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Frontiers in Psychology 2023Social support-seeking is considered to be an effective way for international students to cope with their acculturative stress and contribute to cross-cultural...
INTRODUCTION
Social support-seeking is considered to be an effective way for international students to cope with their acculturative stress and contribute to cross-cultural adaptation. In addition to support from people in the host country (close support), the ease of online communication now allows international students to receive additional support from people back in their home country (distant support). However, little research has investigated whether distant support works as effectively as close support. In two studies, we examined the differential effect of distant and close support-seeking on the psychological adaptation of Chinese international students in the host country and how acculturation orientations relate to the use of these two types of support.
METHODS
Chinese international students in Japan (Study 1; = 172) and the United States (Study 2; = 118) completed an online survey that assessed participants' host/home culture orientation, distant emotional/instrumental support-seeking, close emotional/instrumental support-seeking, and psychological adaptation.
RESULTS
Results showed that distant emotional support-seeking negatively predicted psychological adaptation in the host country. Nevertheless, distant emotional support-seeking alleviated feelings of loneliness in Chinese international students as close emotional support-seeking did (Study 2). Also, the results showed that international students with higher home-culture orientation sought more distant support, whereas those with higher host-culture orientation sought more close support. Further, Chinese-culture orientation increased distant emotional support-seeking, decreasing psychological adaptation as well as loneliness.
DISCUSSION
These findings highlight the importance of considering the source and types of support when discussing the implications of social support for the cross-cultural adaptation of international students.
PubMed: 37063582
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1133487 -
International Journal of Gynaecology... Apr 2020To evaluate the prognosis of women with distant metastasis at the time of endometrial cancer (EC) diagnosis and identify prognostic factors according to metastatic site.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the prognosis of women with distant metastasis at the time of endometrial cancer (EC) diagnosis and identify prognostic factors according to metastatic site.
METHODS
A retrospective cohort study of women diagnosed with EC according to the SEER database between 2010 and 2014. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression was used to identify variables associated with overall survival. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to compare survival among different groups.
RESULTS
Overall, 2948 women with stage IV EC were identified. The most common distant metastatic site was the lung. Having a distant metastatic site independently predicted overall survival. Using brain metastasis as a reference, overall survival was longer for liver (P=0.049), lung (P=0.005), and bone (P=0.019) metastasis. Relative to no distant metastasis, overall survival was shorter for women with one (P<0.001) or two or more (P<0.001) sites of distant metastasis. Overall survival was independently influenced by tumor grade, insurance status, and surgery among women with only lung metastasis.
CONCLUSION
The findings showed that the prognosis of women with stage IV EC differs by distant metastatic site, and identified several predictors of poor survival. They may help clinicians to better predict prognosis for newly diagnosed cases of EC with distant metastasis.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Bone Neoplasms; Brain Neoplasms; Disease-Free Survival; Endometrial Neoplasms; Female; Humans; Liver Neoplasms; Lung Neoplasms; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Staging; Proportional Hazards Models; Retrospective Studies; SEER Program
PubMed: 31833058
DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.13084 -
Oncology 2015There is limited information regarding risk factors for distant recurrence in patients with late ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR).
OBJECTIVES
There is limited information regarding risk factors for distant recurrence in patients with late ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR).
METHODS
Late IBTR was defined as IBTR occurring >5 years after the initial surgery. Seventy-eight patients with late IBTR were reviewed to examine the risk factors of distant recurrence.
RESULTS
The negative estrogen receptor and positive HER2 statuses of IBTR were significantly correlated with poorer distant disease-free survival (p=0.03 and 0.02, respectively). Multivariate analyses demonstrated that the HER2 status of IBTR was an independent predictive factor of distant recurrence (p=0.04).
CONCLUSIONS
The results of our retrospective, single-institution study revealed that the HER2 status of IBTR was an independent predictive factor of distant recurrence in patients with late IBTR.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Breast Neoplasms; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Humans; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; Receptor, ErbB-2; Receptors, Estrogen; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors
PubMed: 26484529
DOI: 10.1159/000437440 -
Alternative Therapies in Health and... Nov 1997The term "distant healing" describes any purely mental effort undertaken by one person with the intention to improve physical or emotional well-being in another. Various...
