Why Organisations Should Spend Time Gathering Secondary Data Prior to Coursework

Why Organisations Should Spend Time Gathering Secondary Data Prior to Undertaking Primary Research - Coursework Example An organization may carry out primary research in which researchers gather facts about the prevailing situation through observation, surveys, and behavioral data and through experimentation. Most organizations initially gather secondary data before undertaking the primary research. Secondary data are data about the subject at hand that may be already into existence somewhere within the reach of the organization, having being collected by the organization or another body and therefore the information may be useful partly or wholly in handling the problem at hand. Reasons Why Organizations Spend Time Gathering Secondary Data The information that already exists somewhere may help the researching organization in expanding its knowledge regarding the problem to be solved. The company may use such report to find out what others have done in a particular field of study. The secondary data may also help an organization it its preparation for primary research, by helping in identifying the to ols and materials that need to be used in order to make the future research successful. The secondary materials may also help an organization to understanding the progress that other researchers have made. This help in avoiding certain research problems in order to use the available resources effectively. The company may also use the secondary data to identify the needed resources for the research work to be successful. It helps in setting realistic period for the research work that the organization intends to undertake, and to assemble a team of researchers for different roles in the research process. Advantages of Using Secondary Data Data collected externally may be more objective since no one within the organization may have influenced the outcome of the data. This is usually useful when the data needed to solve the current problem does not exist anywhere in the organization, it may be appropriate to obtain the data that may have been collected by other pioneer organizations in the same industry. This helps the researchers to identify areas of focus to solve the problem effortlessly. Using data that was collected by other organizations in solving related problem is part of the learning process that is useful when handling many research problems for the first time. This helps in avoiding some obvious mistakes that may lead to wastage of resources and time in the earlier researches (Kotler et al, 2009) The organization may find relevant data that touches similar problems that the company is seeking to solve. In marketing, it is common knowledge that all products goes through the product life cycle and all organizations goes through the same learning curves. It is therefore a reality that the problem that any organization may be dealing with at present may have been faced by another organization in the past. When data is acquired from other organization, it may influence the learning process much faster for smaller organization, whose resources are constraine d. It is cheaper to obtain in different forms of research findings as needed by the organization for solving a specific problem at hand. The process of obtaining materials that already exist to be used in solving a related marketing problem is shorter. The processes of obtaining such existing data may at time cost the organization almost nothing or only a small cost may be involved. This is useful when there is need to save on the cost and time availability. Secondary data is readily available in variety. Today the world is today experiencing information explosion, and therefore every type of information that may be needed by

Organisational Change Management Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Organisational Change Management - Dissertation Example The decision made, the way it should be implement and other aspects D2 will have to deal with, are analysed and explained with respect to the 5D framework. Although the decision and plan made seems to be a feasible one, its implementation and execution is of utmost importance. A regular and continuous feedback, assessment and if required, change of plan accordingly will be the key to survival of D2 Introduction This analysis is of a car components manufacturing company called D2. D2 is a France based company. It has many plants. Two are based in France, one in UK and additional plants in Spain. Since operations D2 has put in an extra effort to increase shareholder value and achieve a formidable return on its investments. This has been made possible by investing in new technology and encouraging innovation with respect to the manufacturing of products. D2 managed a competitive position in the market of manufacturing automobile parts while competing with even those manufacturing compan ies that were based in a low cost country. Ever since the economic recession has hit, the situation has changed drastically. The economic downturn has forced D2 to change it strategy and now produce fewer products and benefits from economies of scale rather than producing a whole variety of products. Secondly D2 is now more focused on cutting costs which may lead to plant closure and redundancy of staff. This is a major concern for both, the employees and management. However, the decision is yet to be announced. Appreciative Inquiry: The 5D approach Appreciative inquiry is a method of solving a problem. This was pioneered by David Cooperrider in the mid-1980s. from the Case Western Reserve University. This method can be best understood by understanding the meaning of both of the words The first word, Appreciation,  refers to the recognition of contributions or attributes of people