Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in carcinoma stomach was introduced in an effort to eliminate micro-metastasis and to improve resectablity before surgery which improves R0 resection rates. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on downstaging and resectability rate in locally advanced gastric cancer. Material & Methods: This was a single-center quasi-experimental study conducted in the Department of Surgical Oncology in collaboration with the Departments of Medical Oncology, Radiation oncology, and Pathology at the National Institute of Cancer Research and hospital, Dhaka, which is a tertiary care cancer hospital in Bangladesh, between January 2021 and June 2022.Patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma stomach staged by contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) were randomly included in this study by purposive sampling. Patients in Group I underwent upfront surgery Patients in Group II were started on neoadjuvant chemotherapy, either XELOX or FLOT regimen. Surgery was done following the response assessment CECT. We assessed R0 resection rate, age, sex, comorbidities, tumour size, TNM stage and complications were compared between the two groups. Response to NACT was assessed in Group II. Results: The mean age of patients in groups 1 & 2 was 56 ± 11.06 and 55.70 ± 10.46 years of age respectively (p > 0.05). Majority of the respondents (55/74) were male and 19 patients (26%) were female. Male to female ratio was (24/37 &31/37) in group 1 and (31/37 & 6/37) groups respectively (p > 0.05). Out of 37 patients who received NACT, in 9 patients (24.32%) complete response was noted. Partial response was found in 20 cases (54.05%), p-value (<.0001) while a stable disease was reported in three (8.1%) cases. 5 patients (13.51%) had progressive disease. In the upfront surgery group, R0 resection was feasible in 16 (43.2%) cases, and in the NACT plus surgery group, R0 resection was done in 29 (78.4%) cases. In group 1, R1 resection was done in considerable numbers (19/37) compared to group 2 (5/37), P=0.001. Three patients (8.1%) in group 2 and one (2.7) in group 1 had irresectable lesions. Conclusion: In this study it can be concluded that neoadjuvant chemotherapy could downstage tumour and increase tumor resectability rate in patients with locally-advanced gastric adenocarcinoma. However, further studies are necessary to confirm the effect of this modality on patients’ overall survival. We await survival analysis to further validate the role of NACT.

Background: Cervical cancer is the second leading malignancy and cause of death in Bangladeshi women. Health professional’s misconceptions about the disease and lack of knowledge may worsen the situation. Nurses form a large proportion of the health care provider workforce. Among them who had opportunity to work in cancer hospital should know better about cervical cancer than other hospitals in the country. This survey was undertaken with an intention to address this important health issue by determining the awareness of cervical cancer among nurses at a tertiary cancer centre of Bangladesh. Objective: To provide the baseline information about the knowledge of cervical cancer and explore attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening among staff nurses. Methods: A pretested structured self-administered questionnaire based cross sectional survey was done on 154 staff nurses working in National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH), Dhaka, containing mostly recognition and some recall type questions about knowledge of cervical cancer, its risk factors, screening techniques, attitude towards cervical cancer screening and its practices. Results: 100% respondents heard the name of cervical cancer but 35.7% did not know about any of its risk factors and only 3.2% aware about more than 3 risk factors. Twenty seven percent not aware about any symptom, only 51.9% identified the foul smelling excessive vaginal discharge and irregular abnormal vaginal bleeding as the symptom and 16.8% know that post coital bleeding may be the symptom. Only 42.2% know VIA as a screening test, 39.6% know actual screening interval, 23.37% know who should be screened, 42.2% aware about HPV vaccine, 35.7% can do VIA, 42.2% said that they referred patient for screening but only 16.2% of themselves have ever been screened. Conclusion: The majority of nursing staff in NICRH had inadequate knowledge about cervical cancer screening and their attitude and practice towards cervical cancer screening could not be termed positive. There is an urgent need for orientation course for working nurses and integration of cervical cancer prevention issues in the existing curriculum of nurses in Bangladesh. Bangladesh J Obstet Gynaecol, 2020; Vol. 35(2): 102-106