Multidisciplinary Cancer Investigation
Volume:3 Issue: 1, Jan 2019

Drug delivery is one of the major issues in the world of science, which receives a large part of the research in various fields. The ultimate goal of drug delivery is to help the patient with developing advanced drug delivery systems. These systems revolutionize the treatment of many diseases including cancer. Effective drug carriers can significantly reduce the undesirable side effects of anticancer drugs through the drug controlled release and using the selective drug to cancerous tissue. The natural biocompatible and biodegradable polymer of chitosan is widely investigated in drug delivery systems, especially as the carrier for anticancer drugs. An important aspect for the application of chitosan in drug delivery for cancer treatment is its pH sensitivity. Graphene attracted much attention in various fields as a shining star in the science of materials. In recent years, the use of graphene in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer is also investigated. Therefore, chitosan-graphene nanocomposite can be introduced as a pH-sensitive carrier for cancer theragnosis. In the current study, the application of chitosan and graphene in the treatment of cancer addressed in previous years was discussed.

Patients with cancer under chemotherapy usually manifest a wide range of symptoms. The frequency of these symptoms is reported differently. The current study aimed at addressing the common symptoms of cancer, according to gender and primary site of cancer in patients receiving chemotherapy in Kashan, Iran, in 2017. The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 186 patients with cancer. The frequency of 14 common symptoms in cancer was evaluated with interviewing the patients. The data were analyzed with SPSS version 13 using descriptive statistics, chi-square, the Mann-Whitney U, and the Kruskal-Wallis tests. About half of the subjects were female, and 58.1% aged above 50 years. The common primary sites of cancer were breast (23.1%), colon (21%), bone (11.3%), and lung (7%). The most common symptoms were fatigue (86.6%), followed by dry mouth, insomnia, anorexia, and pain. The subjects reported 6.672.63± symptoms in average. The patients with the history of surgery reported significantly more symptoms. The symptoms of insomnia, nausea, and diarrhea were significantly higher in female patients, while anorexia was significantly higher in male ones. Dry mouth, diarrhea, and total number of symptoms were significantly associated with the primary site of the cancer. Patients with cancer experience various symptoms that are different based on the primary site of the cancer and the gender of patients. Any effective actions in palliative care should be based on the accurate assessment of the symptoms.

Estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer is a subgroup of breast tumors that is more likely to respond to hormone therapy. ER-positive and ER- negative breast cancers tend to show different patterns of metastasis because of different signaling cascade and genes that are activated by estrogen response. Genetic factors can contribute to high rates of metastasis in ER-positive breast cancer. Fucosyltransferase 8 (FUT8) is a member of fucosyltransferases family and plays an important role in α-1,6 linkage to the first GlcNAc residue of N-glycans chain. In this study, for the first time, we predicted FUT8 by bioinformatics tools as a novel therapeutic target for ER-positive breast cancer. Microarray gene expression data of 9 patients with ER+ve and 10 individuals with ER-ve breast cancer was extracted from Geodatasets. Gene expression of two ER+ and ER- patients was compared with logfc and then sorted by their p-values. Moreover, the most related pathway, protein interaction, and function of this gene were identified with GeneCard and DAVID databases. FUT8 was highly expressed in patients with ER+ve breast cancer that may be associated with the metastasis. FUT8 encodes an enzyme that belongs to fucosyltransferases family. The expression of this gene may contribute to the malignancy features of cancer cells and their invasive and metastatic capabilities. Having in mind FUT8 hyperexpression, its function in malignancy, and its pathways, it can be concluded that FUT8 can be used as a therapeutic target in ER+ve breast cancer.

Extra-nodal exposition of T-cell non-hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is extremely rare, and is frequently observed in patients with immune system dysfunction. Peripheral T-cell lymphoma does not express CD56 is rare. Malignant lymphoma of the uvula is exceedingly unusual. The current study reported a case of peripheral T-cell lymphoma of the uvula in an immunecompetent patient. The current study reported a case of peripheral T-cell lymphoma of the uvula in a 54-year-old male patient. The diagnosis was based on excisional biopsy and ancillary techniques. The patient was referred to the hemato-oncology ward for treatment. Considering the fact that the presentation of peripheral T-cell NHL in uvula is uncommon, a high index of suspicion is necessary to diagnose this grave disease. To the best of authors` knowledge, this case is the third case of T-cell lymphoma of the uvula in the English literature.