Patterns-of-care surveys of the American College of Surgeons' Commission on Cancer.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Mettlin.
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Control of cancer through risk reduction and early detection has great potential. Roswell Park Memorial Institute's Prevention-Detection Center addresses a community need for health promotion, disease prevention, and cancer detection as well as providing opportunity for research on the efficacy of such a program. The Prevention-Detection Center offers a range of services including education, genetic counseling, risk assessment, counseling in smoking cessation and other means of risk reduction, and screening for cancer. It is also involved in evaluation of new technologies of cancer detection such as the ultrasonic examination of the breast. A community outreach program is aimed at attracting high-risk populations. In its first eighteen months of operation; the Prevention-Detection Center detected 24 confirmed cancers. The Center is used by approximately 60 persons each week. Interviews with persons using the clinic over a two-week period indicate that most are motivated to attend because a relative has had cancer or because of a belief in the importance of regular checkups. Client satisfaction with the clinic is high. Although many of the activities of the prevention-Detection Center have a research dimension, many of its activities and services are suited to the community ambulatory health care setting.
Of 191 case reports submitted to the National Soft Tissue Sarcoma Registry, 131 qualified for inclusion. Fifty-two percent were males; 80% were whites. Twenty-one different histologies were assigned, with leiomyosarcoma most frequently represented. Localized disease was reported for 29% of patients. Surgery in combination with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy was reported as the treatment for 45% of patients, and surgery only was reported for 31%. These data reflect increasing used of adjuvant therapy in the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma.
The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Short-term Survey of Breast Cancer in 12,315 patients showed that 73% of malignant tumors are found by patients, 23% by physicians, and 4% by mammography. It also indicated that younger women are more likely to discover tumors than older women, and that mammography is more likely to detect small tumors with negative axillary nodes. The effectiveness of mammography is most evident in women 50 to 74 years of age, although in women 45 to 49 years, the frequency of tumors detected by mammography nearly equals that for other groups. In black women, mammography may not be currently fully utilized. Analysis of the survey data would indicate that patients appear to demonstrate adequate skill in detecting tumors, as compared to physicians. A delay in diagnosis of longer than 3 months is associated with larger tumors and increased likelihood of axillary metastasis.
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The relationship between support and short-term recovery from breast surgery was examined retrospectively in 151 female breast cancer patients who were 3-12 months postoperative. Subjects were interviewed regarding the extent to which 3 forms of support (social, professional, financial) were available. Two indices, representing physical recovery and psychological adjustment, were generated. Patient characteristics (age, education, prior health status, and life stress following surgery) and clinical indicators of disease severity (stage, type of mastectomy, adjunct therapy, and time elapsed since surgery) were controlled. Social and professional support were significantly positively related to psychological adjustment. Financial support was significantly positively related to physical recovery. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.
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A variety of studies have shown that diets high in fat, particularly polyunsaturated, have enhanced the production of tumors in animals challenged with chemical carcinogens. Other studies have found an apparent contradiction of no difference in the incidence of breast cancer among women with varying levels of serum cholesterol as measured decades earlier. The present study concerns 2024 breast cancer cases and 1463 control patients without neoplasms or pathology of the reproductive and digestive organs, seen at Roswell Park Memorial Institute from 1958 to 1965. Based upon the assessments of their varying ingestion of fats from their own reports of diets, no difference in risk was found. Similarly, there was no difference in risk of breast cancer associated with ingesting diets containing various levels of either vitamin C or the cruciferous vegetables. Risk for breast cancer in women 55 years of age and older increased somewhat with decreases in ingestion of foods containing vitamin A.
Data from the long- and short-term surveys of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer were examined to evaluate the survival and management of patients with rectal cancer in the United States. Overall, females experienced better survival than males, and white had better survival than blacks. The 5-year survival rates for localized, regional and distant stages of the disease were 76.4, 43.1, and 5.5% respectively. The survival rates in relation to histologic grade of the tumor indicated that the survival experiences of patients with well and moderately differentiated tumors were similar (57% versus 54%) and that patients with poorly differentiated tumors had significantly lower survival (35%). The survival experience of those receiving abdominoperineal resection was similar to those treated by low anterior resection (56% versus 58%). Location of the tumor in the rectum did not affect prognosis.
