Charismatic political leadership and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Malaysia: power, control, stability and defence

Prior to his renewed incumbency, as the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad (b. 1925) was able to remain in power for a more prolonged period compared to his predecessors. He was actively involved in galvanizing political action immediately after the independence of Malaysia and did not abandon active politics until his 2003 resignation. Under Mahathir's leadership and guidance, Malaysia made remarkable economic and political progress. He oversaw many innovations in the fledgling democracy and was able to develop the country due to his exceptional leadership qualities. His style and attitude towards engaging with problems, particularly his stance during the Asian Monetary Crisis in 1997, was highly criticized by some, and labelled as dictatorial. This stigma did not detract him from the path he considered right for Malaysia, and under his leadership he garnered worldwide appreciation for his national efforts and success in overcoming the economic crisis. Mahathir is undeniably an excellent case study as a prime minister, as well as a highly productive person. He contributed to a better understanding of modern Malaysia and his own tenure as PM in a series of books and articles. One of the significant aspects of his political heritage is his influential charisma and leadership. In all of his undertakings he has attracted both passionate support and hatred from friends and foes, but his political footsteps have always been certain and directed toward Malaysia's national wellbeing. Mahathir is a politician with sharp views on many issues and he was profoundly brave in verbalising them in the public arena, within Malaysia and internationally. His clear posture and speeches without fear made him a world-embracing political personality. This descriptive research study adopts a qualitative approach to analyse historical information, documents, memoirs and articles, and books to better understand the leadership of Mahathir. Copyright © IIUM Press

Political leadership in Turkey and Recep Tayyip Erdogan

It examines political change in Turkey under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his premiership from 2002 to 2014 in order to present the portrait of Erdogan as a political leader. The interactive approach was employed to structure this analysis. In line with this approach, external and internal resources on Erdogan’s leadership are utilised. External resources are considered with regard to institutional and non-institutional aspects. The non-institutional resources referred to the main characteristic of socio- economic condition of the state and relationship with the political regime and its secular representatives

Political leadership in Turkey and Recep Tayyib Erdogan

It examines political change in Turkey under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his premiership from 2002 to 2014 in order to present the portrait of Erdogan as a political leader. The interactive approach was employed to structure this analysis. In line with this approach, external and internal resources on Erdogan’s leadership are utilised. External resources are considered with regard to institutional and non institutional aspects. The non-institutional resources referred to the main characteristic of socio-economic condition of the state and relationship with the political regime and its secular representatives. With regard to internal resources of political leadership, the effects of certain life experiences on Erdogan’s politics, Islamic National Outlook policy background, major political concepts such as democracy and secularism are discussed. In addition, Erdogan's democracy conception and discourses are examined within the framework of the Justice and Development Party's conservative identity. Moreover, JDP’s policies, which emerged under Erdogan's political leadership, have been studied in the course of the transformation stages they had undergone. The political tradition of the JDP has been analysed by taking advantage of the theoretical opportunities of the centre and periphery model. Thus, Erdogan’s political leadership influence within the party and his relationship with the Justice and Development Party have been explained and analysed in the historical context

Association between efficacy and skin rash following treatment with the lapatinib in metastatic breast cancer

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is overexpressed in several solid human tumor types, such as colorectal, breast and lung cancers. There are strong evidences that EGFR inhibitors have an increased risk of dermatological side effects arise during the treatment of these agents. Lapatinib is an EGFR inhibitor approved for the treatment of patients with recurrent HER2-positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Herein, we report a 35 year old female patient, who had lung metastasis associated with breast cancer, with the presence of acneiform eruption in her face and metastatic lesions which did not progress for 17 months while she was having the lapatinib treatment for her metastatic lesions. As it is occur in all other EGFR inhibitors, the development of acneiform eruption during the lapatinib treatment might be an indicator of better and longer drug response

The Effect of Tumor Size on Overall Survival in Patients with pT3 Gastric Cancer: Experiences from 3 Centers

