Middle East Journal of Cancer
Volume:4 Issue: 4, Oct 2013

We conducted the present study to investigate the frequency of prothrombin G20210A mutation among acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients and healthy individuals from Western Iran and to detect the possible association between this mutation and the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in our population. The studied groups consisted of 92 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and 249 age- and sex-matched healthy children from Western Iran. The prothrombin G20210A mutation was identified by PCR-RFLP using the restriction enzyme of Hind III. The prevalence of prothrombin 20210 GA genotype was 6.5% in patients and 3.2% in controls (P=0.17). The frequency of the A allele in patients was 3.3% and in controls it was1.6%. The present study indicates the absence of any significant differences in the frequency of the prothrombin G20210A mutation between acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients and healthy individuals. The results suggest that this mutation may not be a risk factor for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in our population.

Emergence agitation is a transient confusional state that usually occurs within 10 to 30 minutes of recovery from general anesthesia. It may lead to serious consequences and increasing hospital costs. This study evaluates the effect of gabapentin on emergence agitation in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery. This randomized, double blind controlled trial enrolled 100 female patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists'' classifications I and II who were candidates for breast cancer surgery. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups (n=50) that received either oral gabapentin 600 mg or placebo. Induction and maintenance of anesthesia were similar in both groups. At the end of surgery, patient''s agitation score, pain score, and presence of nausea or vomiting were reported. In the ward, the presence of headache or dizziness was checked during the first 8 h. Mann- Whitney test was used for comparison of agitation and pain scores between two groups. Chi-square test was used for comparing occurrence of nausea, vomiting and qualitative. The qualitative demographic variable and t-test compared quantitative demographic variables. There was a significantly lower incidence of emergence agitation in the gabapentin group before (P<0.001) and after (P=0.029) extubation. There were significantly lower mean agitation scores before (P<001) and after (P=0.006) extubation and in the pain score (P=0.005) in the gabapentin group. The need for remifentanil infusion (P<0.05) during surgery was significantly lower in the gabapentin group compared with the placebo group. Occurrence of nausea and vomiting and gabapentin side effects that included headache or dizziness did not significantly differ between two groups (P=0.126, P=1, P=0.629 respectively). Gabapentin not only decreased postoperative pain but also effectively reduced emergence agitation without any significant side effects in patients undergoing breast cancer surgery.

Labeling, gathering mutual information, clustering and classification of central nervous system tumors may assist in predicting not only distinct diagnoses based on tumor-specific features but also prognosis. This study evaluates the epidemi- ological features of central nervous system tumors in children who referred to Mahak’s Pediatric Cancer Treatment and Research Center in Tehran, Iran. This cohort (convenience sample) study comprised 198 children (≤15 years old) with central nervous system tumors who referred to Mahak''s Pediatric Cancer Treatment and Research Center from 2007 to 2010. In addition to the descriptive analyses on epidemiological features and mutual information, we used the Least Squares Support Vector Machines method in MATLAB software to propose a preliminary predictive model of pediatric central nervous system tumor feature-label analysis.Of patients, there were 63.1% males and 36.9% females. Patients'' mean±SD age was 6.11±3.65 years. Tumor location was as follows: supra-tentorial (30.3%), infra- tentorial (67.7%) and 2% (spinal). The most frequent tumors registered were: high-grade glioma (supra-tentorial) in 36 (59.99%) patients and medulloblastoma (infra-tentorial) in 65 (48.51%) patients. The most prevalent clinical findings included vomiting, headache and impaired vision. Gender, age, ethnicity, tumor stage and the presence of metastasis were the features predictive of supra-tentorial tumor histology. Our data agreed with previous reports on the epidemiology of central nervous system tumors. Our feature-label analysis has shown how presenting features may partially predict diagnosis. Timely diagnosis and management of central nervous system tumors can lead to decreased disease burden and improved survival. This may be further facilitated through development of partitioning, risk prediction and prognostic models.

