Cost-efficacy of currently applied treatments is an issue in overall cancer management challenging healthcare and causing tremendous economic burden to societies around the world. Consequently, complex treatment models presenting concepts of predictive diagnostics followed by targeted prevention and treatments tailored to the personal patient profiles earn global appreciation as benefiting the patient, healthcare economy, and the society at large. In this context, application of flavonoids as a spectrum of compounds and their nano-technologically created derivatives is extensively under consideration, due to their multi-faceted anti-cancer effects applicable to the overall cost-effective cancer management, primary, secondary, and even tertiary prevention. This article analyzes most recently updated data focused on the potent capacity of flavonoids to promote anti-cancer therapeutic effects and interprets all the collected research achievements in the frame-work of predictive, preventive, and personalized (3P) medicine. Main pillars considered are:- Predictable anti-neoplastic, immune-modulating, drug-sensitizing effects;- Targeted molecular pathways to improve therapeutic outcomes by increasing sensitivity of cancer cells and reversing their resistance towards currently applied therapeutic modalities.
Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive, often fatal astrocyte-derived tumor of the central nervous system. Conventional medical and surgical interventions have greatly improved survival rates; however, tumor heterogeneity, invasiveness, and chemotherapeutic resistance continue to pose clinical challenges. As such, dietary natural substances—an integral component of the lifestyle medicine approach to chronic diseases—are examined as potential chemotherapeutic agents. These heterogenous substances exert anti-GBM effects by upregulating apoptosis and autophagy, inducing cell cycle arrest, interfering with tumor metabolism, and inhibiting proliferation, neuroinflammation, chemoresistance, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Although these beneficial effects are promising, natural substances’ efficacy in GBM is constrained by their bioavailability and blood–brain barrier permeability; various chemical formulations are proposed to improve their pharmacological properties. Many of the reviewed substances are available as over-the-counter dietary supplements, underscoring their viability as lifestyle interventions. However, clinical trials remain necessary to substantiate the in vitro and in vivo properties of natural substances.
Purpose: This study aimed to assess the potential of flavonoids in combating CIPN. Methods: PubMed and Google Scholar were used, and studies that investigated flavonoids in models of CIPN and models of neuropathic pain similar to CIPN were included. Only studies investigating peripheral mechanisms of CIPN were used. Results: Flavonoids inhibit several essential mechanisms of CIPN, such as proinflammatory cytokine release, astrocyte and microglial activation, oxidative stress, neuronal damage and apoptosis, mitochondrial damage, ectopic discharge, and ion channel activation. They decreased the severity of certain CIPN symptoms, such as thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical, tactile, and cold allodynia. Conclusions: Flavonoids hold immense promise in treating CIPN; thus, future research should investigate their effects in humans. Specifically, precise pharmacological mechanisms and side effects need to be elucidated in human models before clinical benefits can be achieved.
Purpose: To determine the importance of patient satisfaction as a tool for quality improvement. Study Design: Cross sectional survey. Place and Duration of Study: Pediatric Ophthalmology Department of Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, Rawalpindi, from May 2017 to September 2017. Methods: This study included 500 individuals, who were caregivers of children visiting the hospital at the time of data collection. Individuals who visited departments other than pediatric department were excluded. Two groups were made. Group 1 included 300 individuals who were interviewed for to assess the patient satisfaction. On the basis of response, play area was made spacious, additional registration counters were placed and more reception staff members were hired to shorten the waiting and registration time, additional fans were installed in the waiting area and patient information was displayed on TV screens to aid uneducated patients and their attendants. Second group with 200 individuals were interviewed after these improvements. Pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect data regarding socio-demographic characteristics and experience of visit to the hospital. SPSS version 20 was used for descriptive and inferential data analysis. Results: Participants in this survey showed high level of satisfaction after interventions 45 to 65%.There was statistically significant association between satisfaction level and improvement in services was found (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Satisfaction level of patients depends upon the quality of services and medical care provided and it can be used as a good tool for improving the services in the hospitals. Key Words: Satisfaction, Outpatient department, Hospital.
The risks related to the COVID-19 are multi-faceted including but by far not restricted to the following: direct health risks by poorly understood effects of COVID-19 infection, overloaded capacities of healthcare units, restricted and slowed down care of patients with non-communicable disorders such as cancer, neurologic and cardiovascular pathologies, among others; social risks—restricted and broken social contacts, isolation, professional disruption, explosion of aggression in the society, violence in the familial environment; mental risks—loneliness, helplessness, defenceless, depressions; and economic risks—slowed down industrial productivity, broken delivery chains, unemployment, bankrupted SMEs, inflation, decreased capacity of the state to perform socially important programs and to support socio-economically weak subgroups in the population. Directly or indirectly, the above listed risks will get reflected in a healthcare occupation and workload which is a tremendous long-term challenge for the healthcare capacity and robustness. The article does not pretend to provide solutions for all kind of health risks. However, it aims to present the scientific evidence of great clinical utility for primary, secondary, and tertiary care to protect affected individuals in a cost-effective manner. To this end, due to pronounced antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties, naturally occurring plant substances are capable to protect affected individuals against COVID-19-associated life-threatening complications such as lung damage. Furthermore, they can be highly effective, if being applied to secondary and tertiary care of noncommunicable diseases under pandemic condition. Thus, the stratification of patients evaluating specific health conditions such as sleep quality, periodontitis, smoking, chronic inflammation and diseases, metabolic disorders and obesity, vascular dysfunction, and cancers would enable effective managemenet of COVID-19-associated complications in primary, secondary, and tertiary care in the context of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (3PM).
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