Background: Many sex workers suffer from mental health problems, but do not seek help.Aim: To examine stigma-related and non stigma-related barriers to care and perceived need for treatment among female sex workers in Switzerland.Methods: Mental health service use, barriers to care, perceived need and presence of illness, symptoms, and psychiatric diagnoses were assessed among 60 female sex workers in Zürich, Switzerland.Outcomes: Mental health service use was defined as use of psychiatric medication, psychotherapy, or substance use services for at least 1 month during the past 6 months.Results: Adjusting for symptom levels, mental health service use was predicted by lower stigma-related, not by structural, barriers as well as by more perceived need for treatment and higher age.Clinical Implications: Sex workers with mental health problems would benefit from non-stigmatizing mental health care as well as from interventions to reduce public and self-stigma associated with mental illness and sex work.Strengths and Limitations: Limitations are the cross-sectional data, limited sample size, and recruitment from an information center for sex workers.Conclusion: Interventions that aim to increase mental health service use among sex workers should take stigma variables into account.
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leg type (PCDLBCL, LT) is an aggressive lymphoma variant. Anthracycline-based chemotherapy with rituximab is recommended as first-line treatment. Radiotherapy (RT) has been considered as a therapeutic option for local disease control in patients with solitary or localized lesions. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We report the results of a retrospective analysis of PCDLBC, LT patients treated either with RT alone or with physician’s decision as first-line treatment, aiming to assess disease progression and/or first recurrence in these treatment groups. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We retrospectively analyzed 20 patients treated either with RT alone (<i>n</i> = 8) or with investigator’s choice treatment (<i>n</i> = 12), which included chemotherapy alone or combined with local therapy (RT and wide local excision). Complete response (CR) was achieved in 8 patients from the first group and 9 patients from the second group, with 1 treatment failure. Six patients treated with RT alone progressed with a median time to progression (TTP) of 12.5 months. In the second group, 5 patients progressed with a median TTP of 5.2 months. RT showed good local disease control in both groups without any skin relapses during the follow-up period. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> RT as first-line monotherapy followed by watchful waiting did not significantly improve the overall risk of disease progression but resulted in good local disease control. After progression, RT could still easily be combined with systemic treatment. The strength of this analysis needs to be evaluated in a larger patient cohort.
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