The incidence rate of female breast cancer in Saudi Arabia: an observational descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from Saudi Cancer Registry 2001-2008

Background: This study presents descriptive epidemiological data related to breast cancer cases diagnosed from 2001 to 2008 among Saudi women, including the frequency and percentage of cases, the crude incidence rate (CIR), and the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), adjusted by the region and year of diagnosis. Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive epidemiological study of all Saudi female breast cancer cases from 2001 to 2008. The statistical analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, a linear regression model, and analysis of variance with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Results: A total of 6,922 female breast cancer cases were recorded in the Saudi Cancer Registry from 2001 to 2008. The highest overall percentages (38.6% and 31.2%) of female breast cancer cases were documented in women who were 30–44 and 45–59 years of age, respectively. The eastern region of Saudi Arabia had the highest overall ASIR, at 26.6 per 100,000 women, followed by Riyadh at 20.5 and Makkah at 19.4. Jazan, Baha, and Asir had the lowest average ASIRs, at 4.8, 6.1, and 7.3 per 100,000 women, respectively. The region of Jouf (24.2%; CIR 11.2, ASIR 17.2) had the highest changes in CIR and ASIR from 2001 to 2008. While Qassim, Jazan and Tabuk recorded down-trending rates with negative values. Conclusion: There was a significant increase in the CIRs and ASIRs for female breast cancer between 2001 and 2008. The majority of breast cancer cases occurred among younger women. The region of Jouf had the greatest significant differences of CIR and ASIR during 2001 to 2008. Jazan, Baha, and Najran had the lowest average CIRs and ASIRs of female breast cancer, whereas the linear trend upward is a concern in certain regions, such as the eastern region, Makkah, and Riyadh. However, further analytical epidemiological research is needed to identify the potential risk factors involved in the increase in the prevalence of breast cancer among Saudi women

The power of the age standardized incidence rate to discover the gene link between cancer diseases: development of a new epidemiological method to save money, time, and effort for genetic scientists

Background: This study provides an incipient epidemiological rule using the concept of direct method of standardization to determine the genetic link between cancer diseases. Methods: The overall 8 or 10 years age standardized incidence rate (ASIR) for both cancer diseases, for example (A) and (B) should be calculated for all regions of the country. A line chart should be used to display the overall ASIR trend of both diseases (A and B). Pearson’s correlation can be used to determine the strength of the association between the overall ASIRs of both diseases. The overlap or opposite direction of the overall ASIR trend of both diseases (A and B) should be determined and studied for possible associations between cancer diseases. Results: If the trend of the overall 8 or 10 years ASIR of a disease (A) follows that of disease (B) in all regions of the country, then the genes of patients with both diseases (A and B) will be highly homogeneous, and they should be studied in the region with the highest and lowest overall ASIR for both diseases (A and B). In addition, if there is an opposite direction or overlapping trend for both diseases (A and B) in certain regions of the country or among specific groups of people with the same demographic characteristics, then the genes of patients will be investigated for both diseases to identify the potential gene link between cancer diseases. Conclusion: This study revealed that the overall ASIR trends of female breast cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer are very similar in all regions of Saudi Arabia and England. Our epidemiological evidence helps to save money, time, and effort for testing the potential gene link between cancer diseases

The pattern of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in Saudi Arabia: a descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from the Saudi Ministry of Health

Purpose: This study describes the epidemiology of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia. Patients and methods: Epidemiological analysis was performed on data from all MERS-CoV cases recorded by the Saudi Ministry of Health between June 6, 2013 and May 14, 2014. The frequency of cases and deaths was calculated and adjusted by month, sex, age group, and region. The average monthly temperature and humidity of infected regions throughout the year was also calculated. Results: A total of 425 cases were recorded over the study period. The highest number of cases and deaths occurred between April and May 2014. Disease occurrence among men (260 cases [62%]) was higher than in women (162 cases [38%]), and the case fatality rate was higher for men (52%) than for women (23%). In addition, those in the 45–59 years and ≥60 years age groups were most likely to be infected, and the case fatality rate for these people was higher than for other groups. The highest number of cases and deaths were reported in Riyadh (169 cases; 43 deaths), followed by Jeddah (156 cases; 36 deaths) and the Eastern Region (24 cases; 22 deaths). The highest case fatality rate was in the Eastern Region (92%), followed by Medinah (36%) and Najran (33%). MERS-CoV infection actively causes disease in environments with low relative humidity (<20%) and high temperature (15°C–35°C). Conclusion: MERS-CoV is considered an epidemic in Saudi Arabia. The frequency of cases and deaths is higher among men than women, and those above 45 years of age are most affected. Low relative humidity and high temperature can enhance the spread of this disease in the entire population. Further analytical studies are required to determine the source and mode of infection in Saudi Arabia

