Age at diagnosis in women with non-metastatic breast cancer: Is it related to prognosis?

Objective: Primary objective was to verify whether breast cancer patients aged less than 40 years at diagnosis have poorer prognosis than older patients. Secondary to assess prognostic factors influencing disease free survival. Methods: 941 women were diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer at NCI, Cairo in 2003. Epidemiologic, clinico-pathological characteristics, treatment modalities and disease free survival were compared among the two age groups. Prognostic factors were evaluated for association with disease-free survival. Results: One hundred-eighty-one patients (19.2%) were younger than 40 years and 760 (80.8%) were older. Older women presented with higher rates of comorbidities and younger women presented with more hormone non-responsive tumors. Young women presented with larger tumors pT4 = 13.8% compared to 8.6% in older women, yet not significant. Young women were treated with more conservative surgery, more adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy while older women with more radical mastectomies and more hormonal treatment. Recurrence rates were significantly higher among young women 44.2% compared to 34.5% in older women. Five year disease free survival in young women was 38.9% ± 4.6% compared to 48.6% ± 2.5% with adjusted hazard ratio of 1.22 95% CI (0.91–1.64), p = 0.19. Multivariate analyses identified positive axillary lymph nodes (pN2-pN3), larger tumor size (pT3-pT4), hypertension, lobular carcinoma type and lack of adjuvant systemic treatment as independent factors associated with poor DFS. Conclusion: Young women were not found to have poorer prognosis, yet they presented with more ER negative tumors. Most of women presented with advanced stage and young women had higher recurrence rates

Biomarkers of acute kidney injury in children with congenital heart disease after cardiopulmonary bypass

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a serious postoperative complication after cardiac surgery in children and is a major contributor to patient outcome. This study aims to identify the incidence of AKI in children undergoing cardiac surgery and the role of Interleukin 18 (IL-18) and Kidney Injury Molecule 1 (KIM-1) in diagnosis of AKI in comparison to creatinine. Methods: Forty-four children who underwent open heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass) for congenital heart disease were assessed for AKI diagnosis according the KDIGO criteria, urinary IL-18 and KIM-1 were determined by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay in addition to the assessment of length of stay in PICU and outcome and the effect of AKI on these parameters. Results: twenty three percent of the patient developed AKI, there were no statistical correlation between AKI and the factors (Age, gender, CBP and Risk adjustment for congenital heart surgery (RACHS-1) complexity score). Eight of our patients needed peritoneal dialysis (PD), seven of them developed AKI and the 8th patient didn’t develop due to the early initiation of PD. There was strong correlation between the development of AKI and the Length of stay in ICU