Postcoital contraception in Turkey

WOS: 000180984300009PubMed ID: 12566189Objectives: The purpose of this article is to determine the knowledge status of women concerning postcoital contraception when they turn to curettage in order to terminate an undesired pregnancy. Methods: This defining study has been carried out at a maternity hospital in Izmir on pregnant women admitted for curettage. We interviewed 150 pregnant cases using an improbability sampling method. Results: We discovered that 48.7% of women had avoided pregnancy before curettage by withdrawal before ejaculation. When we investigated the method used after uncontrolled coitus, 27.3% of cases reported vaginal douche while 12.7% indicated curettage. After having an unprotected coitus or failure in contraceptive methods 99.3% of the women indicated they would report to health institutes to utilize postcoital methods if they were familiar with them. Conclusions: Postcoital contraception may be a solution for undesired pregnancies. (C) 2002 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

MicroRNAs in liver cancer: a model for investigating pathogenesis and novel therapeutic approaches

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a large class of short RNAs (e.g., 20-24 nucleotides in length), whose main function is to posttranscriptionally regulate the expression of protein-coding genes. Their importance in tumorigenesis has been demonstrated over the past decade, and correspondingly, they have emerged as potential therapeutic molecules and targets. Liver cancer is one of the most common neoplastic diseases worldwide, and it currently has a poor prognosis owing to largely ineffective therapeutic options. Liver cancer is also an excellent model for testing miRNA-based therapy approaches as it can be easily targeted with the systemic delivery of oligonucleotides. In recent years, the role of miRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been established with molecular studies and the development of animal models. These studies have also provided the basis for evaluating the therapeutic potential of miRNAs, or anti-miRNAs. In general, the safety of miRNAs has been proven and antitumor activity has been observed. Moreover, because of the absence or presence of mild side effects, the prophylactic use of miRNA-based approaches may be foreseen