Cancer articles in weekly magazines: useful media to deliver cancer information to the public?

OBJECTIVE: Japanese weekly magazines, which have a circulation of over 2 700 000, play important roles in communicating with the public. They offer a wide range of information, entertainment, gossip, politics and economics, and often include articles on cancer. However, cancer articles in magazines have not been systematically analyzed. METHODS: We investigated cancer-related articles and advertisements in six major Japanese weekly magazines to demonstrate trends in public interest regarding cancer. RESULTS: The total number of articles assessed from July 2009 to December 2010 was 36 914, of which 696 (1.9%) were cancer articles. The total number of advertisements was 21 718, of which 340 (1.6%) were related to cancer. The number of cancer articles demonstrated an upward trend during the study period. Articles focused on lung (n = 145) and urogenital cancer (n = 122). The most common content comprised therapies and diagnosis (n = 340) and case reports on individual patients (n = 160). After a famous Japanese comedian revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis, the number of articles on prostate cancer increased from 2.0 to 6.6 per month. Immunotherapy including some dubious folk therapies was the most frequently reported cancer therapy in articles and advertisements (30.4%). A small group of oncologists were repeatedly referred to in comment sources; 35.6% of comments were presented by only five doctors. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer articles in weekly magazines are common paper media for providing cancer information to the public. However, the information provided might place emphasis on unestablished treatments or biased opinions.

Increased financial burden among patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia receiving imatinib in Japan: a retrospective survey.

BACKGROUND: The financial burden of medical expenses has been increasing for cancer patients. We investigated the relationship between household income and financial burden among patients with chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) who have been treated with imatinib. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to 1200 patients between May and August 2009. We retrospectively surveyed their household incomes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, final co-payments after refunds, and the perceived financial burden of their medical expenses in 2000, 2005 and 2008. RESULTS: A total of 577 patients completed the questionnaire. Their median age was 61 years (range, 15-94). A financial burden was felt by 41.2 % (28 of 68) of the patients treated with imatinib in 2000, 70.8 % (201 of 284) in 2005, and 75.8 % (400 of 528) in 2008. Overall, 182 patients (31.7 %) considered its discontinuation because of the financial burden and 15 (2.6 %) temporarily stopped their imatinib prescription. In 2000, 2005 and 2008, the patients' median annual household incomes were 49,615 US Dollars (USD), 38,510 USD and 36,731 USD, respectively, with an average currency exchange rate of 104 Yen/USD in 2008. Their median annual out-of-pocket expenses were 11,548, 12,067 and 11,538 USD and their median final annual co-payments were 4,375, 4,327 and 3,558 USD, respectively. Older patients (OR = 0.96, 95 % CI: 0.95-0.98, p ≪ 0.0001 for 1-year increments), and patients with higher household incomes (OR = 0.92, 95 % CI: 0.85-0.99, p = 0.03 for 10,000 USD-increments) were less likely to have considered discontinuing their imatinib treatment. Conversely, patients with higher annual final co-payments (OR = 2.21, 95 % CI: 1.28-4.28, p = 0.004 for 10,000 USD-increments) were more likely to have considered discontinuing their imatinib treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of CML patients who sensed a financial burden increased between 2000 and 2008. During this period, their annual incomes fell by 13,000 USD, although their medical expenses did not change. Financial support for patients being treated with expensive drugs remains a major problem in Japan.

Chronic graft-versus-host disease following umbilical cord blood transplantation: retrospective survey involving 1072 patients in Japan.

We have little information on chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after cord blood transplantation (CBT). We investigated its clinical features in 1072 Japanese patients with hematologic malignancies who received a transplant through the Japan Cord Blood Bank Network. The primary end point was to investigate the incidence of any chronic GVHD. Median age of the patients was 33 years (range, 0-79 years). The cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD 2 years after transplantation was 28%. Chronic GVHD was fatal in 29 patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that development of chronic GVHD was favorably associated with both overall survival and event-free survival. Multivariate analysis identified risk factors of chronic GVHD: higher patient body weight, higher number of mismatched antigens for GVHD direction, myeloablative preparative regimen, use of mycophenolate mofetil in GVHD prophylaxis, and development of grades II to IV acute GVHD. Although chronic GVHD is a significant problem after CBT, it is associated with improved survival, perhaps due to graft-versus-malignancy effects.

Structural problems of medical news reports in newspapers: a verification of news reports on an incident of mass nosocomial Serratia infection.