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Even though behavior can sometimes be changed in a planned way without clear understanding or its original causes, efforts to modify behavior will ultimately be more successful if they grow out of an understanding of causal processes. The literature and experience in communication of health information have identified a number of conditions which affect the likelihood of health education campaigns being effective. Conditions conductive to effective attitude and behavior change through communications are summarized below: (1) Novelty in the way the message is presented to attract attention. (2) Use of multiple channels of communication to increase the probability of reaching the target audience. (3) Pretesting of health messages to ensure that the information is understood by the target audience. (4) Repetition of the message by multiple sources of high credibility. (5) Targeting of specific behaviors to be changed rather than a general orientation. (6) Incorporation of specific behavioral instructions (e.g. tips on how to quit smoking), in the communications. In conclusion, we have attempted to suggest that measured against what prudence science leads us to expect, cancer information and education programs have been dramatically effective. The challenge before us is to evaluate, refine and expand these efforts to reduce cancer incidence and mortality.
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The survey of approved cancer programs done by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons observed a total of 9,468 patients with a diagnosis of in situ squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri. Sixty-four per cent of these patients had been observed for at least nine years. The most commonly used definitive treatment was hysterectomy. Recurrences were observed after hysterectomy, conization and radiation therapy. There were significantly more recurrences in the group treated by conization compared with those treated by hysterectomy. The highest rate of second cancer primary to the vagina, vulva, uterus or ovaries was among patients who received no treatment. The cancer specific, ten year survival rate for those with no treatment was 96.6 per cent, and for those treated by conization or by hysterectomy, the rates were 99.3 and 99.8 per cent, respectively.
The results of a comparative study of a series of 15,132 cases of breast cancer diagnosed in 1972 and a series of 14,577 cases diagnosed in 1977 are presented. Data were collected through surveys of 670 hospitals in the United States conducted by the Commission on Cancer--American College of Surgeons. There has been significant improvement in the stage at which breast cancer is diagnosed in black patients. The proportion of cases diagnosed at the localized stage increased from 38.5% in the 1972 series to 45.2% in 1977. During the same time period, the average size of the tumor in black patients decreased from 4.5 cm to 3.5 cm and the average number of positive axillary nodes decreased from 6.6 to 5.5. Less change in the stage of disease at diagnosis or in the size of the tumor was observed in white patients and no significant change was found in the average number of positive axillary nodes. The average number of axillary nodes examined increased from 14.5 nodes to 16.0 nodes in white patients and from 16.4 to 17.3 in black patients. The proportion of all cases treated by surgery with axillary dissection increased from 79.8% in 1972 to 85.8% in 1977. Recent cases were more likely to be treated with surgery alone. Use of radiotherapy alone or in combination decreased for both races but the use of chemotherapy increased. A marked shift from Halsted radical mastectomy to modified radical mastectomy was evident at every level of age, stage of the disease, and size of tumor, and was observed in hospitals of all sizes. A significant increase in the average number of nodes examined was observed for each surgical procedure involving axillary dissection. No increase was observed in the use of conservative surgery (wedge excision, total mastectomy, or total mastectomy with low axillary dissection).
To determine the auditory toxicity effects of long-term cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum II therapy, pure tone hearing thresholds were measured prior to therapy and repeated before each subsequent treatment. CDDP was given by a slow intravenous drip method at a low dose of 1 mg/kg body weight, with 37.5 gm mannitol, once a week for six treatments and every 3 weeks thereafter. From a group of 173 genitourinary cancer patients treated, 50 male patients were selected who received at least 12 months of CDDP with no active conductive ear pathology, and whose audiograms obtained at baseline, 6th weeks, 26th weeks, and 52nd weeks of treatment were all available for comparison. Pure tone threshold levels deteriorated across time particularly by the 52nd week and at the higher frequencies. Threshold differences across time were statistically significant and within a linear trend. Of the 50 cases, 30% showed suspect or no ototoxicity, 26% mild, 32% moderate, 2% marked, and 4% showed severe ototoxic changes. Of the two cases who developed severe ototoxicity, one showed complete recovery. There was partial recovery in 26% and no recovery in 54%. Individual variability in susceptibility to and recovery from ototoxicity necessitates systematic audiometric monitoring throughout the therapy.
To investigate the possible role of celibate lifestyles in the etiology of prostate cancer, analyses of mortality from cancers of the prostate and other sites among an average annual cohort of 6,226 Roman Catholic clergymen in New York State from 1965 through 1977 were conducted. The death certificates of 1006 (95%) priests were reviewed. Of these 156 deaths were attributable to malignant neoplasms. Clerics experienced mortality ratios of 15% less for all causes of death and 30% less for cancer mortality, given mortality patterns among New York State white males of comparable ages. Twelve deaths from prostatic cancer were observed while 19.8 were expected. This represents a mortality experience significantly less than that of the general noncelibate population. Lower mortality ratios were found also for cancers of the lung, colo-rectum, and stomach. Higher mortality ratios were found for malignant melanoma and unspecified respiratory organs.