Background: Although a number of studies have investigated whether tumor diameter is a prognostic factor in gastric cancer, no consensus was reached on its clinical importance. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of tumor size on survival in patients with pT3 gastric cancer. Patients and Methods: A total of 232 patients with pT3 gastric cancer, who underwent curative gastrectomy with D2 lymph node dissection, were retrospectively analyzed. Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed that the cutoff value for tumor size was 8 cm. On the basis of this cutoff point, patients were divided into 2 groups: small-size tumors (SST, 8 cm). The prognostic significance of tumor size and the relationship between tumor size and other prognostic factors were evaluated. Results: LST was detected in 44% of patients. Resection type, tumor site, lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation, lymphatic vessel invasion, and blood vessel invasion were correlated with tumor size. The median survival of patients with SST was significantly better than that of patients with LST (107 vs. 18.2 months; p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that tumor size was an independent prognostic factor (p = 0.001; hazard ratio (HR): 0.43) as were resection type and blood vessel invasion. Conclusions: Our results show that tumor size is an important prognostic indicator in patients with pT3 gastric cancer, who underwent curative gastrectomy, and that the rate of LST increased with aggressiveness and stage of disease. Tumor size may be a useful and reliable prognostic factor for detection and staging in patients with gastric cancer, who have a poor prognosis after curative resection

Is Subdivision of pT2 Tumors Superior to Lymph Node Metastasis for Predicting Survival of Patients with Gastric Cancer? Review of 224 Patients from Four Centers

Background The prognostic significance of the subclassification of pT2 tumors and the association of these categories with other clinicopathological factors in gastric cancer patients were investigated

Extended autoantibody panel in Turkish patients with early‐stage systemic sclerosis: Coexpressions and their influences on clinical phenotypes

Abstract Background/Aim To investigate the frequency and clinical relevance of an extended autoantibody profile in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Materials and Methods In this cross‐sectional study, serum from 100 consecutive patients was subjected to indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) (HEp‐20‐10/primate liver mosaic) and Systemic Sclerosis Profile by EUROIMMUN to evaluate anti‐nuclear antibodies (ANA) and autoantibodies against 13 different autoantibodies in patients with SSc less than 3 years. Results Ninety‐three of 100 patients were positive for ANA by IIF. Fifty‐three patients showed single positivity, 26 anti‐topoisomerase antibodies (anti‐Scl70 ab), 16 anticentromere antibodies (ACAs), six anti‐RNA polymerase III antibodies (anti‐RNAPIII ab), one anti‐Ku antibody, one anti‐PM/Scl100 antibody, two anti‐PM/Scl75 antibodies, one anti‐Ro52 antibody, whereas 32 patients had multiple autoantibody positivities. Among classic SSc‐specific autoantibodies, anti‐Scl70 and anti‐RNAPIII abs showed the highest cooccurrence (n = 4). One patient was simultaneously positive for anti‐RNAPIII ab and ACA, and one was positive for ACA and anti‐Scl70 ab. The clinical features were not statistically different between single and multiple autoantibody‐positivity for classic SSc‐specific autoantibodies (ACA, anti‐Scl70 ab, and anti‐RNAPIII ab), except for digital ulcer in the multiantibody positive ACA group (p = .019). Conclusion Based on our results, coexpression of autoantibodies is not uncommon in SSc patients. Although autoantibodies specific to SSc in early disease show generally known clinical features, it remains to be investigated how the coexpression of autoantibodies will affect clinical presentation

Is Change in Hemoglobin Level a Predictive Biomarker of Tyrosine Kinase Efficacy in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma? A Turkish Oncology Group Study

Background: There are insufficient predictive markers for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Methods: A total of 308 metastatic RCC patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The increased hemoglobin (Hb) group had significantly higher progression-free survival and overall survival (OS) compared with the decreased Hb group at 11.5 versus 6.35months (p < .001) and 21.0 versus 11.36months (p < .001) respectively. The 1- and 3-year OS rates were higher in the Hb increased group, i.e., 84% versus 64% and 52% versus 35% respectively. Conclusions: The present study showed that increased Hb levels after tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy could be a predictive marker of RCC