International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:2 Issue: 4, Autumn 2009

Eating and drinking are essential for life. There are clinical situations that artificial hydration is necessary. For dying patients artificial hydration looks useless and in many conditions could even be harmful (e.g. pulmonary edema in hypoalbuminemic patients). In our medical culture artificial hydration is a symbol of care to the patient and withholding it, is a very emotive issue, especially to the family. Attention to autonomy, explanation about advantages and disadvantages of artificial hydration to the family and reassure them that the patient will be looked after and kept comfortable till the last seconds might be the solution of this ethical dilemma.

At present, complementary and alternative medicine has brought hope for many hopeless patients. Most cancerous patients who also use alternative medicine prefer this combination of alternative and conventional medicine since they are of the opinion that this combination is superior to either alone, which can be referred to as raising new hopes. A literature review on this topic was performed. In this paper, the author briefly discusses an important nutraceutical, beta-glucan. There are many interesting reports confirming its usefulness as a cancer killer in animal models. Some interesting reports are hereby listed in the short article.

Cancer stem cells are a small subpopulation of cells within a tumor which are responsible for maintaining the tumor mass. A number of factors such as OCT-4 that govern the fate of adult stem cells also play a role in malignant cell transformation. OCT-4 is a key regulator of self-renewal in embryonic stem cells; its expression is potentially correlated with tumorigenesis and can affect some aspects of tumor behavior such as tumor recurrence or resistance to therapies. We have investigated the potential expression of OCT-4 on a panel of tumors including breast, brain, thyroid and testicular carcinomas, using immunohistochemistry. The level of expression of OCT-4 was then compared to different tumor types and degree of differentiation. OCT-4 was expressed at the highest levels on nuclear site of seminoma compared with other tumors. The expression of OCT-4 was detectable in both nucleus and the cytoplasm of almost all breast tumors, but it was detectable at much lower level in normal breast tissues. OCT-4 expression was noted on poorly differentiated papillary carcinoma of thyroid compared to normal follicles of thyroid gland adjacent to the tumor. Breast carcinomas and papillary carcinomas of thyroid express elevated levels of embryonic stem cell gene OCT-4, suggesting that these tumors may contain cells indicative of embryonic-like stem cells. Identification of cancer stem cells in different malignant tumors may be useful for prognostic evaluation and administration of a new treatment which target this sub-population of tumor cells.

Bee-collected pollen and propolis are apicultural products which are recognized as a well balanced food. These beehive products are composed of nutritionally valuable substances and contain considerable amounts of polyphenol substances which may have several useful pharmacological properties. The protective activity of Bee-collected pollen (BPE) and water-soluble derivative of propolis(WSDPE) aqueous extracts was studied on cisplatin(CDDP) induced genotoxicity in male albino mice(Mus mascullus). The treatment of mice with Bee-collected pollen and propolis extracts at doses 140 and 8.4 mg/kg body weight/day, respectively for 14 days synergistically with the intraperitoneal administration of cisplatin at dose of 2.8 mg/kg b.wt exhibited significant chemoprotective activity. Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity was evaluated by the bone marrow chromosomal aberration assay and mitotic index, respectively. WSDPE and BPE, alone did not significantly induce chromosomal aberrations confirming their non-mutagenic effects. While, the animals in groups five and six (G5 and G6), that were injected i.p. with CDDP alone for one week and then for the next 14 days these animals were given WSDPE and BPE in synergistic with i.p. injection of CDDP, exhibited a significant decrease in cytogenetic damages induced by CDDP in bone marrow cells. The anti-cytotoxicity effects of WSDPE and BPE were also evident, as observed by significant increase in mitotic index, when compared to positive control group (G2). Thus, results of the present investigation revealed that WSDP and BPE have chemoprotective potential against CDDP induced genotoxicity in bone marrow cells of male albino mice. Also, the present investigation indicated that the chemoprotective frequency of BPE was much greater than WSDPE.