Incidence rate of ovarian cancer cases in Saudi Arabia: an observational descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from Saudi Cancer Registry 2001–2008

Purpose This study provides descriptive epidemiological data, such as the percentage of cases diagnosed, crude incidence rate (CIR), and age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of ovarian cancer in Saudi Arabia from 2001–2008. Patients and methods A retrospective descriptive epidemiological analysis of all ovarian cancer cases recorded in the Saudi Cancer Registry (SCR) from January 2001–December 2008 was performed. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance tests, Poisson regression, and simple linear modeling. Results A total of 991 ovarian cancer cases were recorded in the SCR from January 2001–December 2008. The region of Riyadh had the highest overall ASIR at 3.3 cases per 100,000 women, followed by the Jouf and Asir regions at 3.13 and 2.96 cases per 100,000 women. However, Hail and Jazan had the lowest rates at 1.4 and 0.6 cases per 100,000 women, respectively. Compared to Jazan, the incidence rate ratio for the number of ovarian cancer cases was significantly higher (P<0.001) in the Makkah region at 6.4 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.13–9.83), followed by Riyadh at 6.3 (95% CI: 4.10–9.82), and the eastern region of Saudi Arabia at 4.52 (95% CI: 2.93–6.98). The predicted annual CIR and ASIR for ovarian cancer in Saudi Arabia could be defined by the equations 0.9 + (0.07× years) and 1.71 + (0.09× years), respectively. Conclusion We observed a slight increase in the CIRs and ASIRs for ovarian cancer in Saudi Arabia from 2001–2008. Riyadh, Jouf, and Asir had the highest overall ASIR, while Jazan and Hail had the lowest rates. Makkah, Riyadh, and the eastern region of Saudi Arabia had the highest incidence rate ratio for the number of ovarian cancer cases. Further analytical studies are required to determine the potential risk factors of ovarian cancer among Saudi women

Clinical Teaching: Sixty Tips for Successful Implementation

Background: A good planning of clinical teaching which is followed by systematic implementation results in better training outcomes. This paper defines the detailed roles of tutor, students, patients, and the clinical learning environment from the planning phase to what should be done post the session. It relies on the idea of using checklist (tips). Our hypothesis is that checklist summarizes all relevant information in a single abstraction. Methods: A literature review of various databases such as PubMed, Google scholar, and Cochrane with different search terms and search strategies were done. Qualitative and quantitative studies published in English in the aforementioned databases, discussing both the concepts of clinical teaching as well as the roles of tutor, students, patients, and environment were reviewed. In addition, authors' experience as clinical educators were further used to define the variables. The term tips are used to refer to the steps in a checklist. Results: Sixty tips were identified. These tips highlight the roles and characteristics of: clinical tutors (26 tips), students (18 tips), clinical environment (8 tips), and patients (8 tips). Conclusions: These tips serve as a mini guide to everyone who conduct clinical teaching to medical students in the ward. &nbsp

Multi-Resolution Overlapping Stripes Network for Person Re-Identification

This paper addresses the person re-identification (PReID) problem by combining global and local information at multiple feature resolutions with different loss functions. Many previous studies address this problem using either part-based features or global features. In case of part-based representation, the spatial correlation between these parts is not considered, while global-based representation are not sensitive to spatial variations. This paper presents a part-based model with a multi-resolution network that uses different level of features. The output of the last two conv blocks is then partitioned horizontally and processed in pairs with overlapping stripes to cover the important information that might lie between parts. We use different loss functions to combine local and global information for classification. Experimental results on a benchmark dataset demonstrate that the presented method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 5 page

Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma of the Lacrimal Gland: Sustained Remission after Eradication of Helicobacter Pylori Infection

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is the third most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and it is strongly associated with helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach. MALT lymphoma of the lacrimal gland usually presents as a localized disease process in extranodal tissues. The treatment options of MALT lymphoma of the lacrimal gland chiefly include radiation of the tumor, chemotherapy, surgical removal, or a combination of these strategies. We report a case of localized MALT lymphoma of the lacrimal gland, with prolonged sustained remission after eradication of gastric Helicobacter pylori (H. Pylori) infection. He sustains in remission of lacrimal MALT lymphoma for four years without chemotherapy or radiotherapy