Safety and efficacy of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate compared to morphine sulphate immediate release tablet in management of breakthrough cancer pain.

Aim: To compare the efficacy and safety of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) and oral morphine in Indian patients with breakthrough episodes of cancer pain.

Materials And Methods: In this randomized, open label, active controlled, clinical study, total 186 patients who regularly experienced 1-4 episodes of breakthrough cancer pain (BTCP) daily, over the persistent pain controlled by taking oral morphine 60 mg/day or its equivalent were randomized to receive either OTFC 200 mcg or oral morphine 10 mg for the treatment of BTCP for 3 days. Improvement in pain as determined by numerical rating scale (NRS) at 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes of drug administration and percentage of BTCP episodes showing reduction in pain intensity by >33% at 15 minutes were primary efficacy endpoints.

Factor validity and reliability of the aberrant behavior checklist-community (ABC-C) in an Indian population with intellectual disability.

Background: In this study realised in collaboration with the department of psychology and parapsychology of Andhra University, validation of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist-Community (ABC-C) in Telugu, the official language of Andhra Pradesh, one of India's 28 states, was carried out.

Methods: To assess the factor validity and reliability of this Telugu version, 120 participants with moderate to profound intellectual disability (94 men and 26 women, mean age 25.2, SD 7.

Quality of Life in Cancer Patients with Disfigurement due to Cancer and its Treatments.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of disfigurement due to cancer and its treatments on quality of life.

Materials And Methods: A total of 120 patients from the inpatient/outpatient department of oncology who had undergone various forms of treatment for cancer were included in this study. The WHOQuality of Life BREF (WHOQL-BREF) version was administered to the patients to assess their quality of life.

A timely referral to palliative care team improves quality of life.

In the trajectory of disease progress and treatment plan, patients and the family members are confronted with challenging situations like unsurmountable physical distress, inadequate coping patterns, unanswered spiritual issues in the background of serious threat to very existence of life leads to a debilitating Quality of life.The Palliative Care team approach addresses all the issues and also sees the patient to go through the protocols of Palliative care management as well as Oncological treatment plan. Further, this fecilitates a smooth transition from the hospital to home and hospice care.