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Background: Hand-foot syndrome (HFS) is a prevalent skin reaction to cytotoxic systemic therapy, mainly Capecitabine. The present study aimed to determine etiologies of HFS in addition to its prevention in colorectal cancer patients with Capecitabine-containing chemotherapy regimen. Method: In this randomized double-blinded study, we recruited 66 eligible patients. The first 33 patients received 25 mg captopril twice daily, while the other 33 were given two placebo tablets. Results: All the patients were assessable for safety and efficacy. Captopril demonstrated a favorable safety profile. The participants in the two groups did not have any significant differences in terms of the median age and the level of hemoglobin (P = 0.45, P = 0.06, respectively). However, the CEA tumor marker was significantly higher in those with HFS (P < 0.05). The incidence of HFS in men and women were 8 (18.6%) and 3 (13%) cases, respectively, and the patients' sex did not affect the incidence of this syndrome (P = 0.73). Furthermore, according to the stage of colorectal cancer, the difference between the two groups was significant (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, there were no significant differences concerning the grade of colorectal cancer (P = 0.2). Conclusion: The results herein revealed that administration of captopril in colorectal cancer patients with Capecitabine-containing chemotherapy regimen reduced the symptoms and incidence of HFS. On the other hand, CEA tumor marker and the stage of colorectal cancer were in correlation with incidence of HFS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calculating utility values in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients under chemotherapy treatment is important for studies of economic evaluations. The EQ-5D-5L and composite time trade-off (cTTO) were used to calculate utility values in 105 patients with CRC in Iran. The mean EQ-5D-5L index and cTTO values were 0.45 ± 0.03 and 0.51 ± 0.02, respectively. Anxiety and pain were the most common problems reported by the patients. The BetaMix showed that lower mean utility values were significantly associated with females, aging, a low level of income, a greater number of comorbidities, and an advanced stage of cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Understanding the close interaction between the specialties of cardiology and oncology is necessary for early detection of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in cancer patients. For the risk assessment of CVD in Breast and Colorectal Cancers (CIBC) study, in the current study we aimed to validate a questionnaire for the assessment of clinical history in patients with breast cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: We determined the content validity of the questionnaire using the 2 indexes of content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) to examine the specificity, simplicity, clarity, and transparency of the items. Content validity assessment was performed through a panel of experts including 2 oncologists, 5 cardiologists, 2 general practitioners, and 1 epidemiologist. The reliability of the questionnaire was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in 50 patients. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to examine the reproducibility of the questionnaire during 1 week. RESULTS: The CRC and breast cancer questionnaire were designed with 16 and 32 questions, respectively. To obtain acceptable CVR, 5 and 11 questions were removed from the CRC and breast cancer questionnaires, respectively. Cronbach's alpha was 0.70 in the breast cancer questionnaire and 0.94 in the CRC questionnaire. All questions had a CVI of higher than 80%. The ICC in the breast cancer questionnaire ranged between 0.71 and 0.96 and in CRC questionnaire ranged between 0.78 and 0.98. CONCLUSION: The validity and reliability of our newly developed questionnaire was desirable. The reliability of the breast cancer questions was acceptable and that of the CRC questions was excellent. Thus, thus questionnaire can be used in this group of patients regardless of whether the goal is cardiac care or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, cancer is ranked among the top ten causes of death worldwide. Despite the advances made in the field of cancer treatment, 5-year survival rates of various types of cancer are still low due to the recurrence of the disease and/or metastasis. Dissemination of cancer cells, infiltration into the blood vessels, migration to the targeted organs, extravasation, and colonization are the main steps of metastasis. Various factors and signaling pathways are involved in each of these steps. Melatonin (MLT) is a hormone derived from tryptophan and secreted by the pineal gland. This hormone has shown a variety of anti-tumor effects, including anti-oxidative activities, inhibiting the proliferation of tumor cells, inducing apoptosis, and suppressing metastasis. Due to these extensive effects, several studies have been conducted on the applications of MLT in treating different types of cancer. Herein, we review the mechanisms of MLT's effects on the metastasis inhibition of the most lethal types of cancer including the cancer of lung, breast, stomach, kidney, colon, liver, bladder, and pancreas. We discuss how MLT targets different molecules and signaling pathways in each step of the metastasis, such as angiogenesis, remodeling of the extracellular matrix, migration, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]