The term "distant healing" describes any purely mental effort undertaken by one person with the intention to improve physical or emotional well-being in another. Various forms of distant healing including prayer and "psychic healing" are widely used throughout the United States and other parts of the world. There currently exist numerous, well-controlled experimental trials demonstrating distant mental effects on humans, animals, and other biological systems. At this time, however, insufficient formal research trials have been completed to definitively determine whether such activities do in fact have a clinical impact independent of psychological effects. The key in studying the concept of distant healing is separating the putative distant effect from changes that may be due to causes such as hope, expectation, relaxation, or other participation activities. This review discusses some of the most compelling evidence for a genuine distant healing effect and identifies correctable methodological issues that frequently confound research in this area.
Topics: Complementary Therapies; Humans; Mental Healing; Religion; Religion and Medicine
PubMed: 9375432
DOI: No ID Found -
Frontiers in Oncology 2020Distant metastasis is among the main reasons for treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. To identify patients with a high risk of distant...
Distant metastasis is among the main reasons for treatment failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. To identify patients with a high risk of distant metastasis is important to guide posttreatment surveillance, appropriate time treatments, and prolonging their long-term survival. In this study, we systematically examined the associations between a series of nodal-related characteristics and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) by detailed MRI reading and established a nomogram for DMFS in NPC patients. T-stage, age group, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) level, central nodal necrosis, and nodal number were identified as independent risk factors for distant metastasis and were included into the final nomogram. The calibration plot showed a high agreement between the prediction by the nomogram and actual observations. Our established nomogram achieved a high C-index in predicting distant metastasis in both of the training cohort (0.737) and the validation cohort (0.718). This nomogram incorporated several readily available nodal features from the MR images, and it might be useful for guiding clinical decision and NPC patients' posttreatment surveillance. It also provides cues for how to redefine N-stage. Additional research is needed to confirm our conclusions.
PubMed: 32547935
DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2020.00616 -
Endocrine-related Cancer May 2020Major clinical challenges exist with differentiated thyroid cancers with distant metastases or rare but aggressive types, such as poorly differentiated thyroid...
Major clinical challenges exist with differentiated thyroid cancers with distant metastases or rare but aggressive types, such as poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas and anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. The precise characterization of the mutational profile in these advanced thyroid cancers is crucial. Samples were collected from primary tumors and distant metastases of 64 patients with distant metastases from differentiated thyroid cancer, poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma, or anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Targeted next-generation sequencing was performed with 50 known thyroid-cancer-related genes. Of the 82 tissues, 63 were from primary tumors and 19 from distant metastases. The most prevalent mutation observed from the primary tumors was TERT promoter mutation (56%), followed by BRAF (41%) and RAS (24%) mutations. TP3 was altered by 11%. Mutations in histone methyltransferases, SWI/SNF subunit-related genes, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway-related genes were present in 42%, 12%, and 22%, respectively. When the mutational status was analyzed in 15 matched pairs of thyroid tumors and their matched distant metastases and one pair of distant metastases with two distinct sites, the concordance was high. A similar frequency of mutations in TERT promoter (58%) and BRAF (42%) as well as histone methyltransferases (37%), SWI/SNF subunits (10%), and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway (26%) were noted. The same main, early and late mutations were practically always present in individual primary tumor-metastasis pairs. Enrichment of TERT promoter, BRAF, and RAS mutations were detected in highly advanced thyroid cancers with distant metastasis. The genetic profiles of primary thyroid tumors and their corresponding distant metastases showed a high concordance.
Topics: Female; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Metastasis; Thyroid Gland
PubMed: 32163911
DOI: 10.1530/ERC-19-0452 -
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Jan 2019After experiencing a distant recurrence, breast cancer patients have a poor prognosis; fewer than 5% survive for ten or more years. However, the time to death is highly...
