Basic and Clinical Cancer Research
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Spring-Summer 2015

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was born of an idea of redirecting some of the huge amount of money that the most powerful nations were investing in their military services just after the Second World War to use these funds not to fight each other but to fight against cancer, a common enemy of all...

In view of the importance of teachers and faculties in changing the perspective of population on this issue, and also the increasing rate of prostate cancer screening, the present study was carried out to evaluate the knowledge base, attitude and performance of teachers and faculty members in relation to prostate cancer screening test. In this study,we evaluated the teacher and faculties knowledge,attitude and practice toward Prostate Cancer Screening test. The present cross-sectional survey was conducted on a community with high education level. The study was carried out on a sample of 414 randomly selected subjectsinvolving 212 participants from high school teachers and 212 faculty members.Stratified random sampling method was used proportionate to size, and main population in each group. P-value:0.05 was considered for estimating sample size.Valid and reliable questionnaires were completed via face to face interview. Data were analyzed using SPSS.V.13. Difference of mean scores for knowledge (p value= 0.80) and attitude (p value= 0.71) about CRC screening in male teachers of different educational degree was not statistically significant but there was significant difference in mean scores for knowledge (p value= 0.001) and attitude (p value= 0.05) in male teachers of different school districts. Among female teachers with different academic degrees, although there was a significant difference in knowledge mean scores (p value = 0.001), mean scores of attitude (p value=0.89) were not statistically different. This study showed that there is no acceptable knowledge, attitude and practice level among faculties and teachers of different zones in Shiraz regarding screening of colon cancer. More attention should be paid to providing the necessary information about colon cancer screening through,health professionals and other sources.

Today, use of nanotechnology for cancer therapy is an active field of research. Early detection, accurate diagnosis, and individual treatment are the aims which cause nanotechnology as an attractive area for research. Among metallic nanomaterials, gold nanostructures have unique properties which make them remarkable candidates for biomedical approaches. Surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) effect of gold nanostructures leads to a maximum absorption in a particular electromagnetic wavelength. This wavelength changes with shape and size of the particles, so optical properties of gold nanostructures are adjustable. In this review, we will summarize the application of gold nanostructures in treatment of cancer especially as the agent in Plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) and photosensitizer in photodynamic therapy (PDT).

Organized cervical screening program has led to prevention of cervical cancer prevention worldwide. Women’s knowledge and attitudes is linked to their participation in cervical screening. We studied the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of women about cervical cancer prevention and the related factors in Tehran, I.R. of Iran. Trained interviewers used a validated questionnaire to study KAP in healthy women about cervical cancer prevention. We studied association between women’s knowledge and their attendance in cervical screening with different explanatory variables. We used logistic regression model for statistical analyses. We recruited 799 women in this study. The women’s knowledge about cervical cancer prevention was positively associated with age at first pregnancy (P- value for trend 0.003). Illiterate women had 93% lower knowledge about cervical cancer and screening compared to highly educated women (OR=0.07, CI: 0.01, 0.34). Women who were living in the northern part of the city (higher socio economic status (SES)) had about 2-fold higher knowledge (OR=0.42, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.64) and had a higher participation rate in screening (OR=0.40, 95% CI: 0.26, 0.64) than women in the southern (lower SES) part of the city. Woman with a higher knowledge had about 2-fold higher participation in the screening than those who had lower knowledge (OR=1.90, 95% CI: 1.30, 2.70). We found that higher women’s knowledge, living in the high SES area, and higher academic education were statistically associated with attendance to screening. Tailored health promotion program for public awareness may increase the attendance in cervical screening.

MMP enzymes are a family of membrane proteins that are capable of digesting extracellular matrix compounds (ECM) and basement membrane. Matrilysin enzyme is the smallest member of MMP family that is encoded by MMP-7 gene (matrilysin). According to the reports, G allele of -181 A/G single nucleotide polymorphism of MMP-7 gene causes an increase in the expression of this enzyme. This study aims to investigate the effect of promoter single nucleotide polymorphism of this gene on the colorectal cancer and compare the accuracy of tetra-primer ARMS PCR and RFLP-PCR techniques. In this study, genomic DNA was extracted from total blood of 61 patients with colorectal cancer and 77 healthy subjects as controls and, then, was genotyped by tetra-primer ARMS PCR technique. A number of randomly selected samples were later genotyped by RFLP-PCR. As expected, the results of RFLP-PCR technique confirmed the results of tetra-primer ARMS technique. Results of this study showed no statistical association between this polymorphism and risk of onset and metastasis of the colorectal cancer in the population of Isfahan.Discussion and Tetra-primer ARMS technique can be used as an efficient clinical technique.