Generalised cost-effectiveness analysis for breast cancer prevention and care in Hong Kong Chinese

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Optimizing resource allocation for breast cancer prevention and care among Hong Kong Chinese women: a generalized cost-effectiveness analysis

Conference Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the PopulationPoster Presentations: Delivery of Health Services: no. P42-Ab0048BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Recommendations about funding of interventions through the full spectrum of the disease have often been made in isolation or been derived in separate single intervention analyses. We primarily evaluated and optimized budgetary allocations by comparing cost-effectiveness data for the selected preventive and management strategies throughout the disease course for breast cancer in HK Chinese women …published_or_final_versio

Measuring and Validating a General Cancer Predisposition Perception Scale: An Adaptation of the Revised-IPQ-Genetic Predisposition Scale

Background Illness perceptions are linked to individual help-seeking and preventive behaviors. Previous illness perception studies have identified five dimensions of illness-related experience and behaviour. The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) for genetic predisposition (IPQ-R-GP) was developed to measure illness perceptions in those genetically-predisposed to blood disease. We adapted the IPQ-R-GP to measure perceptions of generalized cancer predisposition. This paper describes the development and validation of the Cancer Predisposition Perception Scale (CPPS). Methods The draft CPPS scale was first administered to 167 well Hepatitis B carriers and 123 other healthy individuals and the factor structure was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis. Then the factor structure was confirmed in a second sample comprising 148 healthy controls, 150 smokers and 152 passive smokers using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results Six-factors comprising 26 items provided optimal fit by eigen and scree-plot methods, accounting for 58.9% of the total variance. CFA indicated good fit of the six-factor model after further excluding three items. The six factors, Emotional representation (5 items), Illness coherence (4 items), Treatment control (3 items), Consequences (5 items), Internal locus of control (2 items) and External locus of control (4 items) demonstrated adequate-togood subscale internal consistency (Cronbach's a = 0.63-0.90). Divergent validity was suggested by low correlations with optimism, self-efficacy, and scales for measuring physical and psychological health symptoms. Conclusion The CPPS appears to be a valid measure of perceived predisposition to generic cancer risks and can be used to examine cancer-risk-related cognitions in individuals at higher and lower cancer risk.published_or_final_versio

Thymomatous myasthenia gravis

BACKGROUND: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder targeting skeletal muscle acetylcholine receptor. Thymoma is associated with MG in some patients, the majority of whom present with symptoms of MG before detection of underlying thymoma. This study aimed to study clinical and serological characteristics of Chinese thymomatous MG patients …published_or_final_versio

Paclitaxel targets FOXM1 to regulate KIF20A in mitotic catastrophe and breast cancer paclitaxel resistance

FOXM1 has been implicated in taxane resistance, but the molecular mechanism involved remains elusive. In here, we show that FOXM1 depletion can sensitize breast cancer cells and mouse embryonic fibroblasts into entering paclitaxel-induced senescence, with the loss of clonogenic ability, and the induction of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase activity and flat cell morphology. We also demonstrate that FOXM1 regulates the expression of the microtubulin-associated kinesin KIF20A at the transcriptional level directly through a Forkhead response element (FHRE) in its promoter. Similar to FOXM1, KIF20A expression is downregulated by paclitaxel in the sensitive MCF-7 breast cancer cells and deregulated in the paclitaxel-resistant MCF-7TaxR cells. KIF20A depletion also renders MCF-7 and MCF-7TaxR cells more sensitive to paclitaxel-induced cellular senescence. Crucially, resembling paclitaxel treatment, silencing of FOXM1 and KIF20A similarly promotes abnormal mitotic spindle morphology and chromosome alignment, which have been shown to induce mitotic catastrophe-dependent senescence. The physiological relevance of the regulation of KIF20A by FOXM1 is further highlighted by the strong and significant correlations between FOXM1 and KIF20A expression in breast cancer patient samples. Statistical analysis reveals that both FOXM1 and KIF20A protein and mRNA expression significantly associates with poor survival, consistent with a role of FOXM1 and KIF20A in paclitaxel action and resistance. Collectively, our findings suggest that paclitaxel targets the FOXM1-KIF20A axis to drive abnormal mitotic spindle formation and mitotic catastrophe and that deregulated FOXM1 and KIF20A expression may confer paclitaxel resistance. These findings provide insights into the underlying mechanisms of paclitaxel resistance and have implications for the development of predictive biomarkers and novel chemotherapeutic strategies for paclitaxel resistance.Oncogene advance online publication, 11 May 2015; doi:10.1038/onc.2015.152.published_or_final_versio

Efforts of Translational Research in Last Decade: Discovery of Gene Expression Signature for Prognostication and Prediction

Panel IV: What is Hot in Breast Cancer Translational Research?link_to_OA_fulltex

What is hot in breast cancer - from a common single disease to a rare heterogeneous disease

Cancer Treatment in the Era of Molecular Targeted TherapyConference Theme: Innovations in Medicin

Update from SABCS Metastatic Disease

Session 8: Advanced Diseas