International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:11 Issue: 8, Aug 2018

Metastasis-associated miRNA (metastamiR) harbors a great potential to confine metastasis as the most lethal aspect of cancer. miR-193b-3p is an anti-metastatic miRNA, whose expression significantly decreases in metastatic breast cancer cells. In the present study, the expression patterns of different cell-lines were investigated, following an effective miR transfection strategy. Double-stranded oligo of mature miR-193b-3p, miR-negative, and miR-LacZ were designed and cloned into pcDNA6.2gw/EmGFP plasmid. Calculating the population doubling time (PDT), non-tumorigenic MCF-10A, tumorigenic but non-metastatic MCF-7, and metastatic MDA-MB231 were transfected by Lipofectamin2000 and Express-In. The expressions of miR-193b-3p and miR-191 have been quantified by Real-time PCR 48 hours after transfection. Scratch, Transwell migration, and Matrigel invasion assays have been carried out to assess the migration and invasion levels of the cell-lines. The PDT (21.27 ± 0.43, 28.18 ± 0.34, and 35.83 ± 0.44 hours) and miR-193b-3p relative expression before transfection (100, 42 and 8) were measured for MCF-10A, MCF-7, and MDA-MB231 cell-lines, respectively. Better transfection results were obtained based on nano-liposome method. The expression of the miR-193b-3p was increased 32, 19 and, 65 fold-change. The rate of invasion in metastatic cells was 6.6 fold-higher in comparison to MCF-7 cells. Higher expression rate of the miRNA is anticipated to occur, following miR-mimic transfection. However, the observed differential patterns of miRNA increase in the context of different cell-lines, indicating the involvement of more complicated cellular pathways. Scrutinizing these cellular mechanisms could open new horizons in cancer therapy and management strategies.

Urbanization increases the risk of non-communicable diseases including colorectal cancer by creating changes in lifestyle. We seek, in this study, to create urbanization levels based on various factors affecting urbanization and to investigate its relationship with the colorectal cancer incidence in Iran. Using information from census 2011, we collected data on 33 indicators related to urbanization in 31 provinces in Iran. To rank the provinces, we used density-based hierarchical clustering scheme. In order to determine similarities or differences between the provinces, we used the square of the Euclidean distance dissimilarity coefficient; Ward’s algorithm was used to merge the provinces to minimize intra-cluster variance. The data obtained from the National Cancer Registry System in 2009 were used to determine the colorectal cancer incidence rate in Iran. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate the association between colorectal cancer incidence and urbanization levels. All statistical analyses were performed, using SPSS (Version 23) software. Using clustering method, the researchers divided the provinces into 4 different urbanization levels. The results of the ANOVA test indicates a correlation between colorectal cancer incidence and urbanization levels, with a level of significance (P = 0.001) for both genders, (P = 0.001), for men, and (P = 0.002) for women. The findings indicate a difference between the 1st and 4th levels as well as between the 2nd and 4th levels. The results of this study showed that considering the lifestyle of people living in higher urban areas, which includes low activity and the use of fast and processed foods, we may claim that residents of these areas are more exposed to the risk factors of this cancer. On the other hand, a higher level of awareness of the residents of these areas and their greater access to health facilities contribute to their further admissions for screening, which can lead to an increase in the number of identified cases of the disease in these areas.

Cancer is one of the major health challenges that requires palliative care. Home care is one of the most desirable palliative care models. The implementation of any model of care requires the assessment of the views of the service providers and as nurses represent most of the manpower providing home care, their point of view should be considered. This research aimed at investigating nurses’ views on the feasibility of home palliative care in Iran. In this descriptive study, 196 nurses were selected purposefully from all over Iran and filled out demographic information and the Global Home Health Nursing Care Assessment questionnaires. Data analysis was performed, using SPSS software version 20. According to the opinion of the nurses, in order to provide home palliative care for patients with cancer, there is social acceptability and relative satisfaction regarding access to medications, equipment, and pain management. However, lack of access to end-of-life services and hospices as well as achieving educational opportunities are amongst the most important obstacles to the implementation of this kind of care. By having proper planning to promote home palliative care, using the existing potentials as well as applying functional changes to the nursing curriculum at Bachelor’s level, home palliative care can be developed for patients with cancer.