and things that surround us. The second word, Inquiry, refers to  the act of exploring and discover ing. This reflects on the attitude of being open to any new possibilities. Combining both words together means that with the help of appreciating and acknowledging what is valuable and good with respect to the present situation. We may be able to discover the future in a positive manner. Using Appreciative Inquiry: The 5D Approach It is important to focus on the positives while applying such approach. A positive approach may help in building on ones strengths, just as conventional problem-solving may lead to minimizing ones weaknesses. Hence it is important to consider that the strategy under consideration by D2 is a feasible one. Below is an analysis of the situation of D2 with respect of the 5D framework. The 5D framework constitutes of five elements namely, Definition: the phase in which a problem is defined Discovery: the phase in which ways to solve the problem are found Dream: the phase in which a company sets up its future objectives Design: the phase that determines how thin gs should be implemented Destiny: the phase that sees the planning and implementation of the strategy Definition Before one can analyse a problem, the problem is to be defined. Economic downturn may suggest a precise definition of the problem faced by D2. It is important to understand what may happen to organisation when they face economic downturn or recession related problems. Many business analysts and researchers have narrated their views of such situations, a few of which are below. Zeidner,

Lesson plan and rationale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lesson plan and rationale - Essay Example A successful program is made up of well-planned courses, and well-planned course are a result of well-structured, planned and successful execution of the required weekly lessons. An educator should take each lesson seriously and see it as an opportunity to use creativity in engaging with the learners. This is the stage where the course content, which reflects the curriculum objective, is emphasized, and it is the stage where the learner can participate in the program execution actively. According to Habanek (2005), the "syllabus should explain how the course has been designed by the professor to facilitate learning and what the professor will do to help all students achieve" their goals. Therefore, a course lesson should always be the first priority towards achieving curriculum goals and objectives. Below is a brief description of how ‘Toxicology† lesson for The Advanced Pharmacology Course is executed to ensure that it meets the course and overall curriculum objectives. Lesson objectives The ‘Toxicology’ lesson will be offered in week six of the course. The lesson is strategically placed near the end of the Advanced Pharmacology course because it contains very important information that the learners are required to expansively. Putting it near the end enables learners to gain a deeper understanding of the course in the first weeks and become familiar with the course rationale. By the time, the learners are in week six concepts such as toxicity and chemical makeup of the drugs will be easily comprehended. This will ease the educator’s efforts towards ensuring the learners achieve the lesson objectives, which include: To attain a comprehensive understanding of toxicity of various drugs and their chemical make-up that may lead to toxicity The learner identifies how combination of drugs that have different chemical elements can react with patients when they are wrongfully prescribed Congruence of objectives to the course’s ob jectives and specific behaviors or outcomes expected from learners because of participating in this lesson. A good course and syllabus should be responsive and flexible to accommodate students concerns and address external events (Slattery & Carlson, 2005). At the end of this lesson, there are outcomes that the learner is supposed to display to show their understanding of lesson objectives. The outcomes display a clear and deep understanding of the lesson learning resources and material. Some of these outcomes include being able to determine the amount of prescription medication will be toxic to the patient. The learner should also be able to identify and link patient reaction to specified medication causing the reaction. It is also important that the learner be able to explain comprehensively drug action at a molecular, as well as cellular level. These outcomes are in direct relation to the course objectives, which state that learners should be able to Attain a comprehensive explan ation of major drug groups and be able to apply it in medical practice Be aware of the common contradictions and side effects that drug prototype, including knowledge in drug interactions, actions, and toxicity. Description of instructional approach to use For this lesson, the students will be required to make discoveries and individually understand the lesson objectives. The best learning theory to apply for this class will be constructivism. Constructivism is best suited because it incorporates principles such as discovery learning, active leaning, and knowledge building which are all part of student exploration within a specified structure by the educator (Devries and Zan, 2003). A constructivism approach enables students to be involved in making discoveries at a personal level, therefore, making it easy for them to understand the key concepts. This makes the lesson to be learner centered. My main work as an educator will be to facilitate the learning process by ensuring

Irrational Consumer Behavior. Why consumer often makes irrational Essay

