Lung cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide, with most patients suffering from an advanced unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The mortality trends are mostly related to patterns of tobacco use, specifically from cigarettes. Tobacco is the basic etiological agent found as a consequence of the inhalation of tobacco smoke. Published data show the use of interferons (IFNs) in the treatment of lung tumours due to their potential in displaying antiproliferative, anti-angiogenic, immunoregulatory, and proapoptotic effects. Type1 IFNs have been employed as treatments for many types of cancer, both for haematological cancers and solid tumours. The IFN-γ (naked) functions as an anticancer agent against various forms of cancer. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the genoprotective and genotoxic effects of IFN-γ liposome (nano) on 42 blood samples from lung cancer patients, compared to the same sample size from healthy individuals. The effectiveness of IFN- γ liposome against oxidative stress was also evaluated in this study. A concentration of 100U/ml of IFN-γ liposome was used to treat the lymphocytes in: Comet and micronucleus assays, Comet repair, Western blotting and real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) were based on a preliminary test for the optimal dose. The lymphocytes from lung cancer patients presented with higher DNA damage levels than those of healthy individuals. IFN-γ liposome was not found to induce any DNA damage in the lymphocytes. Also, it caused a significant reduction in DNA damage in the lymphocytes from lung cancer patients in; Comet, Comet repair and micronucleus assays. Furthermore, the 100U/ml of IFN-γ liposome significantly reduced the oxidative stress caused by H2O2 and appeared to be effective in both groups using the Comet and micronucleus assays. Results from; Comet, Comet repair and micronucleus assays were consistent. The data obtained indicated that IFN-γ in both forms (naked INF-γ and INF-γ nano-liposome) may potentially be effective for the treatment of lung cancer and showed the ability of IFN-γ liposome to reduce the DNA damage more than the naked form. The IFN-γ in both forms has also shown anti-cancer potential in the lymphocytes from lung cancer patients by regulating the expression of p53, p21, Bcl-2 at mRNA and protein levels by up-regulating the p53 and p21 to mediate cell cycle arrest and DNA repair in lung cancer patients. The findings of this study are consistent with the view that the naked IFN-γ and liposome could have a significant role in cancer treatment, including lung cancer. / Mutah University in Jordan

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Bakgrund: Runt 429 000 barn drabbas årligen av cancer världen över. Att leva med cancer och genomgå behandlingar är en svår utmaning för barn och närstående. Coping är ett verktyg som hjälper individer möta påfrestande situationer. Många studier belyser copingstrategier använda av föräldrar och andra personer nära cancerdrabbade barn, men underlaget är inte lika stort gällande barns egna beskrivningar av sin coping. Av denna anledning är det väsentligt att identifiera använda copingstrategier ur barns perspektiv. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att beskriva vilka copingstrategier barn med cancer använder sig av för att hantera sjukdomen och dess behandling. Metod: Studien är en beskrivande litteraturstudie. Databassökningen genomfördes i PubMed. Sökningen resulterade i tio artiklar där åtta var kvalitativa, en var kvalitativ med mixad metod och en var kvantitativ. Framkomna data analyserades genom tematisk dataanalys. Huvudresultat: Barn med cancer använde olika copingstrategier som kategoriseras som problemfokuserade, emotionsfokuserade och meningsskapande copingstrategier. Till problemfokuserade copingstrategier hörde ”Symtomlindring och underlättande av behandling”, ”Information, kunskap och insikt” samt ”Anpassning och bibehållande av en normal vardag”. I emotionsfokuserade copingstrategier återfanns ”Stöd och känslohantering”, ”Distrahering och undvikande” samt ”Acceptans, motivation och framtidshopp”. Meningsskapande copingstrategier var ”Positiv omvärdering” och ”Personlig utveckling och att se sjukdomen som en utmaning”. Slutsats: Barn med cancer använder olika copingstrategier för att hantera sin sjukdom och dess behandling. Strategierna tillämpas växelvis beroende på situation och syftet med användningen av vald copingstrategi är individuell. Genom ökad kännedom kring ämnet kan cancerdrabbade barn erbjudas personcentrerad vård och lämpligt stöd. / Background: About 429 000 children are annually affected by cancer worldwide. Living with cancer and undergoing treatment is a difficult challenge for children and