Background: Women's health has received renewed attention in the last few years including health rehabilitation options for women affected by breast cancer. Dancing has often been regarded as one attractive option for supporting women's well-being and health, but research with women recovering from breast cancer is still in its infancy. Dancing with Health is multi-site pilot study that aimed to evaluate a dance programme for women in recovery from breast cancer across five European countries.Methods: A standardized 32 h dance protocol introduced a range of Latin American dances presented within a sports and exercise framework with influences from dance movement therapy. Fifty-four women (M age 53.51; SD 7.99) participated in the study who had a breast cancer diagnosis <3 years, chemotherapy >6 weeks, no indication of metastasis, or scheduled surgery/chemotherapy/radiation treatment for the duration of the intervention. Primary outcome data was collected for anthropometric and fitness measures next to cancer-related quality of life. T-tests and Wilcoxon signed ranked tests were used to establish differences pre and post intervention. Cohen's d was also calculated to determine the effect size of the intervention.Results: Statistically significant changes were found for: (i) weight, right and left forearm circumference and hip; (ii) 6 min walking, right and left handgrip, sit-to-stand and sit-and-reach; (iii) the EORTC-QLQ C30 summary score as well as the subscales of emotional and social functioning and symptoms. In all cases the direction of change was positive, while Cohen's d calculated showed that the effect of the intervention for these parameters ranged from intermediate to large.Conclusion: Changes on the above anthropometric, fitness and quality of life measures suggest that the intervention was of value to the participating women recovering from breast cancer. Results also advocate collaborative efforts across countries to further research.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of MMP-7 serum levels as biomarkers for brain tumours. This study included 50 patients with meningiomas, other benign tumours, highgrade gliomas, brain metastases and other non-tumour diseases and 41 control individuals. The MMP-7 serum levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We significantly found higher serum levels of MMP-7 in patients with benign brain tumours (2.33 ± 0.37 [SEM] ng/mL, p ¼ 0.006) and brain metastases (2.54 ± 0.33 ng/mL, p ¼ 0.0001) compared to controls (1.48 ± 0.09 ng/mL). Glioblastoma (GBM) patients had serum MMP-7 levels comparable to those of the controls (1.44 ± 0.13 ng/mL, p ¼ 0.901) but significantly lower than those of the patients with benign tumours (p ¼ 0.018) and brain metastases (p ¼ 0.001). In patients with benign tumours, there was a positive correlation with borderline significance between serum MMP-7 levels and leukocyte counts (q ¼ 0.538, p ¼ 0.058). No difference was found (p ¼ 0.448, paired-samples t-test) when comparing the MMP-7 levels in the serum samples obtained at admission and 4-7 days after surgery of some of the patients (n ¼ 7). According to our results, the MMP-7 serum levels might be a useful serum biomarker for benign brain tumours and for brain metastases but not for glioblastoma.

The current study aims to analyze the information on the establishment of the Center for Social Rehabilitation and Integration (CSRI) as a tool for providing social service, integration, and opportunities in improving the quality of life in the community for people with disabilities. Based on the above, strategies and practices around the world on the regulation of standards and the classification, diagnosis and assessment of impairments, health conditions and level of functioning were theoretically examined and analyzed. Additionally, it analyzes the practices in Bulgaria regarding the policy, legal and regulatory frameworks and their implementation as well as the regulation of standards regarding the qualification and competencies of specialists working with people with disabilities. For this study, a survey was conducted to identify the priorities and motivation of people with disabilities attending the CSRI on the one hand, and those of professionals working with them on the other. Respondents were 45 patients, attending the Sofia Municipal Day Care Center for Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities-Slatina and the Medical Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities-Student City. Other group respondents were 30 experts from CSRI-Slatina-rehabilitators, kinesitherapists, ergo-therapists, psychologists, speech therapists, pedagogues, social workers, occupational therapists, family therapists and doctor of different age, age (from 23 to 65 years), the educational degree was also interviewed. One-dimensional and two-dimensional frequency distributions were made by processing the data and inserting them into a statistical analysis program. The CSRI has an extremely important role in the care and adaptation of people with disabilities to the community, but the system for assessing disability is stimulating institutionalization, not socialization. If the assessment methodologies are updated and the attitudes and priorities in the work with people with disabilities are synchronized and adapted to the activities of daily living-improving the quality of social service, the quality of life of people with disabilities will be improved.