Irrational Consumer Behavior. Why consumer often makes irrational decision to buy a low quality product because of advertisement or cultures - Essay Example Often a big poster of advertisement or television leads people to make some irrational decision in buying products. The role of television advertisement is significant in irrational consumer behavior (Mafe & Blas, 2007). Consumers often buy a low quality product because they were â€Å"deceived† by the advertisement. This happens because a majority number of individuals just trust tons of beautiful fonts, and words on the advertisement without making any further research about the products. The importance of the sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin) plus peer pressure play an important role in irrational buying. Thus, the marketers often create great teasers to play with the consumer emotion because they know that the coherent pictures and the dynamic graphic on the commercial video are enormous stimuli for getting the consumer attention. Advertisement makes a lot of people ignore the details that are more important than the words that are written on the advert isement. If individuals do more research before they buy the products, they will make the rational choice. However, only a few people are eager to look up additional information on the internet when they are already falling in love with the advertisement on the Television, and Posters. Furthermore peer pressure is also involved in influencing people’s mind when deciding the products that they want to purchase. All of this influential advertisements, that are created by marketers often lead people in choosing some of the bad choices. The marketer has a great way to advertise their product in society with the right timing, and at the right moment. Therefore, people’s perception of being interested at some commercial often lead many people to forget about the health issue because of their subliminal perception. This forces the consumers to purchase more expensive products of low quality because of advertisement Stimulus of the big brand products, and get a poor service by paying a great amount of money after just looking at the descriptive terms of the advertisement. Health is one of the crucial issues in this world. Individuals need health in order to do their jobs. However, there are a lot of health issues in today’s world. But why people often make an irrational decision by buying these unhealthy products with higher price instead of cheaper healthier foods? It is because people frequently consume unhealthy foods. For example, they are willing to spend $1 more for Soda like Coca Cola, and Sprite. This is because of they are attracted by the beautiful soda commercial. Many of soda firms contract a great marketers in their division to market the products. So today, a lot of Soda Corporations are focused on the subliminal perception of people. â€Å"Stimuli that are too weak or to brief to be consciously seen or heard may nevertheless be strong enough† (Schifmann & Kanuk, 2009, Pg. 160). It is about the stimulated awareness of people t hat responds to the advertisement they have watched. By understanding this fact, the marketers use the subliminal commands like DRINK SPRITE, and filming a commercial that tells the audiences that COKE is the best beverage to relieve the feeling of thirst. These types of advertisement have a high effectiveness in becoming a great attention grabber. A big number of people make an irrational decision by buying these drinks as their daily beverages when they can buy cheaper bottle of water that is healthier. Even though Soda brings many health issues like Diabetes, and Obesity, they don’t care about that because they prefer to satisfy their needs after watching the interesting advertisement. Mostly these ads are aired on television, and television advertisement plays a great role in purchase decisions

Lesson plan and rationale Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lesson plan and rationale - Essay Example A successful program is made up of well-planned courses, and well-planned course are a result of well-structured, planned and successful execution of the required weekly lessons. An educator should take each lesson seriously and see it as an opportunity to use creativity in engaging with the learners. This is the stage where the course content, which reflects the curriculum objective, is emphasized, and it is the stage where the learner can participate in the program execution actively. According to Habanek (2005), the "syllabus should explain how the course has been designed by the professor to facilitate learning and what the professor will do to help all students achieve" their goals. Therefore, a course lesson should always be the first priority towards achieving curriculum goals and objectives. Below is a brief description of how ‘Toxicology† lesson for The Advanced Pharmacology Course is executed to ensure that it meets the course and overall curriculum objectives. Lesson objectives The ‘Toxicology’ lesson will be offered in week six of the course. The lesson is strategically placed near the end of the Advanced Pharmacology course because it contains very important information that the learners are required to expansively. Putting it near the end enables learners to gain a deeper understanding of the course in the first weeks and become familiar with the course rationale. By the time, the learners are in week six concepts such as toxicity and chemical makeup of the drugs will be easily comprehended. This will ease the educator’s efforts towards ensuring the learners achieve the lesson objectives, which include: To attain a comprehensive understanding of toxicity of various drugs and their chemical make-up that may lead to toxicity The learner identifies how combination of drugs that have different chemical elements can react with patients when they are wrongfully prescribed Congruence of objectives to the