Taste and smell alterations have been recognized as common symptoms in relation to various cancers. However, previous research suggests that patients do not receive sufficient support in managing taste and smell alterations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate how persons with experience from lung cancer-related taste and smell alterations reason about resources and strategies offered and used to manage these symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) among immigrants in Europe. We aimed to investigate clinical characteristics and disease-specific survival among first- and second-generation immigrants in Sweden. This nationwide population-based study included 27,235 patients from the Swedish Melanoma Register diagnosed with primary invasive CMM, 1990-2007.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Taste and smell alterations (TSAs) are common symptoms in patients with cancer that may interfere with nutritional intake and quality of life. In this study, we explore and describe how characteristics of self-reported TSAs change in individuals with lung cancer over time using a multiple case study approach to present longitudinal data from individuals.
Methods: Patients under investigation for lung cancer were recruited from one university hospital in Sweden.
Germline CDKN2A mutations are found in 5-20% of melanoma families. Numerous studies have shown that carriers of CDKN2A mutations have increased risks of non-melanoma cancers, but so far there have been no studies investigating cancer risks in CDKN2A wild type (wt) melanoma families. In this prospective cohort study, index melanoma cases (n = 224) and their first-degree relatives (n = 944) were identified from 154 confirmed CDKN2A wt melanoma families.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: This study of patients under investigation for lung cancer (LC) aims to: 1) examine the prevalence of self-reported taste and smell alterations (TSAs) and their relationships with demographic and clinical characteristics; and 2) explore nutritional importance of TSAs by examining their associations with patient-reported weight loss, symptoms interfering with food intake, and changes in food intake.
Methods: Patients were recruited consecutively during investigation for LC from one university hospital in Sweden. Patient-reported information on TSAs, demographics, six-month weight history, symptoms interfering with food intake, and changes in food intake was obtained.
Purpose: To investigate the association between cohabitation status, clinical stage at diagnosis, and disease-specific survival in cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM).
Methods: This nationwide population-based study included 27,235 patients from the Swedish Melanoma Register diagnosed with a primary invasive CMM between 1990 and 2007 and linked data to nationwide, population-based registers followed up through 2012.
Results: After adjustment for age at diagnosis, level of education, living area, period of diagnosis, and tumor site, the odds ratios (ORs) of higher stage at diagnosis were significantly increased among men living alone versus men living with a partner (stage II v stage I: OR, 1.
Objectives: A large proportion of patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) do not experience excess mortality due to their disease. This group of patients is referred to as the cure proportion. Few studies have examined the possibility of cure for CMM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinical management of primary cutaneous melanomas is based on histopathological staging of the tumour. The aim of this study was to investigate, in a non-selected population in clinical practice, the agreement rate between general pathologists and pathologists experienced in melanoma in terms of the evaluation of histopathological prognostic parameters in cutaneous malignant melanomas, and to what extent the putative variability affected clinical management. A total of 234 cases of invasive cutaneous malignant melanoma were included in the study from the Stockholm-Gotland Healthcare Region in Sweden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Optimum surgical resection margins for patients with clinical stage IIA-C cutaneous melanoma thicker than 2 mm are controversial. The aim of the study was to test whether survival was different for a wide local excision margin of 2 cm compared with a 4-cm excision margin.
Methods: We undertook a randomised controlled trial in nine European centres.
In a prospective randomised Scandinavian trial, patients with localised invasive cutaneous melanoma of the trunk or extremities with tumours more than 2 mm thick were randomly assigned to excision with narrow (2 cm) or wide (4 cm) margins after primary surgery. The aims of the present study were to find out if there were any differences in health-related quality of life (QoL) and emotional distress between patients in the two arms over time. Patients were assessed at four time points: before randomisation, and at 3, 9, and 15 months after inclusion, using the EORTC QLQ-C30, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Impact of Event Scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe genetic background of cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) includes both germ line aberrations in high-penetrance genes, like CDKN2A, and allelic variation in low-penetrance genes like the melanocortin-1 receptor gene, MC1R. Red-hair colour associated MC1R alleles (RHC) have been associated with red hair, fair skin and risk of CMM. We investigated MC1R and CDKN2A variation in relation to phenotype, clinical factors and CMM risk in the Swedish population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To evaluate a program initiated in 1987 by the Swedish Melanoma Study Group aiming to provide preventive surveillance to kindreds with hereditary cutaneous melanoma and dysplastic nevus syndrome.
Patients And Methods: Overall, 2,080 individuals belonging to 280 melanoma families were followed for 14 years between 1987 and 2001 at 12 participating centers. Data were registered in a central database.
We have previously demonstrated the use of pyrosequencing to investigate NRAS [neuroblastoma RAS viral (v-ras) oncogene homolog] mutations in melanoma biopsies. Here, we expanded the analysis to include BRAF (V-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1), another member of the Ras-Raf-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathway, and analysed a total of 294 melanoma tumours from 219 patients. Mutations in BRAF exons 11 and 15 were identified in 156 (53%) tumours and NRAS exon 2 mutations in 86 (29%) tumours.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTemozolomide is a rapidly absorbed chemotherapeutic agent, achieving significant central nervous system penetration. Previous clinical trials suggested that temozolomide in sequence with low-dose recombinant human interleukin-2 might be an efficacious and relatively non-toxic chemo-immunotherapeutic treatment, which may synergistically eliminate tumours. The primary objective was to determine the safety and tolerance of temozolomide administered orally 200 mg/m days 1-5, in sequential combination with subcutaneous injections of 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe incidence of cutaneous malignant melanoma has been increasing in Sweden for several decades. In the Stockholm-Gotland area educational activities for healthcare professionals were started in the late 1970s and public primary and secondary prevention campaigns were initiated in the mid-1980s. Melanoma incidence trends have been studied in Sweden, with special reference to trends in the Stockholm-Gotland area where these prevention campaigns were first started.
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