Timothy H. Y. Chan

Incorporating spirituality in psychosocial group intervention for women undergoing in vitro fertilization: A prospective randomized controlled study

OBJECTIVES This study examined the efficacy of a group intervention, the Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (I-BMS) intervention, which aims at improving the psychosocial and spiritual well-being of Chinese women undergoing their first IVF treatment cycle. DESIGN The I-BMS intervention facilitates the search of meaning of life in the context of family and childbearing, as well as the letting go of high IVF expectations. A randomized controlled study of 339 women undergoing first IVF treatment cycle in a local Hong Kong hospital was conducted (intervention: n= 172; no-intervention control: n= 167). METHODS Assessments of anxiety, perceived importance of childbearing, and spiritual well-being were made at randomization (T(0) ), on the day starting ovarian stimulations (T(1)), and on the day undertaking embryo transfer (T(2)). RESULTS Comparing T(0) and T(2), interaction analyses showed women who had received the intervention reported lower levels of physical distress, anxiety, and disorientation. They reported being more tranquil and satisfied with their marriage, and saw childbearing as less important compared to women in the control group. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that I-BMS intervention was successful at improving the psychosocial and spiritual well-being of women undergoing their first IVF treatment cycle. This study highlights the importance of providing integrative fertility treatment that incorporates psychosocial and spiritual dimensions.

Death Preparation and Anxiety: A Survey in Hong Kong

This study reports the results of a survey on death preparation, death-related beliefs, and death anxiety in a Hong Kong sample. Respondents (N = 285) recruited from the community were asked if they have prepared for them-selves a life insurance, a will, and a resting place (e.g. burial site, columbarium, etc.). Questions about their death-related cultural beliefs and anxiety were also asked. Results indicated that respondents who have thought of preparing for their own deaths but not yet acted out (contemplators) held stronger traditional cultural beliefs about death than respondents who have either done the preparations (planners) or never thought of the idea (non-contemplators). Contemplators also reported higher death anxiety. Despite limitations of the studys design, the current results suggest the beliefs in cultural taboo may play a role in the preparation for ones death.

Diagnostic Ambiguity and Psychosocial Distress among Chinese Women with Idiopathic and Non-Idiopathic Infertility

The aim of this study is to investigate how women with different diagnoses on their cause of infertility—non-idiopathic (female, male, mixed), or idiopathic (unknown causes)—display different levels of psychosocial well-being prior to their IVF treatment. Women who attended an assisted reproduction clinic were recruited to fill out a set of questionnaire about 3 months before the start of their first IVF treatment cycle (valid N = 330). Measures included anxiety, somatic, emotional, and spiritual distress, as well as marital satisfaction. Somatic distress was found to be highest among women without a known cause of infertility. Women with mixed-factor diagnosis reported significantly lower emotional distress. Spiritual distress was found to be the highest in female-factor infertility group. Results remained significant after controlling for marital satisfaction. The current findings suggest that facing infertility whose cause is unexplained, women may express their distress through somatic complaints. Where a physiological cause can be identified, emotional and spiritual distress are paradoxically lower when both wife and husband are perceived to share the responsibility for the condition. Results can inform healthcare professionals about the psychological needs of women with different diagnoses of infertility prior to their IVF treatment.

Abstract 3010: Allele-specific loss of OSGIN1 associates with the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most frequent human malignances worldwide, which causes more than half a million death every year. Most human cancers are characterized by genomic instability. Chromosomal region gains or losses occur during cancer progression and high incidence of allelic imbalance is often observed in cancer patients. The risk alleles were usually overrepresented in cancer cells due to selective retention or amplification. In this report, we found a novel nucleotide variation at the coding region of the gene OSGIN1. Allele imbalance of OSGIN1 was frequently observed in a cohort of HCC patients, and the wild type allele was preferentially lost in the tumor tissue. Functional assays revealed that OSGIN1 has strong tumor suppressive function and associated with chemoresistance of HCC cell lines. The variant allele was less effective in inducing apoptosis than the wild type allele. This functional variation may be due to their different ability to localize to mitochondria. Further more, we found HCC patients carrying the variant allele have poorer prognosis than the wild type carriers. These findings suggested that OSGIN1 might be an important tumor suppressor gene in the progression of HCC and the retention of the variant allele might be a risk factor for HCC. Citation Format: Ming Liu, Yan Li, Leilei Chen, Tim Chan, Xin-Yuan Guan. Allele-specific loss of OSGIN1 associates with the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3010. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3010