Large-scale Survey of the Impact of Complementary Medicine on Side-effects of Adjuvant Hormone Therapy in Patients with Breast Cancer.

Background/aim: The present clinical investigation was performed to confirm the benefit of complementary medicine in patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant hormone therapy (HT).

Patients And Methods: The patients (n=1561) were treated according to international guidelines. All patients suffered from arthralgia and mucosal dryness induced by the adjuvant HT.

Complementary medicine down-regulates side-effects of hormone therapy in prostate cancer patients.

Aim: The present clinical investigation was performed to evaluate the benefits of complementary medicine in prostate cancer patients undergoing hormone therapy (HT).

Patients And Methods: Patients (N=93) were treated according to international guidelines. All patients suffered from side-effects induced by the HT.

Complementary medicine on side-effects of adjuvant hormone therapy in patients with breast cancer.

Background: This clinical investigation was performed in order to evaluate the benefit of complementary medicine in patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant hormone therapy (HT).

Patients And Methods: The patients (n=680) were treated according to international guidelines. All patients suffered from arthralgia and mucosal dryness induced by the adjuvant HT.

Intravenous vitamin C administration improves quality of life in breast cancer patients during chemo-/radiotherapy and aftercare: results of a retrospective, multicentre, epidemiological cohort study in Germany.

Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate under praxis conditions the safety and efficacy of intravenous (i.v.) vitamin C administration in the first postoperative year of women with breast cancer.

Evidence-based complementary oncology: innovative approaches to optimise standard therapy strategies.

Cancer diseases demand diagnostic and therapeutic measures with proven quality, safety and efficacy. Bases for evaluation of new clinical and therapeutic measures are clinical studies representing level I (randomised controlled trials [RCTs]) or level II (epidemiological cohort studies), in accordance with recommendations of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, UK. Evidence-based treatment of cancer follows recommendations of international expert panels and includes indication-based surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone and antibody therapy.

Antimicrobial central venous catheters in oncology: efficacy of a rifampicin-miconazole-releasing catheter.

Unlabelled: Antimicrobial central venous catheters are discussed as a device to reduce catheter-related infections. Previously we have reported a study with 223 adult surgical patients randomized to receive either a rifampicin-miconazole-loaded central venous catheter (CVC) (n=118) or a standard CVC (n=105). The antimicrobial CVC was shown to reduce catheter colonization (CC) and catheter-related local infection (CRI) significantly even at long-term catheterization.

Impact of adjuvant chemo- and radiotherapy on the cellular immune system of breast cancer patients.

The relevance of an uncompromised immune system for the development and progress of breast cancer still is a matter of intensive research. The impact of chemo- and/or radiotherapy on peripheral blood immune cell counts and activity of breast cancer patients (n=660) was investigated by flow cytometry. Not only the absolute counts, but also the comparison of those counts with standard values were evaluated.

Evidence-Based Complementary Medicine in Breast Cancer Therapy.

Complementary medicine is currently widely debated by the oncologic community, because the required scientific proof of safety and effectiveness for most of the therapeutic approaches ha s not yet been met with definite results. In the past years, basic research and clinical evaluation of defined complementary therapeutic concepts in oncology have been intensified in an attempt to integrate these procedures into evidence-based medicine. According to definition, scientifically-based therapies of complementary medicine cannot replace the well-studied conventional cancer-destructive therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or hormone therapy.

Proteolytic enzyme therapy in evidence-based complementary oncology: fact or fiction?

Systemic enzyme therapy was recently subjected to experimental investigations and to rigorous clinical studies in cancer patients. The designs of the relevant clinical cohort studies followed the guidelines of Good Epidemiological Practice and represent level IIB in evidence-based medicine (EBM). Scientifically sound experimental in vitro and in vivo investigations are far advanced and document promising immunological, anti-inflammatory, anti-infectious, and antitumor/antimetastatic activities of proteolytic enzyme mixtures (containing trypsin, chymotrypsin, and papain) or bromelain.