Head and Neck cancer (HNC) is the 6th most common cancer worldwide. Its recurrence probability is known as the greatest obstacle to prolong survival rate. This study was conducted to assess survival and recurrence rate of HNC and their associated risk factors. This retrospective cohort study was conducted on 179 HNC patients, who were diagnosed from April 2007 to November 2013 in Tehran, Iran. Two outcomes were simultaneously analyzed: time between diagnosis and disease recurrence or inter-recurrences; the time between diagnosis and death or end of the study. Kaplan-Meier curve, log-rank test, and general joint frailty model were utilized to data analysis, using Stata 11.0 and R. From 179 patients, 52.5% experienced relapse at least once and 15.6% of cases deceased. The survival rate in 12-, 24-, and 60- month were 94.4, 83.1%, and 55.4%, respectively. The median of survival time was 60.92 (1.1 - 72.9) months, which was longer in patients with relapse (63.62 versus 24.16). Advanced stage and the age older than 50 significantly increased the risk of death about 4-fold and 3-fold (P = 0.007, P = 0.014). Moreover, the initial treatment of surgery + radiotherapy + chemotherapy had significantly raised the hazard of relapse (P < 0.001). The percentage of deceased patients in relapse group was more than non-relapses, but the median of survival time in them was longer. Early detection can prevent recurrent events and the premature death of HNC patients.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Histological grade and type of tumor are morphological findings that play a main role in breast cancer classification. Markers including Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and Her 2 can be used in routine clinical labs to predict response or resistance to treatment for using new drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in tumor characteristics in estrogen and progesterone receptor status (ER+/PR+, ER+/PR-, ER-/PR-, ER-/PR+) in patients with breast cancer. In this study, 130 patients with primary invasive ductal breast carcinoma were chosen from Shahid Sadoughi hospital, Yazd, Iran from 2014 to 2016. The histological grade of tumor was detected according to Bloom and Richardson grading method. Her-2, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) method through primary anti-body. In this study, 73 (56.15%) and 23 patients (17.69%) were double receptor positive (DRP) and double receptor negative (DRN), respectively. ER+/PR- and ER-/PR+ were found in 30 (23.84%) and 3 (2.3%) tumors. Moreover, 65.63% and 60.52% of tumors were Her-2 negative and low grade, respectively. Significant difference was seen between Estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor according to age, Her-2 expression, and grade (P < 0.05). The result of this study showed that hormone receptor expression is different according to age, grade, and Her-2 expression. Moreover, ER+/PR+ tumors had lower grade and more Her-2 negative than other hormone receptors.

Breast cancer is the first leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. Ki-67 is being used for evaluation of the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. The aim of the current study was to explore the association of the involvement of axillary lymph nodes status with the expression of Ki-67 in patients with breast cancer. A total of 449 patients were enrolled followed by evaluation of the association of Ki67 levels with demographic, pathologic, and survival data of patients, using Chi-square, logistic regression models, student t test and Mann-Whitney. We observed a significant relationship between the expression level of Ki-67 and stage of tumor (P = 0.012), positive progesterone receptor (P = 0.003), and subtype pathologic features (P < 0.05). Also, a significant difference was detected between Her2 and expression level of Ki-67 (P = 0.015). Survival analysis showed the association for Ki-67 (P = 0.02), age (P = 0.005), stage of tumor (P < 0.05), lymph node involvement (P = 0.001), and the Her2 (P = 0.024) with clinical outcome (e.g., overall survival or disease free survival) of patients with breast cancer. The results of this study demonstrated that the overexpression of Ki-67 was associated with large tumors, progesterone receptor expression, and stage of tumor, but it was not related with lymph node involvement.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is the standard method of evaluating and staging the axilla in the patients with early stage of the breast cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the axillary recurrence rate in patients with negative sentinel node biopsy. From 2006 to 2010, all the patients with a negative sentinel lymph node in their pathologic results were introduced in the study. All patients were invited to the breast cancer clinic for the follow up examination. The axillary ultrasonography was performed to determine the recurrence. Among 150 female patients with negative sentinel lymph node, 52 were entered into the study and were followed up. The mean age was 45.7 ± 8.58 years, and the mean primary tumor size was 2.36 × 2.40 cm. The primary tumor was located in the upper outer quadrant (90.4%) and the mean number of lymph nodes removed was 1.65. All patients underwent physical examination and axillary ultrasonography, which showed axillary lymph node in 3 patients of 31, 48 and, 62 years. Tumors in all 3 patients were located in the upper lateral part of the axilla and 3 lymph nodes were excised. Only 1 patient had histologically confirmed tumor extension into the axillary lymph node. Axillary recurrence after a long-term follow up of patients with negative sentinel lymph node is very rare and our study suggest that the SLN procedure is a gold standard method for the staging of breast cancer.