International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:4 Issue: 4, Autumn 2011

Copper and zinc are the elements with numerous physiological activities. Copper (Cu) has an important role in angiogenesis and acts by increasing Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). Serum levels of copper will be increased in cancer incidence, progression and recurrence. The aim of this study was to measure blood levels of copper, zinc, and the ratio of Cu /Zn, as well as VEGF levels before and after treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. Thirty patients who were recently diagnosed with Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia (AML) in Shahid Ghazi Tabatabai oncology hospital enrolled in this clinical trial. On the first day, blood samples were taken for copper, zinc, and VEGF assay and flowcytometry. Treatment protocol was (7×3) regimen. Blood samples were collected for evaluation of copper, zinc, and VEGF. They were sent to Biochemistry Laboratory in medicine faculty for analysis. Amongst 30 AML patients, 14 (46.7%) were female and 16 (53.3%) were male. Patients of various ages ranged from 16 to 53 years, with a median age of 9.1±9.35 years. The mean serum level of copper, zinc, and mean Cu/Zn ratio before and after treatment showed significant difference (p<0.05) There was also significant difference between the mean VEGF level before and after treatment (p<0.05). This study reveals that there is no significant relationship between copper, zinc serum levels, their ratio, and VEGF in AML patients. We hypothesize that increased serum copper is associated with increase of VEGF levels which can indicate the impact of copper in malignancies including AML.

Determining the optimal and effective scheme for administrating the chemotherapy agents in breast cancer is the main goal of this scientific research. The most important issue here is the amount of drug or radiation administrated in chemotherapy and radiotherapy for increasing patient's survival. This is because in these cases, the therapy not only kills the tumor cells, but also kills some of the healthy tissues and causes serious damages. In this paper we investigate optimal drug scheduling effect for breast cancer model which consist of nonlinear ordinary differential time-delay equations. In this paper, a mathematical model of breast cancer tumors is discussed and then optimal control theory is applied to find out the optimal drug adjustment as an input control of system. Finally we use Sensitivity Approach (SA) to solve the optimal control problem. The goal of this paper is to determine optimal and effective scheme for administering the chemotherapy agent, so that the tumor is eradicated, while the immune systems remains above a suitable level. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of our proposed procedure. In this paper a new scheme is proposed to design a therapy protocol for chemotherapy in Breast Cancer. In contrast to traditional pulse drug delivery, a continuous process is offered and optimized, according to the optimal control theory for time-delay systems.

Considering the importance of updating information about incidence and mortality of common or fatal cancers and the need for studying the effectiveness of changes in the Iranian cancer registration system from pathological based to population based since 2007, the aim of this study was to provide updated population based information on incidence and mortality rates of esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum cancers in south of Iran, and also to provide basic data for investigating the performance of population based cancer registration system in these regions. This study was a review of population based data of esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum cancers in Fars province during 2008-9.We estimated Age Standardized Incidence and Mortality Rates (ASIRs and ASMRs), truncated ASIRs and ASMRs for each cancer using direct age standardization based on Iran's population and also based on the standard population of world.Finally, considering poison distribution, we calculated standard error of incidenceand mortality rates. Adjusted incidence rates of esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum cancers (per 100,000) and their standard error were 2.56(0.0092), 9.99(0.0182),4.85(0.0127) and 1.56(0.0072) in males; and 1.60(0.0072), 4.66 (0.0123),3.24(0.0103) and 0.93(0.0055) in females respectively. These values for ASMRs per 100000 were 0.94(0.0056), 11.54(0.0195), 2.46(0.009), 0.34(0.0033) for men, and 0.51(0.004), 4.21(0.0117), 1.54(0.0071) and 0.41(0.0037) for women. Incidence and mortality rates of esophagus cancer in southern regions of Iran were less than the national average. We also clarified that stomach and colorectal cancers were the most important digestive cancers in this area.

Her2/neu is one of the epidermal growth factor receptors families and seems to have prognostic significance of some solid tumors. The objective of this study is to evaluate the possibility of Her2 expression in gastric cancers and the possible relationship of Her2 with tumor’s clinicopathologic parameters and also its prognostic role. This study was performed on 100 cases of gastric carcinoma with stage I b to III (according to TNM staging). Survival, recurrence date of patients, grade and lymph nodes involvement were assessed. Her2/neu expression was determined by immunohistochemical method on received sample blocks. Survival of patients with or without Her2-neu expression were evaluated by Kaplan- Meier method and compared with the log-rank test followed by multivariate analysis using Cox regression. Seven cases were 3+ membranous Her2 reactivity, 5 cases were 2+ and 13 cases were 1+; also 75% of cases demonstrated no reactivity. Regardingrelationship between tumor grade and membranous Her2, all patients with poorly differentiated tumors were Her2 negative but patients with moderate and well differentiated tumor had 18.1% and 19.6% Her2 reactivity respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically(P>0.05). Median overall survival was 27.25 and 46 months in Her2 negative and her2 positive cases respectively; there were no significant difference between groups statistically as well (P>0.05). Her2 reactivity has not relationship with tumor grade and lymph node involvement as well as tumor stage. From the other point of view no significant correlation is found between Her2 expression and disease free survival or overall survival of gastric cancer patients.

