Epidemiology and Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in North-East of Iran

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of primary liver cancer, is a life-threatening disease worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology and clinical features of HCC patients who referred to Omid hospital in Mashhad, northeast of Iran.Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional retrospective study, we reviewed the medical records of patients who referred to Omid hospital – a cancer research center– in Mashhad during 1991 to 2012. Medical records of 29 patients with primary liver cancer proven with biopsy, CT scan or MRI were analyzed in this study.Results: Of 25 eligible cases, 68% were men and the rest were women. The majority of HCC patients were in the 60-69 age group. Also, 44% of patients were found to be hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) positive.Conclusion: The age distribution and male preponderance of HCC patients observed in the present study in line with other conducted studies in Iran and other countries. Since this is a retrospective study, a comprehensive study with a larger sample size in a case-control study is needed to establish other HCC-related factors in our province

Age-related Variation in Expression of Breast Cancer Tumour Markers in Iranian Patients

Background: There are believed to be several risk factors affecting the prognosis of breast cancer through their effect on the growth rate of tumour. In the present study, we investigated estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), Ki-67, and tumor protein P53 (TP53) as well-known biomarkers, particularly in breast cancer prognosis, associated with age. Method: In a case-control study, 406 breast cancer patients were considered retrospectively. In order to extract the clinical and pathologic data, we employed the patients’ records. The extracted information was compared between two groups: for patients under 40 (group I) and above 40 years of age (group II). Herein, the researchers performed statistical analysis using SPSS Ver16. Results: The most prevalent type of cancer in both groups was found to be invasive ductal carcinoma. The major method of treatment was modified radical mastectomy. According to our observations, grade 3 breast cancer was more common in group I. Lymph node involvement significantly increased in group I, while oestrogen and progesterone receptor expressions were less in this group. HER2, TP53, and Ki-67 oncogenes were overexpressed in group I compared with group II. Conclusion: Expression of HER2, TP53, and Ki-67 biomarkers and a reduction in the number of hormonal receptors in younger patients (<40YO) indicated that breast cancer might be more invasive in younger women with breast cancer and therefore, they might have poorer prognosis and less favourable outcomes

Management of ovarian immature teratoma grade‐II in pregnancy, two cases report and literature review

Abstract Postoperative chemotherapy during pregnancy after first trimester is essential for patients with initial disease stage 1, grade 2 ovarian immature teratoma and it associates with lower disease progression and recurrence

Steroidal Hormone Receptor Expression in Male Breast Cancer

Introduction: The etiology of male breast cancer is unclear, but hormonal levels may play a role in development of this disease. It seems that the risk of male breast cancer related to increased lifelong exposure to estrogen or reduced androgen. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the steroid hormone receptors including estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in Iranian cases with male breast cancer. Methods: This is a prospective review of 18 cases of male breast cancer in in Omid Hospital, Mashhad, North East of Iran, between October 2001 and October 2006. ER and PR were measured by immunohistochemistry. Clinicopathologic features and family history were obtained by interview. Data were analyzed with SPSS 13 using descriptive statistics.  Results: The median age was 63.2 year. All the cases were infiltrating ductal carcinoma. A high rate of expression of ER (88.8%) and PR (66.6%) was found in the studied cases. Conclusion: Cancers of the male breast are significantly more likely than cancers of the female breast to express hormonal receptors

Evaluating the Relationship between Body Size and Body Shape with the Risk of Breast Cancer

Objective: This study aims to determine the relationship between body size and body shape with the risk of breast cancer.Methods: In this case control study, 480 women participated (240 women with breast cancer in case group and 240 healthy women in control group). After completing the interview form, the weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference and breast size, were measured. The data were analyzed using statistical test by SPSS11.5.Results: The present study showed that the mean of hip circumference were significantly different in both groups (p=0.036). The size of the breast was statistically significant between the two groups. Thyroid type, one of the body shapes, was more seen in the case group than control group (p<0.001).Conclusion: This study revealed that the risk of breast cancer increases with increased hip circumference. In addition, the results indicate that body shape may be a useful predictor in determining the risk of breast cancer. More studies should be designed to address this subject

A competing risks cure frailty model: An application to relapse-free survival of breast cancer patients

In competing risks cure models, if there is unobserved heterogeneity among susceptible patients, application of the methods that do not consider this heterogeneity, may lead to invalid results. Therefore, this study aimed to introduce a model to cover the above properties of survival studies. We introduced a unified model by combining a parametric mixture cure gamma frailty model and vertical modeling of competing risks. We obtained estimates of parameters by an iterative method and Laplace transform technique. Then, we calculated the cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) and related confidence bounds by using a bootstrap approach. We conducted an extensive simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed model. The results of the simulation study showed the superior performance of our proposed competing risks cure frailty model. Finally, we applied the proposed method to analyze a real dataset of breast cancer patients

A Quantitative Study of the Effect of Electroporation on the Electropermeability and Cell Survival

Introduction: Electroporation is a practical technique used to transport the molecules across the cell membrane. The utilization of fluorescent molecules is the method widely used to evaluate the electropermeability of cell membrane as a result of pulse application. It is also possible to use mathematical methods to predict the changes caused in cell electropermeability as a result of the changes made in the pulse parameters. So the technique can be managed in such a way that the maximum permeability and minimum cell death can be achieved when desirable. Material and Methods: In this study, MCF-7 cell line of human breast adenocarcinoma tumor was used. Propidium Iodide (PI) and Fluorometry technique was used to monitor the cell electropermeability and the cell survival. The cells were incubated in PI and electrical pulses were applied affecting the cell permeability. As a result the cell membrane is disrupted releasing the fluorescent molecules affiliated with PI. The fluorescence signal emitted by the dead cells was determined by fluorometry and the obtained result was used to generate a curve in terms of the signal and the percent cell survival. The curve was used to resolve the fluorescence signal emitted by the permeated live cells. The incubation of the cells in PI and its uptake by the cells affects their electric pulses.  The permeability and cell survival for six different doses of electrical pulses was assessed immediately and also 72 hours after the application of the pulses. Results: The maximum fluorescence emission and excitation wavelengths of PI solution attained at 540 and 600 nanometers, respectively. The highest permeability signal and the least cell survival percentage were recorded for electrical pulses of 1500 volts at 25-microsecond duration and 800 volts at 500-microsecond duration, respectively. The cell death rate, immediately after getting the pulses was assessed lower than the one after 72 hours. Discussion and Conclusion: It is predicted that the increased strength or duration of the pulse will enhance the cell electropermeability provided the cell does not die and the cell membrane is not interrupted. A mathematical equation was obtained in terms of the level of electropermeability signals, cell survival percentage and pulse parameters. Based on the equation the permeability is correlated to the pulse duration by the second power and pulse strength by the first power. It seems that there are some processes that not only induce immediate cell death but also inhibit the injured cells to recover or proliferate. These processes are activated as a result of the damage caused by the application of increased strength and duration of the electrical pulses