Review. Evidence-based complementary oncology. Innovative approaches to optimize standard therapy strategies.

Cancer diseases demand diagnostic and therapeutic measures with proven quality, safety and efficacy. The basis for evaluation is clinical studies representing levels I or II (randomized controlled trials (RCT) or epidemiological cohort studies) in accordance with recommendations of the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, University of Oxford, UK Regarding these claims, surgery, chemo-, radio- and hormone therapy have emerged as the gold standard in the treatment of carcinomas. These therapies have proven their cancer destructive potencies and their curative feasibilities, dependent on the particular cancer entity and stage.

Modulation of murine tumor growth and colonization by bromelaine, an extract of the pineapple plant (Ananas comosum L.).

The antitumor and antimetastatic activities of the plant cysteine endoproteinase bromelaine were evaluated in a murine model. Syngeneic sarcoma L-1 cells were incubated with bromelaine (after preceeding time and dosage kinetics) and subcutaneously; (s.c.

Reduced colonization and infection with miconazole-rifampicin modified central venous catheters: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Objective: Central venous catheters (CVC) are a major cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections. Catheters modified with miconazole and rifampicin that constantly and slowly release antimicrobial substances are assumed to be beneficial in reducing rates of colonization and catheter-related infections.

Design And Setting: Prospective controlled non-blinded randomized clinical trial in two German university hospitals.

Neisseria meningitidis, Neisseria lactamica and Moraxella catarrhalis share cross-reactive carbohydrate antigens.

Carriage of commensal bacteria species is associated with the development of natural immunity to meningococcal disease, with lipo-oligosaccharides (LOS) of meningococci being one of the main virulence factors associated with severity of meningococcal disease. Meningococcal reference strains and isolates from the commensal species Neisseria lactamica and Moraxella catarrhalis were assessed for the presence of cross-reactive glycoconjugate antigens. Binding of human blood group antibodies of the P and Ii system to meningococcal immunotype reference strains were in accordance with the presence of known LOS carbohydrate structures.

Comparison of Moraxella catarrhalis isolates from children and adults for growth on modified New York City medium and potential virulence factors.

Initial studies found that Moraxella catarrhalis isolates from adults that grew on modified New York City medium (MNYC(+)) that contained antibiotics selective for pathogenic neisseriae differed from strains that did not grow on this medium (MNYC(-)) in their potential virulence properties. It was predicted that higher usage of antibiotics to treat respiratory illness in children might result in higher proportions of MNYC(+) isolates if antibiotics were an important selective pressure for this phenotype. Two of 100 adult isolates (2 %) were MNYC(+), compared to 88 of 88 isolates (100 %) from children (P = 0.

Enhancement of circulating dendritic cell activity by immunomodulators (OK432 and KP-40).

The effects of biological response modifiers (BRMs) on the functions of two types of dendritic cells (DCs) were examined in relation to anti-tumor therapy. The two BRMs studied in our assay system were OK432 (a streptococcal preparation) and KP-40 (Propionibacterium avidum: a heat-inactivated bacterial vaccine). Recently, techniques for isolating human DCs from peripheral blood have been established, and DCs can be divided into two subsets: CD11c+ DCs (myeloid DC population) and CD11c- DCs (lymphoid DC population).

Proinflammatory responses to lipo-oligosaccharide of Neisseria meningitidis immunotype strains in relation to virulence and disease.

Inflammatory responses to lipo-oligosaccharide (LOS) contribute to the severity of meningococcal disease. Strains that express the L(3,7,9) LOS immunotypes are isolated from the majority of patients, but other immunotypes are isolated predominantly from carriers. Inflammatory responses elicited from a human monocytic cell line (THP-1) that had been pretreated with vitamin D3 (VD3) were compared after stimulation with purified LOSs from standard immunotype strains.