ONS Connect - December 2008 - (Page 9) which could be especially beneficial for chemotherapy. The electrical signal is activated using radio signals or other techniques that have already been developed for other biomedical devices. The team is now working on loading the films with different cancer drugs. The researchers hope that the devices eventually could be designed to automatically deliver drugs after sensing that they’re needed (e.g., delivering chemotherapy if they sense that a tumor has begun to grow). Nam, K.T., Wartena, R., Yoo, P.J., Liau, F.W., Lee, Y.J., Chiang, Y.M., et al. (2008). Stamped microbattery electrodes based on self-assembled M13 viruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(45), 17227–17231. Drug May preserve fertility During Chemotherapy new study suggests that a drug treatment that stops a woman’s periods may protect against the effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy works by targeting fast-dividing tumor cells. Reproductive system cells, which also divide rapidly, can also be damaged, potentially compromising a patient’s fertility. At a recent fertility conference, researchers reported on using a drug to stop rapid reproductive cell division and thereby preventing the cells from being damaged during treatment. The team used a drug called GnRHa to stop the process of egg release and periods, effectively creating a temporary menopause. The drug blocks the messaging system that directs ovulation and menstruation. The researchers looked at 80 patients with breast cancer. Half were given the drug treatment with their chemotherapy, A whereas the others were not. Three to eight months after their cancer treatment was completed, 90% of the women in the drug treatment group saw their periods restart and 69% were ovulating again. In comparison, only a third of the chemotherapy-only group had their periods restart and 25% were ovulating. Badawy, A., Elnashar, A., El-Ashry, M., & Shabat, M. (2008). Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists for prevention of chemotherapy-induced ovarian damage: Prospective randomized study. Fertility and Sterility. Epub ahead of print. writing May Ease Stress of Cancer E ncouraging patients with cancer to write down their fears about the disease may improve their quality of life, according to a new study. Researchers approached 71 patients waiting in a clinic at a cancer center to take part in an expressive writing exercise lasting 20 minutes. The exercise posed questions to patients with leukemia or lymphoma about how the cancer had changed them and how they felt about those changes. The participants completed a baseline assessment, the 20-minute writing task, post-writing assessment, and a three-week follow-up (88% completed the writing task, and 56% completed the follow-up). When those taking part were contacted again a few weeks later, 49% said that the writing had changed their thoughts about their illness, whereas 38% said that their feelings toward their situation had changed. Reports of changes in thoughts about illness immediately after writing were significantly associated with better physical quality of life at follow-up, controlling for baseline quality of life. Morgan, N.P., Graves, K.D., Poggi, E.A., & Cheson, B.D. (2008). Implementing an expressive writing study in a cancer clinic. Oncologist, 13(2), 196–204. Contributing Editor Deborah McBride, RN, MSN, CPON®, is a nurse at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center and a faculty member at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, CA. December 2008 ONS CONNECT 9
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