the E-cadherin gene expression between the training-cancer-training and rest-cancer-rest groups (p = 0. 03). This difference was also observed between the training-cancertraining and training-cancer-rest groups (p = 0. 04). Conclusion: Interval exercise training may influence the expression of major tumor suppressor genes and systemic inflammation involved in the development of metastasis and even reverse this process.

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cause of cancer mortality among women. Early diagnosis of breast cancer gives patients greater survival time. The present study aims to provide an algorithm for more accurate prediction and more effective decision-making in the treatment of patients with breast cancer. Methods: The present study was applied, descriptive-analytical, based on the use of computerized methods. We obtained 699 independent records containing nine clinical variables from the UCI machine learning. The EM algorithm was used to analyze the data before normalizing them. Following that, a combination of neural network model based on multilayer perceptron structure with the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) was used to predict the breast tumor malignancy. Results: After preprocessing the disease data set and reducing data dimensions, the accuracy of the proposed algorithm for training and testing data was 99. 6% and 99%, respectively. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model was 99. 4%, which would be a satisfying result compared to different methods of machine learning in other studies. Conclusion: Considering the importance of early diagnosis of breast cancer, the results of this study may have highly useful implications for health care providers and planners so as to achieve the early diagnosis of the disease.

Introduction: The incidence of breast cancer poses a variety of physical and psychological stresses to the patients and their families, especially husbands. The aim of this study was to evaluate anxiety, depression, and quality of life of husbands of breast cancer patients before and after cancer treatment. Methods: In this descriptive study, we recruited husbands of breast cancer patients (n = 142) under treatment at the Breast Cancer Clinic of the ACECR. The participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and SF-36 before and after completion of their wives’ treatments. Results: The husbands had significantly lower anxiety (p < 0. 001) and depression (p < 0. 002) following their wives’ treatment However, their sexual satisfaction had declined at the posttreatment period. The mean scores on three dimensions of quality of life, i. e., physical functioning, general health perception, and mental health, were also declined after the treatment. Most of the husbands had more physical problems after the treatment of their spouses. Conclusion: It is necessary for health and medical organizations to provide extensive educational services and behavioral interventions to the patients and their families at different stages of diagnosis and treatment.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy adopted for couples with integrative couple therapy in improving marital conflicts of couples with breast cancer. Methods: In this semi-experimental study, a pre-post design was used. Using available sampling, we approached 200 couples facing breast cancer referred to the educational and therapeutic center of Alzahra Hospital in Tabriz and enrolled 45 couples with the highest scores on the Marital Conflict Questionnaire in the study. They were randomly divided into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. One of the experimental groups received 8 consecutive 90-minute sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy adopted for couples, and the other experimental group received 16 sessions of integrative couple therapy. The control group did not receive any intervention. The research tool was the Marital Conflict Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Results: The treatment based on acceptance and commitment therapy was effective in reducing marital conflict (P < 0. 05). Integrative couple therapy, too, reduced marital conflict in women with cancer (P < 0. 05). There was no significant difference between the two treatment modalities (P > 0. 05). Conclusion: Both acceptance and commitment therapy and integrative couple therapy are effective approaches to solving couples’ individual and communicative problems.

Introduction: Personality traits, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness negatively affect quality of life in women with breast cancer. However, the contribution of each of these factors is not precisely determined. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among personality traits, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and quality of life in patients with breast cancer. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 180 women with breast cancer (90 patients and 90 healthy individuals) were recruited from Imam Reza and Tabatabaee hospitals in Tabriz. Data were collected using the Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, and Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) (with acceptable validity and reliability). T tests and Pearson’ s correlation coefficients were used for data analysis, and P < 0. 05 was considered significant. Results: Quality of life was negatively correlated with neuroticism, depression, despair, and anxiety and positively correlated with extroversion. Also, there was a positive correlation between neuroticism and depression, hopelessness, and anxiety, while other personality traits were negatively correlated with depression, hopelessness, and anxiety. Conclusion: Anxiety, depression, and hopelessness reduce quality of life of patients with advanced cancer. Patients with extraversion have less anxiety and depression, which leads to a better quality of life, while more nervous patients may show signs of anxiety and depression and low quality of life.