course’s ob jectives and specific behaviors or outcomes expected from learners because of participating in this lesson. A good course and syllabus should be responsive and flexible to accommodate students concerns and address external events (Slattery & Carlson, 2005). At the end of this lesson, there are outcomes that the learner is supposed to display to show their understanding of lesson objectives. The outcomes display a clear and deep understanding of the lesson learning resources and material. Some of these outcomes include being able to determine the amount of prescription medication will be toxic to the patient. The learner should also be able to identify and link patient reaction to specified medication causing the reaction. It is also important that the learner be able to explain comprehensively drug action at a molecular, as well as cellular level. These outcomes are in direct relation to the course objectives, which state that learners should be able to Attain a comprehensive explan ation of major drug groups and be able to apply it in medical practice Be aware of the common contradictions and side effects that drug prototype, including knowledge in drug interactions, actions, and toxicity. Description of instructional approach to use For this lesson, the students will be required to make discoveries and individually understand the lesson objectives. The best learning theory to apply for this class will be constructivism. Constructivism is best suited because it incorporates principles such as discovery learning, active leaning, and knowledge building which are all part of student exploration within a specified structure by the educator (Devries and Zan, 2003). A constructivism approach enables students to be involved in making discoveries at a personal level, therefore, making it easy for them to understand the key concepts. This makes the lesson to be learner centered. My main work as an educator will be to facilitate the learning process by ensuring

Interpretative Reading in Thailand Essay Example for Free

Interpretative Reading in Thailand Essay Introduction Interpretative reading can be defined as the analysis of literary texts and subsequent enunciation of those texts. It is also sometimes called dramatic reading and relies on the reader’s voice to convey the emotion, drama and imagery of a narrative without actually acting it out. A good interpretative reader must possess a number of vocal skills such as the ability to control vocal tone, volume, pace and inflection to accurately communicate meaning and build drama. In addition to clear articulation and correct pronunciation, which are paramount to the audience’s understanding, the reader must have an in depth understanding of the text in order to produce a meaningful interpretation of it. In other words the narrator needs to be able to know the characters, imagine their backgrounds and feel their emotions to be believable. Good interpretive reading is a difficult skill even for native speakers to master and takes preparation and plenty of practice; however, for a student in the Thai education system faces a number of distinct disadvantages in becoming a proficient interpretative reader. To begin with the languages of Thai and English are very different. We have different stress patterns on words and there are sounds in English which don’t exist in Thai, both of which make clear pronunciation challenging for students and although many Thai schools now employ native speaking English teachers who are able to model correct pronunciation and natural rhythm, lots of Thai students lack confidence and have little opportunity to practice English outside of their classroom. In addition, English uses intonation to convey different meanings and emotions whereas Thai uses a fixed tone for each word so it is often hard for a Thai student to express emotions like sarcasm or disbelief through inflection even when they recognize the need to do so. Another barrier for many Thai students, aside from the enunciation, is actually understanding the text well enough to interpret it. This depends upon, not only the student’s knowledge of English language and ability to follow the plot but also on previous personal, educational and cultural experience that influence the way the narrative is interpreted. A student lacking exposure to western culture and a deeper understanding of the social norms, stereotypes and cultural issues surrounding a text might struggle with a credible portrayal of characters and personation. These factors coupled with a general lack of focus on key reading skills leave Thai students at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to dramatic reading abilities. So, how do we assess the state of Thai interpretive reading? Do we take into account the many disadvantages that Thai students face in learning to read expressively and if so what criteria is it fair to judge them on? After some research into the rubric schools overseas use to evaluate students’ interpretive reading skills we decided to base our assessment on the following criteria:- Pace. The speed at which a reader speaks, increasing speed creates drama and intensity. Pause. The lingering of the voice on, before or after a word for dramatic effect. Volume. Adds emphasis or fullness of tone. It can be used with other forms of emphasis to exaggerate emphasis. Melody. The wave-like change in voice pitch depends on the reader recognizing the relative importance of words in the text. Inflection. The bending of the voice from the main pitch up or down. Personation. The reader’s interpretation of the character. Pitch. The degree of highness or lowness to a tone adds more subtle emphasis. Confidence. How comfortable is the speaker with reading aloud the text. The readers pace, volume and use of pause are techniques that can be