It is unclear how changes in the content and number of news reports over time affect the impressions made in the minds of newspaper readers. This study targeted news reports in major newspapers regarding an incident of mass nosocomial Serratia infection that occurred at one clinic. The trends in the total number of articles and total number of characters contained in the articles were congruent, with a peak on the day after the incident was disclosed and a rapid decrease thereafter. The numbers of articles and characters that appeared during the first 3 days corresponded to 45 and 51% of those that appeared during the entire study period. On day 9, it was published that Serratia liquefaciens propagated on medical instruments, and both the number of articles and the number of characters increased by approximately 40% in comparison to those published on the day after the initial report of the incident. The individual articles were deemed to be medically accurate; however, the main problem was that only part of the specific medical issue had been emphasized because of a poor balance in the number of news reports on this topic.

Postmortem examination of the kidney in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients: possible involvement of graft-versus-host disease.

To investigate the association between graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and renal injury after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT), we compared autopsy findings of 26 consecutive allo-SCT recipients with two control groups: patients with hematologic malignancies who received cytotoxic chemotherapy alone (Control 1, n = 21) and those with non-hematologic diseases (Control 2, n = 12). We evaluated the following renal pathology; renal tubulitis, allograft glomerulitis, intimal arteritis, allograft nephropathy, and peritubular capillaritis. These changes were found in 11 allo-SCT recipients and 10 patients in Control 1, but none in Control 2. While overall frequency of renal impairments was similar between allo-SCT recipients and Control 1 (3/26 vs. 1/21), allo-SCT recipients were more likely to have renal tubulitis and peritubular capillaritis compared to Control 1 (5/26 vs. 1/21), but less likely to present with glomerulitis (1/26 vs. 6/21). Grade III-IV acute or extensive-type chronic GVHD were seen in all of the three patients with renal tubulitis and four of the five patients with peritubular capillaritis. Allo-SCT recipients with severe GVHD tended to have tubulitis and peritubular capillaritis. These findings have implications of some renal impairment attributable to GVHD.

Characterization of acute graft-versus-host disease following reduced-intensity stem-cell transplantation from an HLA-identical related donor.

To investigate clinical features of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following reduced intensity stem-cell transplantation (RIST), we retrospectively investigated medical records of 65 patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent RIST from a matched related donor. Preparative regimen comprised fludarabine 30 mg/m(2) (n = 53) or cladribine 0.11 mg/kg (n = 12) for 6 days plus busulfan 4 mg/kg for 2 days. Twelve patients received rabbit antithymocyte globulin 2.5 mg/kg/day for 2-4 consecutive days. Grade II to IV acute GVHD was diagnosed in 36 patients (55%). Its median onset was day 58 (range, 17-109), while it was bimodal, peaking day 15-29 (early-onset GVHD, n = 18) and day 75-89 days (late-onset GVHD, n = 18). Variables that were more common in early-onset GVHD than late-onset GVHD included skin rash (89% vs. 61%) and noninfectious fevers (33% vs. 11%). Desaturation, pulmonary infiltrates and hyperbilirubinemia (>2.0 mg/dL) were more common in late-onset GVHD (6% vs. 22%, 0% vs. 17%, and 6% vs. 33%, respectively). All of the patients with early-onset GVHD given corticosteroid responded to it, while 5 of the 18 patients with late-onset GVHD failed to respond it. Patients with either early-onset or late-onset GVHD tended to have better progression-free survival (PFS) than those without it; however, there was no significant difference in PFS between patients with early-onset GVHD and those with late-onset GVHD. This study suggests that several etiologies might have contributed to the development of acute GVHD following RIST.

Tacrolimus as prophylaxis for acute graft-versus-host disease in reduced intensity cord blood transplantation for adult patients with advanced hematologic diseases.

BACKGROUND: Myeloablative cord blood transplantation (CBT) for adult patients offers a 90% chance of engraftment with a 50% rate of transplant-related mortality, mostly attributable to infection. We have demonstrated the feasibility of reduced-intensity CBT (RI-CBT) for adult patients, in which cyclosporine was used for acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. Transplantation-related mortality (TRM) was 27% within 100 days. Therefore our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of RI-CBT with tacrolimus as GVHD prophylaxis for adult patients with hematologic malignancies. METHODS: Thirty-four patients with a median age of 56.5 years (range; 22-68) with hematologic diseases underwent RI-CBT at Toranomon Hospital between November 2003 and September 2004. Preparative regimen comprised fludarabine 25 mg/m2 on days -7 to -3, melphalan 80 mg/m2 on day -2, and 4 Gy total body irradiation on day -1. GVHD prophylaxis was continuous intravenous infusion of tacrolimus 0.03 mg/kg, starting on day -1. RESULTS: Thirty-one patients achieved neutrophil engraftment at a median of day 20. Median infused total cell dose was 2.4 x 10E7/kg (range; 1.6-4.8). Thirty-two patients achieved complete donor chimerism at day 60. Grade II-IV acute GVHD occurred in 45% of patients, with a median onset of day 26. Primary disease recurred in five patients, and TRM within 100 days was 12%. Estimated 1-year overall survival was 70%. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated the possible improvement in transplant-related mortality by tacrolimus as GVHD prophylaxis in adult RI-CBT recipients.

