Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: BRENDA SANTOS LEITE

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : BRENDA SANTOS LEITE
DATE: 05/04/2022
TIME: 15:00
LOCAL: Virtual
TITLE:

Prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in cancer patients

KEY WORDS:

cancer, immunosuppressed patients; intestinal parasites; chemotherapy treatment; symptomatology.

PAGES: 72
BIG AREA: Ciências Biológicas
AREA: Parasitologia
SUMMARY:

Several studies have reported the incidence of opportunistic enteric parasites in populations of immunosuppressed patients, in patients undergoing hemodialysis, in transplant recipients and in those with autoimmune diseases. However, there is little information about these parasites in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or not. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of intestinal parasites in cancer patients in order to show if there is a relationship between their presence, the patient's health status and the chemotherapy treatment, in addition to establishing an association with their social, economic and behavioral characteristics. For this, fresh stool samples were requested from 67 cancer patients aged 18 years or older, who were diagnosed with cancer, undergoing or not to chemotherapy and that signing the “Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido (TCLE)”. The samples were submitted to the Holfmann, Pons and Janer (HPJ), Willis and Rugai, methods to determine the presence of intestinal parasites and a questionnaire was applied on the socio-economic aspects, food and hygiene habits and chemotherapy and parasitological information of the patients. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (position measures (median and mode), absolute and relative frequencies), contingency tables and Chi-Square test, in the R ® software [R Core Team (2021)]. The positivity of the stool parasitological exams was 46.3%, with a prevalence of Endolimax nana (32.3%) and Entamoeba coli (25.8%), frequency that may not reflect the reality, since 89% of patients used ivermectin before starting chemotherapy. Strongyloides stercoralis larvae and helminth eggs were not identified, exception of hookworm eggs in 4.5% of samples. It was identified that the chemotherapy treatment was directly related to the presence of nausea symptoms (p<0.05), however, no association was identified between parasitism and the other socioeconomic factors evaluated (p>0.05), concluding that that patients' infection does not depend on whether or not the patients are undergoing chemotherapy and if they have symptoms such as vomiting and/or diarrhea.

BANKING MEMBERS:
Externa ao Programa - 1891868 - CRISTINA ROCHA DE MEDEIROS MIRANDA
Externo ao Programa - 1282620 - HENRIQUE ROCHA DE MEDEIROS
Presidente - 1714262 - LILIAN GIOTTO ZAROS DE MEDEIROS