used to emphasize mood or add drama but in the case of a non native speaker an overly loud or quiet reading could be due to nervousness and a pause or change in pace could be due to not understanding a word or not knowing how to pronounce it. These things, in turn, can affect the other factors we will be evaluating. With this in mind we will be focusing on the deviations from normal patterns in each of these categories and trying to find any correlations. Conducting the research and investigation To better understand how well a Thai may use the techniques associated with interpretative reading we needed to hear some examples. We selected a number of Thai students to read a set part of a chapter from a book and recorded them to analyse their interpretative reading skills. The material chosen was chapter one from ‘The Monkey King’ a stage one young reader by Rosie Dickins. The chapter was broken into 5 separate parts for the students to read. The level one reader was chosen to accommodate all students and focus on their reading skills rather than their comprehension of the text. The students’ ages and levels of English ranged from, six to eighteen years old, and Beginner to Advanced. By having such a wide range of readers we will be able to see if there are any reoccurring problems across all levels and ages or if there are any surprising results. Before the students were recorded they were each given different parts of the chapter to familiarise themselves with what they were going to read. This is to again focus on their interpretation of the text and to let them question any pronunciation of any unfamiliar words. In addition to that when the text was handed to the students, it was explained to them that they have to read it as if they were telling a story to someone, and they do not want this person to fall asleep. Also, an example of interpretative reading of a text, other than their own, was then given to the students to make sure that they fully understood what they had to do. To do good interpretative reading, the text has to be fully understood, it is the key for good reading, so all the parts that they did not understand was read to them and explained again before they did the task. Some of the younger students did not really understand how to read the text like they were telling a story, so some parts of the text was read to them showing the change in voice pitch and intonation, as one would do for interpretive reading. They then caught on to what was needed. The most difficult part was that many of the younger ones were nervous and shy, which is normal for some children who have to read text which is not in their native language. They were mostly nervous because of being placed in front of a laptop computer, and about their pronunciation. It was made clear to them that pronunciation was not the point of the research and that it was not a big deal if they did make some mistakes, but that the most important thing was the way they interpret the text, and that it has to be understood. It was noticed that they did understand it since they all wrote some Thai notes on the text which seemed to be translations. Then, finally it was for them to forget their nerves and read the text. The students were then recorded reading their parts which were later analysed, considering the younger students reading level, they did quite well. Analysing the results Once we had the recordings of the brave students that took part in our research, the analysis could be carried out. We went through the recordings with a fine toothcomb, and complied the results into a chart. In this chart, as can be seen in fig. 1. 2, the students were rated on their performance. They were judged on numerous criteria which include melody, speed, volume, pauses, inflection, personation, pitch and confidence. These eight criteria were marked as poor, fair, good, very good or excellent. We took into account their age group and reading skill level when judging them. Once the chart was completed, the graphs were made to clearly show which of the students’ skills were strong and which skills were weak (fig. 2. 1 – 2. 8). On the whole they performed better than expected, although there were obvious inflections, changes of pitch in odd places that Thais often make mistakes with when interpretive reading. We had spoken about this before the experiment had even begun, so it was to be expected. The results of the experiment showed that most of the students had a very good grasp of the pace that the text should be read at (see fig. 2. 2). In addition, most of them read the text at a decent volume; and all of the students were audible (see fig. 2. 3). It was obvious which students have had a lot of practice reading because of their melody, and the way it flowed throughout their reading (see fig. 2. 1). These students are also the ones that were given good marks in inflection; pitch and confidence (see fig. 2. 5, 2. 7, and 2. 8). One of the areas in which most of the students did not do very well was the pauses, as it seemed as if they were in the wrong places and there did not seem to be enough of them (see fig. 2. 4). Finally, the worst area by far was the personation or interpretation of the characters in the story. Most of the students did not even change the pitch or melody of their voice when reading the direct speech and those that did change the pitch of their voice did not put on any kind of exciting voice (see fig. 2. 