BACKGROUND
After experiencing a distant recurrence, breast cancer patients have a poor prognosis; fewer than 5% survive for ten or more years. However, the time to death is highly variable, ranging from a few months to many years. The purpose of this study is to identify, in a large hospital-based series of patients with early-stage breast cancer, factors which predict survival after distant recurrence.
METHODS
We studied a cohort of 2312 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at Women's College Hospital between 1987 and 2000 (stages I-III). For each patient, we abstracted information on age at diagnosis, the initial presentation of the cancer (tumour size, lymph node status, tumour grade, ER status, PR status, HER2 status), treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy), the dates of all tumour recurrences (local, regional, distant) and the dates and causes of death. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate the univariate and multivariate hazard ratios for death from breast cancer following distant recurrence associated with the various tumour features.
RESULTS
After a mean follow-up of 12.8 years from diagnosis, 523 distant recurrences were recorded among women in the cohort (23% of 2312) and 604 women (26%) died of breast cancer. For the 484 women who had a distant recurrence on record and died of breast cancer, the mean time from distant recurrence to death was 2.0 years (range 0-11.9 years). In a multivariate analysis, only two factors were significantly associated with time to death after distant recurrence: ER status (positive vs. negative, HR 0.56; 95% CI 0.43-0.71; p < 0.0001) and tumour grade (high vs. low, HR 1.87; 95% CI 1.16-3.01; p = 0.01). Among ER-negative patients (N = 175), high tumour grade and a short time from diagnosis to distant recurrence were associated with a rapid time to death. Among ER-positive patients (N = 336), there was no significant independent predictor of time from recurrence to death.
CONCLUSIONS
Among ER-negative breast cancer patients, the time to death after distant recurrence was predictable to some extent; women with a short time from diagnosis to recurrence and/or with high-grade tumours were more likely to succumb to breast cancer within 3 years. Among ER-positive breast cancer patients who experience a distant recurrence, the time to death varies substantially and between patients could not be predicted by tumour factors or treatment. This suggests that for ER-positive patients, the factors that determine the time from diagnosis to distant recurrence do not predict the course of the cancer post-recurrence.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Breast; Breast Neoplasms; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Mastectomy; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; Neoplasm Staging; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; Receptor, ErbB-2; Receptors, Estrogen; Receptors, Progesterone; Time Factors
PubMed: 30328050
DOI: 10.1007/s10549-018-5002-9 -
Head & Neck Oct 2000One of the reasons for failure in patients with head and neck carcinoma who achieve locoregional control with treatment is the appearance of distant metastases. The...
BACKGROUND
One of the reasons for failure in patients with head and neck carcinoma who achieve locoregional control with treatment is the appearance of distant metastases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of distant metastases in this group of patients and to determine the relative role of several prognostic factors in the subsequent development of distant metastases.
DESIGN
Retrospective study from a database that collects the information prospectively in a cohort of patients with head and neck carcinoma. Patients and Methods The study was carried out in 1244 patients with oral cavity, pharyngeal, or laryngeal carcinoma who achieved locoregional control. We evaluated the frequency of distant metastases and the influence of different variables in their appearance.
RESULTS
Five percent of patients with locoregional control had distant metastases. In the univariate study, the variables that influenced the appearance of distant metastases were tumor site, T stage, N stage, and histologic differentiation. On multivariate analysis, the variables that increased the risk of distant metastases were N stage, T stage, and the location of the tumor at the hypopharynx and the supraglottis.
CONCLUSIONS
Five percent of patients with oral cavity, pharyngeal, or laryngeal carcinomas who achieved locoregional control died as a consequence of the development of distant metastases. The factors that significantly increased the risk of distant metastases in this group of patients were the advanced local and regional extension of the tumor and the location at the hypopharynx or supraglottis.
Topics: Aged; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell; Female; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Humans; Laryngeal Neoplasms; Male; Middle Aged; Mouth Neoplasms; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neoplasm Staging; Pharyngeal Neoplasms; Prognosis; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors
PubMed: 11002323
DOI: 10.1002/1097-0347(200010)22:7<680::aid-hed7>3.0.co;2-j -
Endocrine Connections Feb 2019Objectives Controversies regarding factors associated with distant metastasis in pediatric thyroid cancer remain among the scientific community. The aim of this study...