Breast conserving surgery (BCS) followed by local radiotherapy is the standard treatment for early stage of breast cancer. Margin status may have an important impact on local recurrence and overall survival of patients treated with BCS, but this has not been defined adequately. In this study, we investigated the relationship between microscopic margins and outcome of BCS. Three hundred eighty four patients treated with BCS between 1999 and 2010 were included in our study. All surgeries were performed by a single surgical team. Margins were defined as close if surgical margins were less than 2 mm, as free if surgical margins were more than 2 mm and as positive if malignant cells were present in one of the tissue edges. Demographic, clinical, and pathological factors as well as biological markers, recurrence, and survival rates were compared between the close and the free margins groups. The mean age of patients at the time of diagnosis was 54.2 years. There were 34 (9%) recurrence cases and overall survival was 128.7 months and ten years survival rate was 81%. There was no significant difference between the close and the free margins groups in terms of demographic parameters, tumor characteristics, biological factors (estrogen and progesterone receptor status) and lymphovascular invasion. Also recurrence rate did not differ significantly between these two groups. Our study indicates that there is no significant difference between the patients with close and the free margins in terms of treatment results. There is no clear consensus in the surgeons’ community over the definition of acceptable margin width in BCS, so additional studies are required to find the right answer.

Childhood cancer, as one of the life threatening and most serious health problems, considerably influences the cognitive and social functions of children with cancer and their families; however, surprisingly enough, these children are quite compatible with their peers and even function better emotionally compared with normal children. This matter still remains to be a mystery. In this study, the ability of ignoring negative stimuli as a technique of emotion regulation was investigated in children with cancer. For this purpose, 78 children (33 girls and 45 boys aged 3 to 12 years) with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 89 healthy children (52 girls and 37 boys aged 3 to 12 years) participated in this study. At the first stage, a number of positive, negative and neutral pictures were displayed to children. At the second stage, they were asked to identify the pictures from among a collection. Data analysis by MANOVA indicated that children with cancer, compared with healthy children, could recognize more positive images than negative ones. Furthermore, it was found that age, sex, duration of hospital stay, duration of disease and financial situation had an effect on the difference between the two groups. Positive bias memory can explain low depression and lack of symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder in children with ALL. Attention shifting is multifactorial phenomenon and neurologic factors and family support play important role in this happening.

Periodontal disease is a chronic destructive disease which occurs in adults, young people, and children. Periodontal disease and periodontal pathogens have been associated with several systemic diseases and more recently, several studies have suggested the relationship between periodontal disease and cancer. Studies with adjustment for the effect of smoking exposure, have found significant positive associations with different cancer sites. This review has outlined recent epidemiologic researches pointing to a possible role for tooth loss and periodontal disease in carcinogenesis. In this review, articles were selected from PubMed between1995 and June 2010 including human. Amongst 5,984 articles identified from the electronic search, 17 articles were selected for a full-text reading based on the inclusion and the exclusion criteria. Nine out of 10 case–control studies reported a significant increase in the risk of oral cancer in patients with periodontitis and one with no significant association. Among 6 studies examining esophageal cancer and periodontal disease, 5 studies found a significant association between them and one study failed to find a significant increased risk of cancer. Also amongst 5 studies which focused on upper gastrointestinal, gastric cancer, and periodontal disease, 4 studies found an increased risk of cancer while one study did not report any relationship. In lung cancer evaluations, 3 out of 4 studies showed some levels of association between lung cancer and periodontal disease but after adjustment for smoking, no relationship were found. Three cohort studies have evaluated overall cancer rates in periodontal patients; two of them found small but significant association between cancers and periodontal disease. The results indicate that there is a possible link between cancer and severe periodontal disease after adjustment for smoking and drinking habits.

Tumors of the male urethra are rare, comprising <1% of urologic malignancies. This is a report of a 44-year-old man presented with a 4-month history of gross initial hematuria and dysuria. After examining the patient, we found a firm mass extending 1 cm within the proximal bulbar urethra and a pathologic report of moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. He underwent excision of the involved urethra followed by end-to-end bulbar urethroplasty. External beam radiation was performed at the dose of 6000 Rad, in 33 courses. The patient was followed by surveillance protocol and, no evidence of urethral or bladder tumor was found in the 2-year follow-up with bi-annual cystoscopic examination.