close relatives. Coping is a tool that helps individuals face stressful situations. Many studies shed light on coping strategies used by parents and other people close to children affected by cancer, but the basis is not as extensive regarding children's own descriptions of their coping. For this reason, it is essential to identify used coping strategies from children's perspective. Aim: The purpose of the literature study was to describe which coping strategies children with cancer use to manage the disease and its treatment. Method: The study is a descriptive literature study. The database search was conducted in PubMed. The search resulted in ten articles, eight of which were qualitative, one was qualitative with a mixed method and one was quantitative. The data were analyzed through thematic data analysis. Main results: Children with cancer used different coping strategies categorized as problem-focused, emotion-focused and meaning-making coping strategies. Problem-focused coping strategies included “Symptom relief and facilitation of treatment”, “Information, knowledge and insight” and “Adaptation and maintaining a normal everyday life”. In emotion-focused coping the strategies found were “Support and emotion management”, “Distraction and avoidance” and “Acceptance, motivation and hope for the future”. Meaning-focused coping strategies were “Positive reappraisal” and “Personal development and seeing the disease as a challenge”. Conclusion: Children with cancer use different coping strategies to deal with their illness and its treatment. The strategies are applied alternately depending on the situation and the purpose of using the chosen coping strategy is individual. Through increased awareness of the subject, children affected by cancer can be offered person-centred care and appropriate support.

This document reviews qualitative assessments used to explore the impact on art therapy interventions with patients in cancer treatment. The study explored the use of qualitative assessment in evaluating patient perspective on receiving art therapy adjunctly with cancer treatment. In addition, the research aimed to determine if art therapy interventions are perceived as effective in helping cancer patients reduce stress, cope, improve quality of life, express emotions, and reduce cancer-related symptoms during and after cancer treatment through qualitative assessment. Approximately 300 cancer patient experiences were reviewed through surveying qualitative studies that explored the effects of art making in cancer treatment through qualitative assessment such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, and open-ended questions. This archival research used a thematic approach to identify emergent themes in format, administration techniques, and impact in qualitative assessments to learn about the patient art therapy experience. The emergent themes were discovered while surveying information regarding types of formats and administration procedures used in qualitative cancer research. These findings suggest that qualitative assessments used in art therapy programs are a useful tool to determine how art interventions may help address patient's psychosocial needs, provide coping skills, and relieve cancer–related symptoms.

In 1867, Dr. Wilhelm Busch decisively exposed a cancer patient to erysipelas and notedtumor regression. The practice of inoculating tumors with bacteria became more widespread with the work of Dr. William Coley, beginning in 1891, who inoculated inoperable tumors and observed complete regressions though at times notable toxicity. These microbial manipulations of immunity now form the roots of cancer immunotherapy in modern history. Alongside the blossoming of cancer immunology since, the development of techniques to alter biological systems has given rise to synthetic biology. Together, these fields allow the programming of biological systems to precisely guide the cancer-immune interplay. As mammalian immunity targets bacterially-derived antigens due to the immunostimulatory nature of microbes, and tumors express various antigens, synthetic alteration of microbes to function as safe and effective anti-tumor vaccines is a natural proposition. In this work, I describe my development of such a microbial system comprised of a synthetic tumor-antigen construct optimized for expression in bacteria, the immunotoxin Listerolysin O, and a genetically edited probiotic E. coli chassis with multi-functional protease deletions. This platform encodes and delivers high levels of diverse tumor antigens sets, remodels the tumor microenvironment, and stimulates productive and durable anti-tumor immunity to control and eliminate primary and metastatic tumors. We show that this system induces tumor antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, activates NK cells, recruits and activates dendritic cells, and reduces immunosuppressive regulatory T cells, B cells, and myeloid cells within the tumor microenvironment. This work thus establishes a new class of anti-tumor vaccine which modulates all arms of immunity to achieve robust anti-tumor efficacy.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2009

