Pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease: lessons learnt from the large Turkish Nationwide Registry (THALES).

Pulmonary hypertension is a group of diseases, including pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease (APAH-CHD), characterized by progressive deterioration in pulmonary hemodynamics associated with substantial morbidity and mortality risk. THALES is a national multicenter, prospective observational registry, providing data on patients with APAH-CHD. The study comprised APAH-CHD patients (>3 months of age) with confirmed diagnosis of right heart catheterization or echocardiographic findings.

Psychosexual and body image aspects of quality of life in Turkish breast cancer patients: a comparison of breast conserving treatment and mastectomy.

Aims And Background: Assessing psychosexual and body image aspects of quality of life in Turkish breast cancer patients treated by either mastectomy or breast conserving treatment (BCT).

Methods: The study group consisted of 112 patients who had undergone all treatment at a single institution under the care of a multidisciplinary breast team. Following surgery, all patients underwent adjuvant radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

Assessment of treatment-related thyroid dysfunction in patients with head and neck cancer.

Objective: To assess thyroid dysfunction in head and neck cancer patients who have received external beam radiotherapy according to radiotherapy fields and dose, tumor site and other local or systemic treatments retrospectively and prospectively and propose a follow-up schedule.

Material And Methods: A total of 378 patients was classified into two groups. Group I (n = 345) consisted of surgically treated 153 laryngeal, 80 nasopharyngeal and 112 oral cavity/oropharyngeal carcinoma patients; these patients were evaluated retrospectively for treatment-related thyroid dysfunction using their data files.

Validation of the Medical Research Council and a newly developed prognostic index in patients with malignant glioma: how useful are prognostic indices in routine clinical practice?

Although different prognostic indices for malignant gliomas have been developed, their validity outside of clinical trials has not been widely tested. The aim of this study was to determine whether the Medical Research Council (MRC) brain tumour prognostic index was able to stratify patients for survival managed in routine practice, and secondly to compare the results with our newly developed prognostic score which included tumour grade and only 3 prognostic groups. The MRC and the new prognostic index were calculated for a group of 119 adult patients with malignant glioma managed by surgical resection/biopsy and post-operative radiotherapy.

Turkish people's knowledge of cancer and attitudes toward prevention and treatment.

Background: The basic level of cancer knowledge of the population is as important in controlling cancer as diagnostic tools, screening, and new approaches to prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment.

Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 24 questions was given to 630 healthy Turkish people to determine their basic knowledge and attitudes regarding cancer.

Results: The majority of respondents (78%) were found to have little knowledge of cancer despite the fact that the average level of education of the sample was superior to that of the general population.