RAMHeR: Reuse And Mining Health2.0 Resources, Editorial by Associate Editor, Assos. Prof. Dr. Abdeljalil Khelassi, Head of Knowledge and Information Engineering Research Team, Abou Bekr Belkaid University of Tlemcen, Algeria, March 2015
Preventive effect of Malva on urinary toxicity after radiation therapy in prostate cancer patients: A multi-centric, double-blind, randomized clinical trial
Details
Written by Bahram Mofid, Hossein Rezaeizadeh, Amir Mohammad Jaladat, Fatemeh Atarzadeh, Reihane Moeini, Abbas Motevalian, Ahmad Mosalaie, Farshid Farhan, Afshin Rakhsha, Amir Shahram Yousefi Kashi
Background: For patients receiving external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) after radical prostatectomy as adjuvant treatment or patients receiving EBRT as definitive treatment, partial irradiation of the urinary bladder is common. Many of such patients experience some degree of radiation-induced cystitis during or after EBRT. There is currently no efficient treatment for preventing radiation cystitis.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of one of the safe mucilaginous herbs (Malva) in preventing radiation-induced dysuria in patients who are undergoing EBRT for prostate cancer.
Methods: From April 2013 to August 2014, 68 patients were randomized into two groups using four block randomization, 34 to the drug (Malva) group and 34 to the placebo group. Of the 68 patients who began the study, 60 completed it. They were instructed to use the medication, i.e., Malva or the placebo, three times a day for six weeks. They were followed by a physician every two weeks for eight weeks, and urinary function was assessed in each visit by asking questions based on the Visual Prostate Symptom Score (VPSS) and a dysuria severity score. The changes in the VPSS and dysuria severity score between baseline and each follow-up visit were compared between the two groups in the study using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-tests.
Results: The median age of the 68 patients was 66. Twenty-one of 27 patients in the control group (77.7%) suffered from dysuria, while dysuria was detected in 23 of 33 patients (69.6%) who received Malva (odds ratio=2.70 for dysuria). After two weeks, four weeks, and six weeks of treatment with Malva, dysuria due to EBRT was milder in the treatment group than in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p = 0.005, p = 0.004, p = 0.001, respectively).
Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first study to assess the protective effect of a mucilaginous herb (Malva) against urinary toxicity induced by EBRT. The positive results of this study warrant further studies in this field.
Clinical Trial Registration: The study was registered in the Iranian Clinical Trial Registry Center (IRCT2012100711026N1).
Funding: This study was supported by a grant from Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Keywords: Malva, dysuria, radiation therapy, prostate cancer
The worldwide spread of COVID-19 as an emerging, rapidly evolving situation, and the dramatic need of urgent medicine or vaccine, has rapidly brought new hypotheses for pathophysiology and potential medicinal agents to the fore. It is crucial that the research community provide a way to publish this research in a timely manner.
To contribute to this important public health discussion, the Electronic Physician Journal is excited to announce a fast-track procedure to help researchers publish their articles on COVID-19 related subjects that fall under the broad definition of public health, internal medicine, and pharmacology. We are especially welcome to all hypotheses about the pathological basis of the COVID-19 infection and the possible characteristics of potential medicine and vaccine. Submit your manuscript here
Our previous editorial (June 2020)
Lessons from COVID-19 pandemic and the Morocco’s success story.
The 6th World Conference on Research Integrity (WCRI) is to be held on June 2-5, 2019 in Hong Kong.
The WCRI is the largest and most significant international conference on research integrity. Since the first conference in Lisbon in 2007, it has given researchers, teachers, funding agencies, government officials, journal editors, senior administrators, and research students opportunities to share experiences and to discuss and promote integrity in research. Read more:
TDR Clinical Research and Development Fellowships
Call for applications
Deadline for submission: 7 March 2019, 16:00 (GMT)
TDR provides fellowships for early- to mid-career researchers and clinical trial staff (e.g. clinicians, pharmacists, medical statisticians, data managers, other health researchers) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to learn how to conduct clinical trials. Read more:
Meta-Analysis Workshops in New York, USA, and London, UK, in April and May 2019
Don't miss this exceptional opportunity to learn how to perform and report a Meta-analysis correctly. Two Meta-analysis workshops are organized in April and May 2019 by Dr. Michael Borenstein in New York, USA (April 08-10, 2019) and London, UK (May 27-29).
About the Instructor
Dr. Michael Borenstein, one of the authors of Introduction to Meta-Analysis, is widely recognized for his ability to make statistical concepts accessible to researchers as well as to statisticians. He has lectured widely on meta-analysis, including at the NIH, CDC, and FDA. Read more:
Should clinical trials be covered by insurance? An interview with Dr. Ayat Ahmadi, epidemiologist and a researcher at the Clinical Trial Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. March 28, 2016
