Focal Adhesion Kinase Related Gynecologic Cancer: a review

Gynecologic cancer is a major health burden in women across the world. Almost a half million mortalities from gynecologic cancer were reported every year. Knowledge in molecular biology research on cancer could lead to develope novel therapeutic options in gynecologic cancer. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase which plays an essential role in cancer cells survival, migration, invasion, metastasis and also tumor angiogenesis. Various human cancerous tissues were demonstrated over expression of FAK which were correlated to the survival. There were evidences showed that FAK involved in molecular pathways of ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer and cervical cancer. In the light of this review, FAK has been a promising mediator that regulates cancer growth and metastasis. Therefore, molecular therapies targeted FAK may be beneficial for patients with gynecologic cancer in the near future

Awareness of HPV and cervical cancer prevention among Cameroonian healthcare workers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cervical cancer, although largely preventable, remains the most common cause of cancer mortality among women in low-resource countries.</p> <p>The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer prevention among Cameroonian healthcare workers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire in 5 parts with 46 items regarding cervical cancer etiology and prevention was addressed to healthcare workers in six hospitals of Yaoundé, Cameroon. The investigators enlisted heads of nursing and midwifery to distribute questionnaires to their staff, recruited doctors individually, in hospitals and during conferences and distributed questionnaires to students in Yaoundé University Hospital and Medical School. Eight hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed, 401 collected. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. Chi-square tests were used and P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean age of respondents was 38 years (range 20-71 years). Most participants were aware that cervical cancer is a major public health concern (86%), were able to identify the most important etiological factors (58%) and believed that screening may prevent cervical cancer (90%) and may be performed by Pap test (84%). However, less than half considered VIA or HPV tests screening tests (38 and 47%, respectively). Knowledge about cancer etiology and screening was lowest among nurse/midwives.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Knowledge of cervical cancer and prevention by screening showed several gaps and important misconceptions regarding screening methods.</p> <p>Creating awareness among healthcare workers on risk factors and current methods for cervical cancer screening is a necessary step towards implementing effective prevention programs.</p

pFAK-Y397 overexpression as both a prognostic and a predictive biomarker for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma

<div><p>Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is important for tumor cell survival and metastasis in various cancers. However, its expression and prognostic value in patients with metastatic osteosarcoma remain unknown. We investigated the expression of FAK and its phosphorylated form (pFAK-Y397) in osteosarcoma tissues from 53 patients by immunohistochemistry and evaluated their correlations with clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes. The prognostic values were assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses. Total FAK and pFAK-Y397 were overexpressed in 48 (90.6%) and 33 (62.3%) cases, respectively. pFAK-Y397 overexpression was correlated with poor histologic response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with osteosarcoma regardless of the presence of metastasis or not. Kaplan-Meier curve showed that patients with metastatic osteosarcoma with pFAK-Y397 overexpression had significantly worse overall survival (OS) than those with non-overexpression (<i>P</i> = 0.044). Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed pFAK-Y397 overexpression as an independent prognostic predictor for OS and post metastases OS (PMOS) (<i>P</i> = 0.017, <i>P</i> = 0.006, respectively). Age at diagnosis was also an independent indicator for PMOS (<i>P</i> = 0.003). However, total FAK expression was not correlated with any clinicopathologic characteristics or OS in patients with metastatic osteosarcoma. In conclusion, our findings identified FAK as a common aberrant protein overexpression in various subtypes of osteosarcoma. pFAK-Y397 overexpression can be used as a prognostic biomarker predicting poor OS for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma, and the expression of pFAK-Y397 differentiated good and poor responders to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.</p></div

Relationships between clinicopathologic characteristics and total FAK, pFAK-Y397 expression in primary osteosarcoma tissues of all patients with osteosarcoma, and patients with osteosarcoma presented with metastases at diagnosis or developed metastases during treatment/follow-up.

<p>(non-overexpression = negative or weak or moderate expression)</p

Kaplan-Meier survival curves of overall survival for patients with metastatic osteosarcoma.

<p>(A) Presence of metastasis at diagnosis or during treatment/follow-up (survival rates, 5.3% vs 21.4%, <i>P</i> = 0.037). (B) Time to metastases; at diagnosis, ≤ 12 months, > 12 months (5.3% vs 0% vs 37.5%, <i>P</i> = 0.028). (C) pFAK-Y397 overexpression and non-overexpression (4.8% vs 25%, <i>P</i> = 0.044). (D) Post metastases overall survival (PMOS) of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma stratified by pFAK-Y397 overexpression and non-overexpression (4.8% vs 25%, <i>P</i> = 0.029).</p

Kaplan-Meier survival analyses for overall survival of all patients with osteosarcoma and for overall survival and post metastases overall survival of patients with osteosarcoma presented with metastases at diagnosis or developed metastases during treatment/follow-up.

<p>Kaplan-Meier survival analyses for overall survival of all patients with osteosarcoma and for overall survival and post metastases overall survival of patients with osteosarcoma presented with metastases at diagnosis or developed metastases during treatment/follow-up.</p

Multivariate Cox regression analyses for overall survival of all patients with osteosarcoma, and for overall survival and post metastases overall survival of patients with osteosarcoma presented with metastases at diagnosis or developed metastases during treatment/follow-up.

<p>Multivariate Cox regression analyses for overall survival of all patients with osteosarcoma, and for overall survival and post metastases overall survival of patients with osteosarcoma presented with metastases at diagnosis or developed metastases during treatment/follow-up.</p