6). From the results, we have seen that generally the standard of interpretative reading is at a fair level, usually respective of the student’s level of English. However, there were certain issues and certain elements of their reading which are necessary to try and eliminate to help improve their interpretative reading. The highest level of reading was from a student who could be considered the student with the highest level of general English. This was mainly due to his immediate in-depth understanding of the text. He was able to employ pauses in appropriate places such as full stops, commas, but also using them for dramatic effect as in adjective lists or after adverbs. He also had a strong use of melody in how he read. The best skill he used which set his reading above the rest was his use of personation on the characters voices. Some other students were able to produce a similarly high standard of reading and once again these students can be identified as the ones with the best overall English language skills. Some of these good examples were from the M3 level. Despite them being at a high level of general English some of the elements they employed in their reading was something that could be said was found in all readings at this level but not as frequent. One of these is the students’ use of force on unstressed syllables. This was more common at the end of words which contained specific sounds. This was seen in words such as monKEY and heavenLY, adding extra force to the /i? / sound, and gardeNER, giving force to the /? /. There is also another issue that was common at the end of words. This was the dropping of sounds or in some case whole syllables. This was most evident in plural nouns and ed sounds at the end of verbs. For example, peachES, leavES, soldierS, pronounced as /? z/, /z/, and /s/ which were generally dropped from the words all together especially the /? z/ sound. Further to this the /? d/, /d/, and /t/ sounds in words such as, boastED, stormED, and snappED, were particularly a problem. As we looked down the levels of general English skills we saw problems more identified with that level rather than an overall picture of Thai speakers and these problems ultimately determined how well of a reader we believed them to be. One such problem was melody. English being a very musical language requires the reader to know the importance of stressed and unstressed words within the sentence. The result was mainly a flat sentence giving equal stress to prepositions and articles, to nouns and verbs. This disrupted the usual flow of the English language. The pause was another problem but was a more obvious one. There are certain positions within a reading where a pause must be used, such as full stops and commas and without these pauses the reading can sounds unnatural. This wasn’t throughout the text but only in some places is enough to give a breathless effect. The above mentioned issues were the most common throughout all the readers but there were some individual mistakes present as well. For example, the rising inflection or falling inflection mid-sentence, giving a different meaning to the sentence as a whole. We believe that vocabulary knowledge is of great importance in the way we set up the experiment. Although the material used for the reading is said to be a level one reader this does not mean that all the students are able to fully understand all the words in the text and their subsequent effect on the way the text should be read. From the six steps of analysis it is stated that a reader should be able to read the text line by line fully understanding the text, to understand the theme, and importantly take the text away and practice. With the limited time available with the students it was not possible to allow them to take the text home, study it, and perhaps translate the words to understand their meaning. Therefore, the students with the greatest range of vocabulary were the students with the better examples of interpretative reading. In regards to the common use of what we considered to be their wrongful employment of interpretative reading skills, we tried to identify a possible reason for each case. Firstly, the use of force at the end of words containing /i? / and /? / we believe to be a problem that is associated with the Thai language. Generally, these sounds at the end of words are stressed in the Thai language while unstressed in English, and so they are mixing up the two languages. In contrast to this is the students’ lack of plural and ed sounds at the end of words. Due to the fact that they are not pronounced at the end of words in the Thai language, the students’ would transfer this over to the English language and drop them from the English words. The students’ lack of melody could be also to do with being Thai language native speakers. The musical rhythm of the English language requires the use of melody by stressing words in certain ways within a sentence. The Thai language, however, does not have melody in a sentence as a whole and so the reading was flat as oppose to rising and falling, strong and weak. The lack of pauses in some instances has more to do with the individual reader and with practice could easily be eliminated. Conclusion In conclusion, Thai teachers need to provide more speaking time for the students so that they can learn the rhythm of the English language. This can be achieved by giving the students more access to a native speaker’s spoken word. Some suggestions for this would be to have the students do more role-play exercises in the classroom impersonating different characters from a book. Also trying to imitate character’s voices from a movie or from television programmes would be a great way to master their personation technique. A game could be made out of this where the students have to guess who another student is trying to imitate. Another way to help Thai students might be to get them to listen to other well known interpretive readers while they are reading along to the story themselves to get an understanding of how it is done well. Interpretive Reading for Thai Students By Drew Eaglesham Timothy Parker Sarah Pratley Victor Deville-Blumberg EN202 Interpretative Reading.

