Proton-Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed in the general population and in cancer patients. A supposed role in the prevention of gastric mucosal damage apparently justify their use in patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy, steroids and radiotherapy on the gastro-duodenal region. They are frequently given also to patients admitted to Intensive Care Units, for the prevention of stress-related gastric ulcers. The evidence about these use of gastroprotection is reviewed. In the majority of the cases the prescription of PPIs is not justified. In two circumstances (chemotherapy and stress-related gastric disease) randomized studies have shown a protective action of PPIs although this effect did not translate into the reduction of serious clinical consequences. PPIs are not free of toxic effects that are acknowledged by an expanding literature. Also the interaction with anticancer drugs is a potential source of unwanted consequences.

Proton Pump Inhibitors in cancer patients: How useful they are? A review of the most common indications for their use.

Virtual Reality in Acute and Chronic Pain Medicine: An Updated Review.

To improve symptoms and reduce poor outcomes related to heart failure (HF), international guidelines recommend cardiac rehabilitation (CR), particularly for those with a reduced ejection fraction. Unfortunately, patient adherence to rehabilitation programs remains suboptimal, with dropouts ranging from 15.4 to 63.3%. An innovative and promising intervention that could improve adherence to rehabilitation is virtual reality (VR). This study aims to evaluate the effects of VR in patients with HF who undergo CR using this technology in terms of adherence (primary outcome), functional capacity, perceived exertion, angina, quality of life, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, maximum oxygen uptake, minute ventilation/carbon dioxide production slope, oxygen pulse, blood values of NT-proBNP and HF related rehospitalization rates (secondary outcomes). A randomized controlled trial will be conducted in a sample of 80 patients referred to CR. Participants will be enrolled in a cardiological rehabilitation unit of a large university hospital in Italy and randomized (1:1) to the experimental intervention consisting of CR performed with high-quality immersive VR with PICO 4® Head Mounted Display headset and TREADMILL XR® software (Arm 1) or standard CR (Arm 2). Patients, according to guidelines, will perform 30-min of CR sessions with moderate intensity, twice a week for one month. Significant improvements in primary and secondary outcomes are expected in patients in the intervention group. If proven to be effective, VR could be an innovative, safe, and easy digital health intervention to improve adherence to CR in patients with HF, as well as important clinical outcomes. 

Improving adherence to rehabilitation for heart failure patients through immersive virtual reality (VIRTUAL-HF): A protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Chemotherapy is the standard initial treatment for patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC), and combination chemotherapy can prolong the lives of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) [1,2]. Despite these developments, most patients develop metastatic disease, and lung cancer remains the leading cause of death from cancer [3]. Over the past five years, a number of new agents with activity against lung cancer have been identified, offering the potential for improved control of this disease. A number of these drugs have novel mechanisms of action. Additionally, the understanding of the pharmacokinetics of ‘older’ agents has expanded, resulting in the more effective use of the available chemotherapeutic drugs. At the same time, we have also learned that many new agents have insufficient antitumor activity against lung cancer to warrant further development. Agents identified between 1988 and 1993 with potential usefulness in lung cancer patients are presented in table 1 and discussed in detail below.

New antineoplastic agents in lung cancer 1988-1993.

Cardiac procedures often induce pain and anxiety in patients, adversely impacting recovery. Pharmachological approaches have limitations, prompting exploration of innovative digital solutions like virtual reality (VR). Although early evidence suggests a potential favourable benefit with VR, it remains unclear whether the implementation of this technology can improve pain and anxiety. We aimed to assess by a systematic review and meta-analysis the effectiveness of VR in alleviating anxiety and pain on patients undergoing cardiac procedures.Our study adhered to the PRISMA method and was registered in PROSPERO under the code CRD42024504563. The search was carried out in the PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases in January 2024. Four randomized controlled trials were included (a total of 382 patients). Risk of bias was employed to assess the quality of individual studies, and a random-effects model was utilized to examine the overall effect.The results showed that VR, when compared to the standard of care, had a statistically significant impact on anxiety (SMD = -0.51, 95 % CI: -0.86 to -0.16, p = 0.004), with a heterogeneity I2 = 57 %. VR did not show a significant difference in terms of pain when compared to standard care (SMD= -0.34, 95 % CI: -0.75 to -0.07, p = 0.10). The included trials exhibited small sample sizes, substantial heterogeneity, and variations in VR technology types, lengths, and frequencies.VR effectively lowers anxiety levels in patients undergoing cardiac procedures, however, did not show a statistically significant difference on pain. 

