7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Nanomaterials: Promising structures for the management of oral cancer

Oral cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world with an estimated 300,000 new cases and 150,000 deaths annually. It is one of the growing causes of morbidity and mortality especially in South Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and inadequate oral hygiene are the most common risk factors. The main therapeutic approaches are surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and combined treatments, which may generally lead to serious adverse effects and complications. Moreover, a remarkably poor prognosis with a significant decrease in locoregional control and survival may develop especially in patients with advanced stages, even after application of current treatment modalities. Therefore, diagnosis of oral cancer at early stage is utmost important. Unfortunately, conventional diagnostic and treatment techniques remain far from optimal. Recently, nanotechnology offer new strategies in cancer management: (1) early detection of cancers via probes and biosensors, (2) better diagnosis and staging via improving the imaging systems, (3) nanoscale drug delivery systems, which may provide a significant decrease in adverse effects and toxicities of chemotherapeutics, and (4) nanotheranostics that integrate both diagnosis and therapy simultaneously. This chapter presents the role and potential effectiveness of using nanomaterials in different aspects of oral cancer. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Clinicopathological characteristics and mutation profile of BRAF and NRAS mutation in cutaneous melanomas in the Western Turkish population

Background/aim: Malignant melanoma is the most common cause of death due to skin cancers. The most common mutations in RAFRAS pathway from tumor oncogenes are BRAF and NRAS. In this study, we analyzed the frequency of BRAF and NRAS gene mutations and investigated their association with clinicopathological features of melanomas in the Turkish population. Materials and methods: 65 primary cutaneous melanoma were included in the study. The mutations were evaluated with real-time PCR-based PCR-array through allele-specific amplification, and the results were correlated with various clinicopathological characteristics. Results: 52.3% of the patients were female and 47.7% were male. The mean age of the patients with a mutation was lower than those without mutation. 16 patients had BRAF mutation. 12 patients had NRAS mutation. NRAS mutation was statistically more common in men (P = 0.036). The number of mitoses increased with the increase of the tumor thickness (P = 0.003). There was more mitosis in the presence of ulceration (P = 0.05). A total of 41.7% of NRAS mutations had adjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusion: We found lower mutation rate when compared to regional studies. NRAS mutation was common in men. This is the first study from our region evaluating the prognostic value of clinical stage and necessity of adjuvant treatment with the presence of BRAF and NRAS mutations. © TÜBİTAK