Successful engraftment of mismatched unrelated cord blood transplantation following reduced intensity preparative regimen using fludarabine and busulfan.

We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of reduced-intensity cord blood transplantation (RI-CBT) using a non-total body irradiation (TBI) regimen in adult patients with advanced hematologic malignancies. Seventeen patients with a median age of 58 years (range, 38-74) underwent RI-CBT at Tsukuba Memorial Hospital between April 2004 and November 2005. Preparative regimens were fludarabine 30 mg/m(2) for 6 days, and busulfan 4 mg/kg for 2 days. Tacrolimus was used for prophylaxis of graft-vs-host disease (GVHD). Median numbers of infused total nucleated were 2.6 x 10(7)/kg (range, 2.0-3.3). HLA disparity was found in 2/6 antigens (n=16) and 1/6 antigens (n=1). Underlying diseases progressed despite preparative regimens in four patients. Of the remaining 13 patients, nine patients achieved engraftment at a median of day 18 (range, 17-28). Six of the nine patients with engraftment achieved complete donor-type chimerism by day 100. Six patients were alive in remission at median follow-up of 13.1 months (range, 1.0-19.0). This study demonstrated the feasibility of RI-CBT using a non-TBI regimen in adults. When disease progression is controlled by the preparative regimen, RI-CBT carries a clinically significant graft-vs-tumor effect. Further studies are required to identify patients who benefit from this regimen.

Prevalence of anemia among healthy women in 2 metropolitan areas of Japan.

Anemia is common among young women, and iron deficiency is one of the leading causes. In Europe and the US, the iron fortification of flour increased oral iron intake and decreased anemia prevalence from 30% to 10%. The National Nutrition Survey in Japan revealed that anemia prevalence among young Japanese women is increasing; however, no nationwide preventive policy has been aimed at iron deficiency anemia. The endpoint of this study was the estimation of anemia prevalence among healthy Japanese woman, based on a large sample size. We collected data from the consecutive check-up examination records of apparently healthy women (n = 13,147). We defined hemoglobin lower than 12 g/dL as anemia, hemoglobin lower than 10 g/dL as severe anemia, and a mean corpuscular volume lower than 80 fl as microcytic anemia. Of the 13,147 persons, anemia was identified in 2331 (17.3 %), and severe and microcytic anemia in 438 (3.3 %) and 700 (5.2 %), respectively. Among women younger than 50 years, anemia was identified in 22.3 %, and 25.2 % of them had severe anemia. In conclusion, the prevalence of anemia and severe anemia among young women is high in Japan. Some action needs to be considered to improve women's quality of life.

Early immune reaction after reduced-intensity cord-blood transplantation for adult patients.

BACKGROUND: To investigate immune reactions after reduced-intensity cord-blood transplantation (RI-CBT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 57 adult RI-CBT recipients. Preparative regimen comprised fludarabine, total-body irradiation, and either melphalan (n=51) or busulfan (n=6). Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis was cyclosporine. PostRI-CBT immune reactions were classified according to time course: pre-engraftment immune reactions (PIR), engraftment syndrome (ES), and GvHD. RESULTS: Forty-five patients achieved engraftment at a median of day 19. PIR was characterized by high-grade fever and weight gain and developed on a median of day 9 in 35 of the 45 evaluable patients, including 3 who did not achieve engraftment. PIR subsided spontaneously in 12 patients, whereas corticosteroids were required in the other 23. ES and grade I to IV acute GvHD developed in 36 and 29 patients, respectively. GvHD could not be distinguished from preceding PIR or ES in 10 patients. Causes of the 32 nonrelapse mortalities included GvHD (n=5) and PIR (n=1). There were no significant differences in relapse and nonrelapse deaths between patients with PIR and those without it (18% vs. 5%, and 60% vs. 65%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Immune reactions after RI-CBT can be categorized into three distinct subtypes.