Effectiveness of virtual reality on pain and anxiety in patients undergoing cardiac procedures: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Platino+vindesine(PV) vs PV+lonidamine(L) in non small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). Preliminary results of a randomized study

Steroids and cytostatic drugs have an undoubtedly damaging action on the gastroduodenal mucosa. The action of pirenzepine was compared with that of the placebo in preventing the gastroduodenal lesions brought on by antiblastic therapy. Sixty patients were separated into two random group under double blind conditions and received 100 mg/die/os of pirenzepine or equivalent placebo for a continuous period of 12 weeks. Antiblastic drugs were administered at the same time. Final endoscopic control and symptomatological findings showed a statistically significant different in favour of the pirenzepine-treated group as early as the 6th week of treatment. No side-effects attributable to pirenzepine were reported.

[Preventive role of pirenzepine in gastric damage during cytostatic therapy. A controlled randomized double-blind study with placebo].

AIM This phase II trial evaluated the biomodulation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) plus folinic acid (FA) with or without ifosfamide (IFO) in chemotherapy-naive patients with colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty-eight patients were randomized to receive: FA (25 mg/m2 iv bolus days 1 to 3), followed by 5-FU (750 mg/m2 iv bolus days 1 to 3), arm A; or FA (25 mg/m2 iv bolus days 1 to 3), followed by 5-FU (750 mg/m2 iv bolus days 1 to 3) plus IFO (2,000 mg/m2 in 1000 mL 5% dextrose in a 2-hr infusion, days 1 to 3), arm B. Mesna was added during and after IFO to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis. Treatment was repeated every 21 days in both arms. RESULTS Forty-five patients were assessable for response: in arm A, 5 patients achieved a partial response (overall response, 25%), and in arm B, 2 patients achieved a complete and 1 a partial response (overall response, 12%). Time to failure was 3.5 months (range, 1-38) in patients treated with 5-FU plus FA, and 3 months (range, 1-21) in patients treated with the IFO combination. The median survival time was 13.5 months (range, 1-49 months) in arm A and 16 months (range, 1-43 months) in arm B. Diarrhea, stomatitis and vomiting were the most common nonhematologic toxicities in both arms. The most notable hematologic toxicity was leukopenia; 15% and 20% of patients experienced grade 4 in arm A and arm B, respectively. CONCLUSIONS IFO does not increase the activity of the 5-FU plus FA combination in advanced colorectal cancer.

5-fluorouracil plus folinic acid with or without ifosfamide in advanced colorectal cancer: a phase II randomized trial.

OBJECTIVES
This study aims to assess the effects of immersive Virtual Reality in people with cancer undergoing antiblastic therapy, on anxiety, fatigue and pain.


DATA SOURCES
This is a randomized controlled three-arm trial. Seventy-four cancer patients were recruited from a regional hospital in Italy, and randomly allocated into three groups: a Virtual Reality group (n=25), a narrative medicine group (n=25) and a standard care group (n=24). The primary outcome was anxiety. Secondary outcomes included fatigue and pain. The outcomes were evaluated immediately before and after the interventions. The findings showed that anxiety decreased more in the Virtual Reality group (Δpre-post = 6.24, 95% CI 2.578 to 9.902, p=.001, d = 0.63) than in the narrative medicine group, whereas it did not change for those in the standard care group. Fatigue decreased in the Virtual Reality group (Δpre-post = 0.576, 95% CI 0.246 to 0.907, p=.001, d = 0.23), while remaining stable in the narrative medicine group, and increasing in the standard care group. Average levels of pain did not change before and after the intervention [F(1,71) = 1.06, p=.307, ηp2 = .015].


CONCLUSION
Findings show that virtual reality is effective to reduce anxiety and fatigue in people with cancer undergoing antiblastic therapy.


IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE
Virtual Reality can be recommended as an complementary intervention to manage anxiety and fatigue in people with cancer during antiblastic therapy.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05629507.

Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality in People with Cancer Undergoing Antiblastic Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

S. Ortu

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Platino+vindesine(PV) vs PV+lonidamine(L) in non small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). Preliminary results of a randomized study

[Preventive role of pirenzepine in gastric damage during cytostatic therapy. A controlled randomized double-blind study with placebo].

5-fluorouracil plus folinic acid with or without ifosfamide in advanced colorectal cancer: a phase II randomized trial.

Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality in People with Cancer Undergoing Antiblastic Therapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.