The purpose of the research was to explore the challenges faced by both employer and employee when the later undergoes active cancer treatment from a systemic perspective. A qualitative research was conducted using a case study of six sessions with both employer and employee. The study revealed that the employer and employee defined their relationship and boundaries as a system. The research project made a great impact on the researchers’ map regarding cancer or any other symptom, the person with cancer and the employer. In the researcher’s old map, before the research project, cancer implied a very threatening disease which rendered both the employer and the employee helpless and powerless. Through the research project the researcher discovered the significance of not having preconceived ideas as according to this study both the employer and employee had the freedom to punctuate their challenges in relation to the latter undergoing active treatment. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Science (Mental Health))

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have recently attracted considerable interest for use in radiation therapy due to their unique physical and biological properties. Of interest, GNPs (and other high-atomic-number materials) have been used to enhance radiation dose in tumors by taking advantage of increased photoelectric absorption. This physical phenomenon is well-understood on a macroscopic scale. However, biological outcomes often depend on the intratumoral and even intracellular distribution of GNPs, among other factors. Therefore, there exists a need to precisely visualize and accurately quantify GNP distributions. By virtue of the photoelectric effect, x-ray fluorescence (XRF) photons (characteristic x-rays) from gold can be induced and detected, not only allowing the distribution of GNPs within biological samples to be determined but also providing a unique molecular imaging option in conjunction with bioconjugated GNPs. This work proposes the use of this imaging modality, known as XRF imaging, to develop experimental imaging techniques for detecting and quantifying sparse distributions of GNPs in preclinical settings, such as within small-animal-sized objects, tissue samples, and superficial tumors. By imaging realistic GNP distributions, computational methods can then be used to understand radiation dose enhancement on an intratumoral scale and perhaps even down to the nanoscopic, subcellular realm, elucidating observed biological outcomes (e.g., radiosensitization of tumors) from the bottom-up. Ultimately, this work will result in experimental and computational tools for developing a better understanding of GNP-mediated dose enhancement and associated radiosensitization within the scope of GNP-aided radiation therapy.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis provides the first scientific evidence on the cancer modulating properties of two unique South African herbal teas, rooibos (Aspalathus Iinearis) and honeybush (Cyclopia intermedia) utilizing in vitro as well as in vivo carcinogenesis assays by: • Demonstrating the in vitro antimutagenic activity of aqueous extracts of the herbal teas against the metabolic activated mutagens, 2-acetylaminofluorene (2- AAF) and the mycotoxin, aflatoxin B1 (AFB,) as well as, to a certain extent, against the direct acting mutagen, hydrogen peroxide, utilizing the Salmonella typhimurium mutagenicity assay. • Increasing the activity of hepatic drug metabolizing enzymes, glutathione Stransferase alpha and UPD-glucuronosyl transferase, and reduced the oxidative stress by stabilizing the level of reduced glutathione (GSH) resulting in an increased hepatic reduced to oxidized glutathione ratio (GSG:GSSG). No toxic effects were noticed in rats consuming the herbal teas for 10 weeks as their sole source of drinking fluid. • Demonstrating the ex vivo modulation of 2-AAF- and AFB1-induced mutagenesis by sub- cellular hepatic fractions of rats consuming the herbal teas in the Salmonella mutagenicity assay. Hepatic cytosolic fractions protected against mutagenesis of both mutagens, while the microsomal fractions exhibited a reduced capacity to metabolize AFB1 to its active mutagenic metabolite. • Providing evidence for the in vivo modulation of tumour promotion using the liver as well as the two-stage skin carcinogenesis