Use Of Abiraterone In Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer Nursing Essay

Use Of Abiraterone In Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer Nursing Essay Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosis of men in Canada. In 2012, approximately 26,500 men in Canada were diagnosed with prostate cancer and approximately 4,000 died from the disease . Prostate cancer is strongly influenced by androgenic steroids . In advanced stage prostate cancer patients are typically treated using androgen deprivation therapy. . Androgen therapy is not curative and may only improve patients symptoms and may even reduce metastatic lesions . The benefit seen in androgen deprivation is often reduced over years of androgen therapy as the tumour will continue to grow despite low androgen levels. When this occurs the tumour is known to be castration resistant and is known to lead to prostate cancer- related mortality . Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) may present as either a continuous rise in serum prostate- specific antigen levels (PSA), progression of pre-existing disease, or appearance of new metastases . Many endocrine based therapies have been evaluated for CRPC with minimal success in prolonging patient survival . Systemic nonhormonal therapies using docetaxel, carbaztaxel, and active cellular immunotherapy with sipuleucel-T have been shown to prolong survival . A new drug abiraterone (Zytiga) has shown to improve survival and lower PSA levels in patients with CRPC. This article is to be used by health professionals to gain a thorough understanding of abiraterones indication, mechanism of action, side effects, dosage, clinical evidence, monitoring parameters, and contraindications. Indication According to the product monograph for abiraterone the drug is indicated with prednisone for the treatment of CRPC in patients who have received prior chemotherapy containing docetaxel. Mechanism of Action Abiraterone is formulated as a prodrug, abiraterone acetate, which is converted to abiraterone by the body and acts as a selective inhibitor of 17ÃŽÂ ±-hydroxylase/C17,20-lyase (CYP17) . CYP17 is responsible for androgen biosynthesis in testicular, adrenal and prostatic tumor tissues . As illustrated in Figure 1, CYP17 catalyzes the conversion of pregnolone and progesterone into testosterone precursors, DHEA and androstenedione . The reduction in androgen production is beneficial for androgen-sensitive prostatic carcinoma. 722776-fig1.jpg Figure 1. Abiraterones mechanism of action in androgen synthesis Side Effects The most common side effects of abiraterone are caused by the mechanism of the drug on CYP17. As seen in Figure 2, inhibition of CYP17 causes on increase in the production of mineralocorticoids, which lead to hypokalemia, fluid retention, and hypertension . Other common side effects of abiraterone include myopathy, joint pain, abnormal liver function, hot flashes, diarrhea, urinary tract infections, bone fractures and cough . http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/28/9/1481/F4.large.jpg Figure 2. Effects of abiraterone on mineralocorticoid production . Dosage and Administration The recommended dosage of abiraterone is 1000 milligrams daily as a single dose . The tablets need to be swallowed whole and the dose should be taken on an empty stomach . To reduce the mineralocorticoid effects of abiraterone the patient should also use a low dose prednisone. The recommended dose or prednisone is 10 mg daily . Clinical Trials Evaluating Abiraterone The effectiveness of abiraterone in CRPC has been demonstrated in several randomized trials. In 2009, a study Attard et al., using forty-two chemotherapy-naÃÆ' ¯ve patients with CRPC received 1000 mg abiraterone . At follow up (median 505 days) a decline in PSA of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 50% of was observed in 67% of patients, with declines of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 90% in 19% of patients . A 2010 study by Danila et al., of fifty-eight men with CRPC previously on docetaxel received abiraterone 1000 mg daily with 5 mg of prednisone . Results of study illustrated that 36 % of patients had a PSA decline of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 50% . In 2011, De Bono et al. conducted a study including 1195 patients who had previously received docetaxel . Groups were assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive 5 mg of prednisone twice daily with either 1000 mg of abiraterone or placebo . The primary end point of the study was overall survival . The secondary endpoints of the study were time to prostate-specific antigen progression, progression-free survival according to radiological findings based on specified criteria, and PSA response rate . At a median 12.8 month follow-up overall survival was significantly longer in the abiraterone group compared to the placebo (14.8 months vs. 10.9 months, p. The secondary end points all favoured the treatment group; time to PSA progression (10.2 vs. 6.6 months; p. The studies using abiraterone in CRPC illustrate that the drug provides a moderate improvement in cancer progression and improves survival in patients. Monitoring Parameters Health professionals should place on emphasis of monitoring patients using abiraterone. Before treatment hypokalemia and hypertension must be normalized in patients who are scheduled to use the drug . It is important to routinely monitoring a patients blood pressure while they are on this product. Potassium levels should be checked at baseline and regularly to prevent hypokalemia in patients. Patients should also be checked for signs of fluid retention, such as peripheral edema. Liver function tests (ALT, AST, and bilirubin) should be measured prior to initiating abiraterone treatment and continued every two weeks for the first three months of treatment and monthly afterwards . Patients should routinely be assessed for other common side effects, including joint pain and urinary tract infections. Conclusion CRPC is a very advanced stage of prostate cancer that is fatal. Abiraterone (Zytiga) has been shown to prolong survival and lower PSA in men with CRPC. The drug works by selectively inhibiting CYP17 and lowering the production of testosterone via upstream inhibition of precursors in prostate, adrenal, testicular tissues. The selective inhibition of CYP17 leads to a large increase in mineralocorticoid activity in the body leading to hypertension, edema, and hypokalemia. The excess mineralocorticoid activity is typically diminished by administering 10 mg of prednisone daily with abiraterone. It is important to note that abiraterone is indicated as a second line therapy for patients who have failed treatment with docetaxel. While on abiraterone patients need to be monitored for hepatic function, hypertension, hypokalemia, and edema. .