To assess the association between common survivorship issues and characteristics of breast cancer survivors presenting at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology This study was conducted in the medical oncology department of Jinnah Medical Postgraduate Center from March 27, 2019, to September 27, 2019. A number of 257 females of age group 18-90 years who had either completed their treatment or were undergoing treatment at the time were included using non-probability consecutive sampling techniques. Face-to-face interviews were personally conducted by the researcher, and data regarding the socio-demographics and common survivorship issues faced by breast cancer patients were obtained. The data acquired were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 23 (IBM Corp, Armonk, NY). Results The mean age of the breast cancer survivors were 42.58 ± 10.07 years. Of the main challenges, lack of energy received the highest mean score of 3.44 ± 1.26, followed by fatigue and financial issues. Overall the most common survivorship issue were financial issues (81.3%), followed by fatigue (80.9%), cessation of the menstrual cycle (66.1%), weak social support (59.1%), and cosmetic disfigurement (51.8%). Conclusion Breast cancer survivors have various psychological, medical, and social issues and may require unique attention during follow-up visits.

Cancer is referred to as a pleiotropic disease-causing approximately 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Among all cancers, lung cancer was the leading cause of death in 2017, and 12% of fatalities were alone due to lung cancer. The associated risk factors in lung cancer include smoking (80-85%), chronic inflammation in the lungs, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, environmental and occupational exposure to nickel, arsenic, chromates, etc. Early diagnosed patients' treatment plan includes chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and tumor ablation. Many sorts of drug delivery carriers have been used in the past, usually in targeted chemotherapy. Liposomes are spherical shape vesicles containing a lipid bilayer and aqueous core, with potency to encapsulate both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs with minimal toxicity. These vesicles have a particle size of 0.02-1000 µm allowing selective passive targeting to the tumor's deeper tissues. Current publications on liposomes highlight their acceptance and best choice among all systems to deliver synthetic and herbal drugs to the lungs. This review focuses on many aspects, which include an in-depth analysis of potential anticancer drugs that have utilized the advantages of liposomes for effective lung carcinomatherapy and devices used to deliver the active agents to the pulmonary tissues. Investigations on ongoing, approved, and failed clinical trials and patents on products related to lung cancer have been highlighted to provide a critical review on the subject.

Introduction: Skin is the largest organ of the human body protecting the underlying organs and tissues from any foreign attack. Any damage caused in the skin may sometimes result in serious consequences within the internal body tissues. Burn is one such issue that damage the layers of skin and thereby makingthe skin vulnerableand pronefor any foreign matter to enter and cause serious diseases. Methods: An online literature assessment was steered for the lipid nanoparticles, burn wound treatments, and different types of nanoformulation. Appropriate information was taken from different electronic scientific databases such as Web of Science, Elsevier, Science Direct, Springer, PubMed, Google Scholar etc.,Additional data was summarized from textbooks, local prints and scripts. Results: Recent innovations and developments in nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems has shown promising results in minimizing the drawbacks associated with conventional therapies. Lipid based nanoparticles possess capabilities to deliver active agents to their target site without the possibility of degradation. Conventional therapy of burn wound is costly and the treatment is long lasting, making the patient uncomfortable. Moreover, italso doesn’t yield satisfactory results or narrow effects.Encapsulation of bioactives inside the lipid core protects the active entity from pH and enzymatic degradations. Conclusion: This review highlights the drawbacks associated with the conventional dosage forms. A lot of consideration is focused on the advancement of nanomaterials using innovative methods in wound care for treating burn wounds with the faster healing effect.This review article highlights recent developments in lipid based nanoformulations for treatment of burn wound injury.

Objective: To assess efficacy of elecrtonic vacuum aspiration in evacuation of retained product of conception with intravenous analgesia. Study Design: A prospective observational study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Pakistan Naval Ship Shifa Hospital, Karachi Pakistan, from Jan to Jun 2018. Methodology: All patients who were intended to undergo Electronic Vacuum Aspiration due to retained products of conception, early fetal demise, septic induced abortions and molar (all upto 12 weeks of gestation) were enrolled in this study after obtaining informed consent. Outcome measures of study were efficacy (defined as completeness of the evacuation procedure confirmed by ultrasound), occurrence of complications like uterine perforation, excessive bleeding >200ml and sepsis (diagnosed clinically or biochemically). Results: A total of 1080 patients underwent Electronic Vacuum Aspiration during the study period. Complete evacuation was achieved in 1026 (95%) cases. Four (<1%) patients experienced post procedure infection while none had uterine perforation. Average blood loss was <100ml while 18 (1.6%) patients had blood loss of >200ml. Conclusion: Electronic vacuum aspiration is a safe and efficacious method of uterine evacuation. It does not require special equipment. It is easy to learn and is readily available as well as cost effective. Hence it’s a very lucrative alternative to manual vacuum aspiration using I pass or medical termination of pregnancy in resource poor settings.

Objective: To identify smokeless tobacco as a risk factor in the development of head and neck cancers and to assess the role of ethnicity in the use of smokeless tobacco in developing head and neck cancers. Study Design: Case-control study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Oncology, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center, Karachi Pakistan, from Dec 2018 to Jun 2019. Methodology: Three hundred patients, aged 18-85 years of either gender were included in the study. Cases were the patients visiting Oncology OPD with biopsy-proven head and neck cancers (HNCs). Controls were patients presenting at the same hospital for a routine checkup. We interviewed participants by using a pre-designed proforma. Results: The mean age of the cases and controls were reported as 49.26±13.51 years and 40.12±14.89 years, respectively. Majority of the participants were consuming pan (37.0%), gutka (22.6%), tobacco (21.3%), betel nut (19.6%), naswar (12.0%) and mainpuri (9.0%). The participants who consumed tobacco (OR:2.95), gutka (OR:2.39), mainpuri (OR:4.89), pan (OR:2.06) and betel nut (OR:2.28) were times more likely to develop HNCs than those who did not consume tobacco, gutka, mainpuri, pan and betel nut (p<0.05). Among Urdu speaking, the participants who consumed tobacco (OR: 2.49), pan (OR:10.35), and betel nut (OR:3.34), had times more likely to develop HNCs than those who did not consume tobacco, pan and betel nut. Conclusion: Mainpuri, naswar, betel quid, and betel nut significantly affect the oral health of people and are potential risk factors for the development of risk factors.