Chemotherapy by using agents such as etoposide is a common way for inhibition of tumors. This treatment is accompanied by many undesirable side effects. Calprotectin is an abundant protein in the neutrophil cytosol, it has growth-inhibitory and apoptosis-inducing activities against various cell types such as tumor cells. In this study to introduce calprotectin as a suitable substitute anticancer, its growth inhibitory effect on human gastric adenocarcinoma cell line (AGS) and human foreskin fibroblast cells (HFFF) is compared to etoposide effect on these two cell lines. Calprotectin was purified from human neutrophil by chromatography methods. AGS and HFFF cell lines were used. These cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FCS in a humidified incubator (37 °C & 5% CO2). AGS cells (10000 cells per well) were exposed to the different concentrations of calprotectin and etoposide for 24 and 48 h. MTT assay was used for evaluation of cytotoxicity. Results indicate that calprotectin has more potent anticancer activity in comparison to the etoposide but it has nearly similar inhibitory effect on the proliferation of fibroblast cells. Since calprotectin affect about 20 times more than etoposide on cancer cells, without any additional side effect, it can be concluded that it is a suitable candidate to be studied as anticancer drug.

In recent years, many studies employed and found an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer. Although increased risk of colorectal cancer in individuals with Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) has been observed in previous studies, limited information is available on the colorectal cancer associated with NIDDM in Iran. The purpose of this study was to define colorectal cancer risk associated with diabetes mellitus. The present study was designed as an unmatched case control study. Cases were 393 patients with histologically confirmed colorectal carcinomas and 393 controls were randomly selected among the healthy participants in a health survey. To control potential confounding factors such as sex, age, smoking habits and Body Mass Index (BMI), multiple logistic regression model was fitted to obtain Odds Ratio of colorectal cancer and the corresponding 95% CIs, according to history of diabetes mellitus. Overall, 86 (10%) cases versus 15 (1.7%) controls gave a history of diabetes mellitus. The corresponding multivariate OR was 6.77 (CI 95%: 3.84- 11.92) indicating that having a positive history of diabetes mellitus increases one''s risk of colorectal cancer about six-fold. The risk of colorectal cancer was slightly increased for women (p<0.05). Current smokers were at a higher CRC risk (OR=2.83, CI95%:2.13-3.76) than never smokers. We found a strong positive association between NIDDM and prevalent colorectal cancer. In summary, these findings provide further indirect epidemiological evidence for the hypothesis that hyperinsulinaemia may be important in the development of colorectal cancer.

Hyperthermia (also called thermal therapy or thermotherapy) is a type of cancer treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures (up to 113°F). Research has shown that high temperatures can damage and kill cancer cells, usually with minimal injury to normal tissues. For many years, biologists have investigated cancer by using monolayer cell culture. It is becoming more and more apparent that two-dimensional cell culture (monolayer) can not completely represent the real structure and characteristics of three-dimensional in vivo solid tumors. These spheroids resemble in vivo tumor models in several aspects. Therefore, studying growth characteristics and behavior of spheroids is beneficial in understanding the behavior of tumors under various experimental conditions. In this work we have studied and analyzed the in vitro response of human prostatic carcinoma cell line DU 145 from monolayer and spheroid culture to hyperthermia. For this purpose the DU 145 cells were cultured either as monolayer or spheroids. The thermal response was judged by the survival fraction of colony forming cells in spheroids or monolayer culture following heat treatment. The result of Survival curves has shown that heating cells at 40°C and 41°C has no significant effect on cell viability and survival fraction at various times of heating but heating the cells at 42°C and 43°C in long period of heat treatment reduce the viability and survival fraction particularly. Heat shock at 44°C and 45°C has great effect on this cell viability and survival fraction but in any time and temperature, spheroids were more resistant than monolayer’s.

We reported and analyzed an unusual case of NPC (Nasopharyngeal carcinoma) where the patient had initial clinical features of cavernous sinus involvement followed by trigeminal neuralgia and middle ear dysfunction. In the present case, the initial involvement of the cavernous sinus resulted in the left sided third nerve involvement. Later on, the extension of the tumor in and around the trigeminal ganglion resulted in facial pain. Up to that point in time, a possibility of cavernous sinus lesion was considered and this caused a delay in the diagnosis. In accordance with the literature, this case illustrates that the tumor is difficult to diagnose during the early stages for multiple reasons, including: the non-speciicity of the initial symptoms, and the difficulty of examining the postnasal space.