Effect of Traditional Korean Medicine Oncotherapy on the Survival, Quality of Life, and Telomere Length: A Prospective Cohort Study.

A 4-year prospective cohort study on patients with lung, gastric, hepatic, colorectal, breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer was conducted at the East-West Cancer Center (EWCC) of Daejeon Korean Medicine Hospital in Daejeon, Korea. We divided patients into 2 groups based on how long they had been receiving TKM oncotherapy and compared event-free survival (EFS), telomere length change, and quality of life (QoL). The study collected data on 83 patients from October 2016 to June 2020 and discovered no statistical differences in EFS based on the duration of TKM oncotherapy. In the analysis of changes in QoL outcomes, there were no statistically significant group differences between the groups. After controlling for covariates that could affect telomere length, the long-term TKM oncotherapy group had a higher daily telomere attrition rate. The study of the relationship between telomere length and prognostic factors discovered that patients with advanced N stage at the time of diagnosis and who had previously received radiotherapy had shorter telomere length. When examining associations between SNP genotype and percentile score of telomere length, this study was able to confirm an association between telomere length and rs4387287. This study is significant because it is the first to assess the effects of TKM oncotherapy and investigate telomere length-related factors. To assess the effects of TKM oncotherapy on cancer patients' survival and QoL, a longer-term observational study with a larger sample size is required.

[Sleep disorder experience in older patients with depression].

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify sleep disorder experience in older patients living in the community and acknowledging being depressed. METHODS: For this study, 11 older patients with depression were purposively chosen. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews from July 2013 to January 2014 and analyzed in terms of by Giorgi's phenomenological methodology. RESULTS: The study results showed that sleep disorder experience in older patients with depression consisted of sixteen themes and five themes-clusters: 1) exposure of the causes of sleep disorders; 2) life is painful; 3) harassing themselves and their family; 4) difficulty in controlling themselves; 5) trying to deal with the sleep disorder to overcome the situation. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop educational guidelines for patients with sleep disorders or nursing interventions that anyone can easily provide for elders in the communities. The first priority should be given to efforts to apply diverse methods to improve sleep hygiene and minimize the period of exposure to medication before starting medication for patients with sleep disorders.