P300 is an enzyme that acetylates histones during stress. It also acetylates several non-histone proteins, including P53 which is the most important tumor suppressor gene. P53 plays an important role in the apoptosis of tumor cells. Hereby, this study describes the potency of cholera toxin B subunit as a P300 activator to induce apoptosis in a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and a lung fibroblast cell line (MRC-5) as a non-tumorigenic control sample. MCF-7 and MRC-5 were cultured in RPMI-1640 and treated with or without cholera toxin B subunit at the concentration of 85.43 μmol/L, based on the half- maximal inhibitory concentration index at different times (24, 48 and 72 h). The percentage of apoptotic cells was measured by flow cytometry. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR was performed to estimate the mRNA expression of P300 in MCF-7 and MRC- 5 with cholera toxin B subunit at different times. We used the ELISA and Bradford protein techniques to detect levels of total and acetylated P53 protein generated in MCF-7 and MRC-5. Our findings indicated that the cholera toxin B subunit effectively and significantly induced more apoptosis in MCF-7 compared to MRC-5. We showed that expression of P300 up-regulated by increasing the time of the cholera toxin B subunit treatment in MCF-7 but not in MRC-5. In addition, the acetylated and total P53 protein levels increased more in MCF-7 cells than in MRC-5 cells. Cholera toxin B subunit induced significant cell death in MCF-7, but it could be well tolerated in MRC-5. Therefore, cholera toxin B subunit can be suggested as an anti-cancer agent.

Colorectal cancer, a major health concern worldwide, is the third most common form of cancer and second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. The flavonoids are naturally occurring diphenylpropanoids ubiquitous in plant foods and important components of the human diet. Luteolin, a bioflavonoid, possesses many beneficial effects including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic activities. We used the HCT-15 colon adenocarcinoma cell line in this study. Cells were treated with luteolin (100 µM). Membrane damage markers such as alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase were analyzed in a time-dependent manner. Luteolin increased reactive oxygen species in a time-dependent manner. DNA damage, a hallmark of apoptosis, was induced by luteolin as analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Luteolin acts as a potential cytotoxic agent that can be used to treat colorectal cancer.

Phyllodes tumors account for less than 1% of breast tumors in women. Giant phyllodes tumors are larger than 10 cm in diameter. A 40-year-old lady presented with a left breast lump that was present for two years. She underwent a simple mastectomy. The tumor was 30×26×21 cm in size, weighed 15 kg and had a density of 0.915 gr/cm3. We believe this patient had the third largest breast phyllodes tumor according to size, the second largest according to weight and had the highest density among all cases thus reported in English-language publications.

The most common metastatic sites for colorectal carcinomas include the liver، lungs، brain، bones and peritoneal surfaces. In this report، a case of sigmoid colon carcinoma presented with cervical lymphadenopathy was detected with the help of PET/CT. A 57 year-old male presented with a complaint of swelling on the left side of his neck. Ultrasonographic examination of the neck revealed three hypoechoic، peripherally vascularized lymph nodes with the largest diameter of 3cm. The thyroid gland was normal. Fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed and the pathology result was a metastatic carcinoma. He underwent a PET/CT scan to search for the primary carcinoma which showed increased standardized uptake value of 13. 2 in the left colon and 10. 8 in the left cervical region. Colonoscopy showed an ulcerated mass lesion with obstruction of the lumen in the sigmoid colon. The patient had an anterior resection of the sigmoid colon with simultaneous resection of cervical lymph nodes. There was no evidence of intra-abdominal dissemination during surgery. The lymph nodes removed from the neck were also reportedas metastatic adenocarcinoma. The patient underwent six cycles of adjuvant FOL FOX chemotherapy regimen. The patient has remained disease free after nine months of follow-up. PET/CT was a quick، effective method for the detection of the primary tumor in the sigmoid colon. In additional to colonic resection and systemic therapy، palliative local control can also be achieved with the excision of metastatic lymph nodes in the neck.

Urethral leiomyomas are rare begin mesenchymal tumors that arise from the smooth muscle of the urethra. Most reported cases in the literature have occurred in women of child bearing age. These tumors present with a variety of symptoms. Excision is curative however occasional cases of relapse have been described. Here we describe a case of a female teenager who presented with intermittent urinary retention and final histopathological diagnosis of leiomyoma of the distal urethra following excision. She had an uneventful recovery and has remained completely symptom-free. To the best of our knowledge, this is first case of urethral leiomyoma in Pakistan that has presented with a history of recurrent urinary retention.