animal models. The unprocessed herbal teas arrested proliferation of the placental form of glutathione-Stransferase (GSTP+) altered cells as well as reduced the total number of enzyme altered foci in the liver of rats. Topical application of polyphenolic fractions of the various herbal teas prior to 12-0-tetra-decanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) tumour promotion, reduced tumour formation in mouse skin initiated with 7,12-dimethylbenz[ ajanthracene (DMBA). The protective effect was illustrated by a decreased tumour incidence, a reduction in tumour volume as well as a delayed onset of tumour development. The f1avanol/proanthocyanidin content of the fractions could playa major role in the protection against skin tumour promotion. • Proposing possible mechanisms whereby rooibos and honeybush herbal teas could exert their cancer modulating properties with respect to in vitro and ex vivo antimutagenicity, in vivo oxidative status and reduced tumour promotion. • Providing evidence that the herbal teas mimic the cancer modulating properties of green and black teas although differences exist, presumably due to differences in the polyphenolic constituents. • Suggesting that rooibos and honeybush herbal teas may play an important role as chemopreventive agents in the modulation of cancer. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bevat die eerste ondersoek na die effek van waterige en polifenoliese ekstrakte van rooibos (Aspalathus Iinearis) en heuningbos (Cyclopia intermedia) op verskeie aspekte van kankerontwikkeling. Die twee kruietees is uniek aan Suid-Afrika en kan 'n belangrike rol speel in die voorkoming van kanker. Verskillende in vitro so wei as in vivo studies het die volgende getoon: • Antimutageniese aktiwiteite teen die metabolies-geaktiveerde mutagene, 2- asetielaminofluoreen (2-AAF) en die mikotoksien, aflatoksien B1 (AFB1) in die Salmonella fyphimurium mutagenisiteitstoets. 'n Beperkte mate van beskerming is ook verleen teen die oksidatiewe mutageen, waterstofperoksied, sonder metaboliese aktivering. • Verhoogde aktiwiteite van die fase II ensieme, glutatioon S-tranferase alfa en UDP-glukuronidase, wat liggaamsvreemde verbindings metaboliseer. Die kruietees verlaag die oksidasietoestand soos weerspieel word deur 'n toename van gereduseerde glutatioon tot die geoksideerde vorm in die lewer van rotte wat 10 weke hierdie kruietees gedrink he!. Die kruietees het geen toksiese uitwerking op die rotte gehad nie. • Antimutageniese aktiwiteite van subselluiE~re fraksies van die lewer teenoor 2- AAF en AFB1 in die Salmonella toets. Die sitosolfraksie van die rotlewer bied beskerming teen die ge"induseerde mutagenese van beide mutagene, terwyl die mikrosomale fraksie ook die metaboliese aktivering van AFB1 na die aktiewe mutageniese metaboliet verminder. • In vivo modulering van kankerpromosie met behulp van bekende rotlewer en muisvel kankerontwikkelingsmodelle. In die lewermodel het die ongeprosesseerde kruietees beide die ontwikkeling en getal van GSTP+ fokusse onderskeidelik vertraag en verminder. In die geval van die velkankermodel het aanwending van polifenoliese fraksies van die kruietees beskerming gebied teen die ontwikkeling van velkankers by muise. Die aantal en grootte van die tumors het afgeneem terwyl die verskyning daarvan ook vertraag is. • Verskeie meganismes waardeur rooibos- en heuningboslee moonllik kanker kan moduleer word voorgeslel. Verskille in die polifenoliese sameslelling asook hul onderskeie konsenlrasies kan 'n belangrike rol speel in die kankerveranderende effekle van die lees. • Oal gereelde inname van rooibos- en/of heuningboslee moonllik 'n belangrike rol kan speel in die voorkoming van dieel- en omgewings-geYnduseerde kankers.

The purpose of the research was to explore the challenges faced by both employer and employee when the later undergoes active cancer treatment from a systemic perspective. A qualitative research was conducted using a case study of six sessions with both employer and employee. The study revealed that the employer and employee defined their relationship and boundaries as a system. The research project made a great impact on the researchers’ map regarding cancer or any other symptom, the person with cancer and the employer. In the researcher’s old map, before the research project, cancer implied a very threatening disease which rendered both the employer and the employee helpless and powerless. Through the research project the researcher discovered the significance of not having preconceived ideas as according to this study both the employer and employee had the freedom to punctuate their challenges in relation to the latter undergoing active treatment. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Science (Mental Health))