Objectives Controversies regarding factors associated with distant metastasis in pediatric thyroid cancer remain among the scientific community. The aim of this study was to investigate factors influencing distant metastasis in pediatric thyroid cancer. Methods We reviewed 1376 patients (aged 2 to 18 years) with thyroid cancer treated between 2003 and 2014. Data collected and analyzed included sex, race, age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, pathological type, number of tumor foci, tumor extension, T-stage, N-stage, surgical procedure and radiation. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to evaluate factors influencing distant metastasis of pediatric thyroid cancer. Results In the univariate analysis, factors influencing distant metastasis of thyroid cancer were age at diagnosis (P < 0.001), N-stage (P < 0.001), number of tumor foci (P = 0.003), tumor extension (P < 0.001) and T-stage (T1 vs T2 (P = 0.803), T3 (P < 0.001) and T4 (P < 0.001)). In multivariate analysis, factors influencing distant metastasis of thyroid cancer were age at diagnosis (P = 0.001), N-stage (P < 0.001) and T-stage (T1 vs T3 (P = 0.036) and T4 (P < 0.001)). Sex, race, year of diagnosis, pathological type, number of tumor foci, tumor extension, surgical procedure and radiation had no significant influence on distant metastasis (all P > 0.05). Furthermore, according to chi-squared test, younger pediatric thyroid cancer patients with higher T- and N-stages are more likely to have distant metastasis. Conclusion Age at diagnosis, T-stage and N-stage influence distant metastasis of thyroid cancer patients aged 2 to 18 years; accordingly, more radical treatments may need to be used for patients with those risk elements.
PubMed: 30620713
DOI: 10.1530/EC-18-0441 -
BMC Gastroenterology Nov 2018Patients with potentially resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are frequently found to be unresectable on exploration due to small distant metastasis. This...
BACKGROUND
Patients with potentially resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are frequently found to be unresectable on exploration due to small distant metastasis. This study was to investigate predictors of small distant metastasis in patients with potentially resectable PDAC.
METHODS
Patients who underwent surgical exploration for potentially resectable PDAC from 2013 to 2014 were reviewed retrospectively and divided into two groups according to whether distant metastases were encountered on exploration. Then, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of distant metastasis. A scoring system to predict distant metastasis of PDAC on exploration was constructed based on the regression coefficient of a multivariate logistic regression model.
RESULTS
A total of 235 patients were included in this study. Mean age of the study population was 61.7 ± 10.4 years old. Upon exploration, distant metastases were found intraoperatively in 62 (26.4%) patients, while the remaining 173 were free of distant metastases. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that age ≤ 62 years old (p < 0.001), male sex (p = 0.011), tumor size ≥4.0 cm (p < 0.001), alanine aminotransferase level (ALT) < 125 U/L (p < 0.001), and carbohydrate antigen (CA19-9) level ≥ 385 U/mL (p < 0.001) were independent risk factors for occult distant metastasis of PDAC. A preoperative scoring system (0-8 points) for distant metastasis on exploration was constructed using these five factors. The receiver operating characteristic curves showed that the area under the curve of this score was 0.85. A score of 6 points was suggested to be the optimal cut-off value, and the sensitivity and specificity were 85% and 69%, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
Distant metastasis is still frequently encountered on exploration for patients with potentially resectable PDAC. Younger age, male sex, larger tumor size, low ALT level and high CA19-9 level are independent predictors of unexpected distant metastasis on exploration.
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alanine Transaminase; CA-19-9 Antigen; Carcinoma, Pancreatic Ductal; Female; Humans; Logistic Models; Male; Middle Aged; Multidetector Computed Tomography; Neoplasm Metastasis; Pancreatic Neoplasms; ROC Curve; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Sex Factors; Tumor Burden
PubMed: 30400836
DOI: 10.1186/s12876-018-0891-y