Hepatoprotective potential of chestnut bee pollen on carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic damages in rats

This study was supported by Research Fund of Karadeniz Technical University (Project no. 2009.111.002.5). Two of the authors, Oktay Yildiz and Huseyin Sahin, were funded by TUBITAK-BIDEB for their graduate studies.Bee pollen has been used as an apitherapy agent for several centuries to treat burns, wounds, gastrointestinal disorders, and various other diseases. The aim of our study was to investigate the hepatoprotective effects of chestnut bee pollen against carbon tetrachloride (CCI4)-induced liver damage. Total phenolic content, flavonoid, ferric reducing/antioxidant power, and DPPH radical activity measurements were used as antioxidant capacity determinants of the pollen. The study was conducted in rats as seven groups. Two different concentrations of chestnut bee pollens (200 and 400 mg/kg/day) were given orally and one group was administered with silibinin (50 mg/kg/day, i.p.) for seven days to the rats following the CCI4 treatment. The protective effect of the bee pollen was monitored by aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (AST) activities, histopathological imaging, and antioxidant parameters from the blood and liver samples of the rats. The results were compared with the silibinin-treated and untreated groups. We detected that CCI4 treatment induced liver damage and both the bee pollen and silibinin-treated groups reversed the damage; however, silibinin caused significant weight loss and mortality due, severe diarrhea in the rats. The chestnut pollen had showed 28.87 mg GAE/g DW of total phenolic substance, 8.07 mg QUE/g DW of total flavonoid, 92.71 mg Cyn-3-glu/kg DW of total anthocyanins, and 9 mg beta-carotene/100 g DW of total carotenoid and substantial amount of antioxidant power according to FRAP and DPPH activity. The results demonstrated that the chestnut bee pollen protects the hepatocytes from the oxidative stress and promotes the healing of the liver damage induced by CCI4 toxicity. Our findings suggest that chestnut bee pollen can be used as a safe alternative to the silibinin in the treatment of liver injuries

Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Imaging of a Patient with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Prostate

Primary squamous cell carcinoma is an uncommon tumor of the prostate gland. We report a 77-year-old male patient with urinary frequency and constipation. Fine needle biopsy from prostate was suspicious of squamous cell carcinoma of the prostate. Whole body positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan revealed high fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in prostate gland. Transurethral resection confirmed the diagnosis. In contrast to prostatic adenocarcinoma, high fluorodeoxyglucose accumulation was observed in the primary tumor of the prostate gland

Oblique Parameters and Extra Generations via OPUCEM

Recent improvements to OPUCEM, the tool for calculation of the contributions of various models to oblique parameters, are presented. OPUCEM is used to calculate the available parameter space for the four family Standard Model given the current electroweak precision data. It is shown that even with the restrictions on Higgs boson and new quark masses presented in the 2011 autumn conferences, there is still enough space to allow a fourth generation with Dirac type neutrinos. For Majorana type neutrinos, the allowed region is even larger. The electroweak precision data also favors non-zero mixing between light and fourth generations, thus effectively reducing current experimental limits. Additionally, calculations with OPUCEM show that even 5th and 6th generations are compatible with the existing electroweak precision data, with a probability comparable to or higher than the Standard Model with 3 generations.Comment: 11 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables - Version accepted by EPJ-

The effects of primary tumour location on patients with all stages of colorectal cancer

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of tumor localization in early and advanced stage colon cancer patients. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 249 primary colorectal cancer (CRC) patients at medical oncology department of Adnan Menderes University between 2013-2017. Results: In early stage, left sided tumors were significantly more common in males (p=0.027). In right sided tumours recurrence developed earlier in female patients (p=0.043) and female sex young age were unfavorable prognostic factors for the relapse time. Positive and unknown RAS mutation status were found to be unfavorable prognostic factors for both side. In metastatic stage, patients with RAS mutant left sided tumors lived longer than RAS negative patients (49.0 vs 25.5 months respectively, p0.001). In right sided tumors anti-EGFR agents provided longer OS and PFS than anti VEGF agents;11 and 1.8 months respectively. In left sided tumors, there was no difference, only PFS was longer with anti-VEGFR agents (13 months vs 6.3 months). In RAS positive patients, OS and PFS were longer with anti-VEGFR treatment in the left side tumors (OS 49.0 months vs 30.6 months PFS, 13.2 months vs 7.2 months, p=0.784). Conclusions: In our study, the efficacy results of the treatment which was given according to the primary tumor location were not compatible with the literature. Primer tumor location is a transition period for understanding of molecular subtypes for the colon cancer. The on-going studies of genomic differences between right and left sided tumors will be able to better clarify the biologic explanation of the observed difference

What are the clinicopathological features of elderly early-stage breast cancer patients and is there any difference in patients over 70 years of age?

