Two Hawks with One Arrow: A Review on Bifunctional Scaffolds for Photothermal Therapy and Bone Regeneration.

Despite the significant improvement in the survival rate of cancer patients, the total cure of bone cancer is still a knotty clinical challenge. Traditional surgical resectionof bone tumors is less than satisfactory, which inevitably results in bone defects and the inevitable residual tumor cells. For the purpose of realizing minimal invasiveness and local curative effects, photothermal therapy (PTT) under the irradiation of near-infrared light has made extensive progress in ablating tumors, and various photothermal therapeutic agents (PTAs) for the treatment of bone tumors have thus been reported in the past few years, has and have tended to focus on osteogenic bio-scaffolds modified with PTAs in order to break through the limitation that PTT lacks, osteogenic capacity. These so-called bifunctional scaffolds simultaneously ablate bone tumors and generate new tissues at the bone defects. This review summarizes the recent application progress of various bifunctional scaffolds and puts forward some practical constraints and future perspectives on bifunctional scaffolds for tumor therapy and bone regeneration: two hawks with one arrow.

Menopausal symptoms in breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy and their relationships with health-promoting behaviors and social support.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence and severity of menopausal symptoms in patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant endocrine therapy and explore the relationships of these symptoms with health-promoting behaviors and social support. METHODS: This cross-sectional study investigated 226 participants from December 2020 to December 2021 in China. Data were collected using the sociodemographic information questionnaire, Menopause Rating Scale, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II, and Perceived Social Support Survey. Multivariate step regression was used to analyze the potential factors of menopausal symptoms. RESULTS: In our sample of 226 patients, 92.9% reported at least one menopausal symptom with a mean score of 13 points (interquartile range, 9-18 points). The highest prevalence of most symptoms included hot flashes/night sweats, fatigue, joint and muscular discomfort, irritability, and sleep problems. In the regression models, health responsibility ( ß = -0.15, P = 0.03), spiritual growth ( ß = -0.28, P < 0.01), friend support ( ß = -0.43, P < 0.01), and other support ( ß = -0.31, P = 0.01) were negatively associated with menopausal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence and severity of menopausal symptoms are high in breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant endocrine therapy. Higher health-promoting behaviors and social support are associated with fewer menopausal symptoms. The findings highlight the clinical implications in terms of developing appropriate strategies for managing menopausal symptoms.

Efficient improvement in chemo/photothermal synergistic therapy against lung cancer using Bi@Au nano-acanthospheres.

Novel highly hydrophilic and biocompatible bismuth nanospheres with gold nanoparticles growing outside (Bi@Au nano-acanthospheres, Bi@Au NASs) were synthesized through a simple procedure, which demonstrated to be a promising photothermal agent owing to the ultrahigh photothermal conversion efficiency (η = 46.6 %). The as-prepared Bi@Au NASs showed excellent blood compatibility and fairly low cytotoxicity to human lung cancer A549 cells, as well as efficient photothermal ablation (PTA) therapy induced by a near-infrared laser. Under the 808 nm laser radiation, the tumour temperature could be elevated by ∼25 °C high enough to kill the cancer cells. Moreover, the anticancer drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) was successfully loaded in Bi@Au NASs with a loading content as high as 16.78 % and released under a pH sensitive release profile, a characteristic beneficial for intravenous delivery of DOX into cancer cells for chemotherapy. The presence of the Bi element enabled Bi@Au NASs to act as a favourable computed tomography (CT) contrast medium for CT imaging-guided tumour treatment. Compared with cancer treatment through either photothermal therapy or chemotherapy, the chemo-photothermal synergistic therapy using Bi@Au NASs as both a photothermal agent and a drug carrier has efficiently enhanced the in vitro and in vivo therapeutic effects in cancer treatment.