Aim: Although patients over 65 years of age are considered to be elderly patients with breast cancer, theperformance status and comorbidity of patients aged 70 and over is not the same as patients aged 65e70years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the treatment modalities, features of patients and disease inelderly early-stage breast cancer patients.Material and methods: Data of 87 patients were examined. Demographic data, disease data (tumor size,lymph node involvement, hormone receptor status, Her-2 status), comorbid diseases, and given treatments were evaluated. The patients were divided into two groups as 65e70 years of age and over 70years of age. All the collected data was compared.Results: There was no difference in hormone receptor status between 2 groups (p > 0,05). Her-2 negativity was found to be significantly higher in patients $geq$ 70 years (%61 vs %83, p ¼ 0,024). There was nosignificant difference between two groups in terms of surgery (p > 0,05). The frequency of chemotherapyand radiotherapy was significantly lower in the older group (%37 vs %17, p ¼ 0,009). OS and DFS weresignificantly shorter in triple negative disease (69.59 months,p ¼ 0.039 and 53.95 months,p ¼ 0.024respectively). ER positive subtype has a significantly better DFS (164 vs 47 months, p ¼ 0,037) and OS(170 vs 68 months, p ¼ 0,046). Additionally, PR positive disease has a significantly better DFS (129 vs 84months, p ¼ 0,028) and OS (190 vs 96 months, p ¼ 0,006). HER2-negative subtype had better OS thanHER2-positive subtype (172 vs 91 months, p ¼ 0,016). DFS was significantly shorter in $geq$ 70years patients(161.1 months vs 102.1 months, p ¼ 0.045), however OS was not different among the 2 groups. Adjuvanttherapy prolongs DFS in both groups(65e70 years 107,5 vs 129,3 months, >70years 86,2 vs 95,7 monthsp ¼ 0,034).Conclusion: Age is an important and independent risk factor for the treatment of the elderly patients,however patient age alone cannot be decisive. In current study, the pathological features of the tumorand the effects of these features on DFS and OS were similar in young breast cancer patients and patientsover 70 years of age. In addition, we found that adjuvant treatment modalities affect OS and DFS positively as in the case of young patients. There is an absolute need for prospective studies involving elderlypatients

Yaşlı metastatik mide kanserli hastalarda tek başına oral kapesitabin ile platin kombinasyonlarının karşılaştırılması

Objective: Gastric cancer is responsible for a considerable proportion of all cancer-related deaths. Elderly cancerpatients are often ignored in prospective studies in which the efficacy of chemotherapy is evaluated, although morethan half of all gastric cancer cases are over the age of 70 years. The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy andfeasibility of capecitabine-based chemotherapies in geriatric patients with gastric cancer.Method: A total of 81 patients over the age of 65 years who received chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer attwo oncology centers between 2012 and 2017 were included in the study. The medical records of the patients wereevaluated retrospectively, and the patients and their performance status were evaluated using the American JointCommittee on Cancer staging system and the World Health Organisation scale, respectively.Results: The mean age was 74 years. The male gender and the adenocarcinoma histological type were seen in higherrates. Most of the patients underwent capecitabine-cisplatin chemotherapy, and the mean follow-up was 42 months.The median overall survival of the groups of patients receiving capecitabine-cisplatin, capecitabine-oxaliplatin andcapecitabine was 8 months, 10.7 months and 8.9 months, respectively, indicating no statistically significantdifferences between the groups (p=0.467). The median overall survival of all patients was found to be 8.7 months. Theprogression-free survival between the different chemotherapy subgroups was not statistically significant (p=0.59).The most common side effect was found to be anemia. Grade 3–4 adverse effects were similar between the arms of thestudy (p=0.725). A statistically significant increase was found in the mortality risk with an increased number ofmetastatic sites in a multivariate analysis (p=0.001). No correlation was found between the chemotherapy protocolsand mortality risk (p=0.472). Adverse effects such as stomatitis, nausea/vomiting, neuropathy, neutropenic fever andnephrotoxicity, independent of chemotherapy, were statistically and significantly associated with the mortality risk(p=0.045, p=0.047, p=0.036, p=0.02 and p=0.049, respectively). Conclusions: Our study results show that adverse effects such as stomatitis, nausea/vomiting, neutropenic fever,nephrotoxicity and neuropathy increase the mortality risk which suggest that particularly oral health care, theapplication of appropriate antiemetic treatments, the close follow-up of kidney function tests and adequate hydration,protective infection barrier measures and effective treatment of neuropathy associated with chronic diseases are asimportant as chemotherapy in geriatric cases

Protective role of progesterone on lung injury induced by ischemia reperfusion of the lower limbs

Objective: Remote lung injury is one of the most challenging issues in patients undergoing ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury of the lower limbs. We examined the role of progesterone (PG) on the remote injury of the lungs seen after IR of the lower limbs. Methods: Eighteen male Sprague Dawley rats were divided into three groups. (1) Control: rats had only two physiological saline injections intraperitoneally (i.p.) 2 h apart under general anesthesia. (2) IR: underwent 2 h tourniquet induced ischemia for both lower limbs followed by 2 h of reperfusion. Animals were injected with physiological saline (i.p.) before both ischemia and reperfusion. (3) IR + PG: rats underwent the same IR protocol as the IR group and were injected with PG (16 mg/kg, i.p.) before both ischemia and reperfusion. After reperfusion, rats were sacrificed, and lung tissues were taken out for histopathologic and biochemical analyses. Results: In IR + PG group, tissue levels of malondialdehyde and nitric oxide decreased significantly compared with the IR group (p<0.01). Similarly, glutathione level and superoxide dismutase and glutathione S-transferase activities significantly increased in the IR + PG group than in the IR group (p<0.05, p<0.01, and p<0.05, respectively). In light microscopy, reduced inflammatory cell infiltration, amelioration in alveolar structure, and mild vascular congestion in the parenchyma were seen in the IR + PG group. A significant improvement in histopathologic score was seen in the IR + PG group compared with the IR group (p<0.001). Conclusion: PG might be effective in attenuating remote injury of the lung in lower body IR via its antioxidant functio