International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Spring 2012

Cyclophosphamide (CYP) is used to treat a wide range of human tumors. However, the mutagenic effect of CYP is still the primary limitation for wider applications to treat a variety of human malignancies. It has been reported that CYP entrapped in liposomes reduces non-specific toxicity and enhances anticancer effects in animal systems. In the present experiment, mice were injected with 50 mg/kg free CYP or encapsulated in liposomes to compare their ability to induce mutagenic damages including chromosomal aberrations, changes in Sister Chromatid Exchange (SCEs) frequencies, and in Mitotic Index (MI), as well as in cell cycle kinetics. Both forms of CYP induced an increase in chromosomal aberrations and SCEs at the different sampling time. On the contrary, a decrease in mitotic index and delay in cell cycle kinetics was observed at all stages of the experiment. Encapsulation of CYP increased its mutagenicity, especially at a longer sampling time. This may due to interaction of liposomes with cells which is mainly through endocytosis or fusion resulting in accumulation of drug inside the cell causing chromosomal damage. Further evaluation of possible toxicity of encapsulation drugs in healthy tissue is needed.

Mammography is the primary imaging technique for detection and diagnosis of breast cancer; however, the contrast of a mammogram image is often poor, especially for dense and glandular tissues. In these cases the radiologist may miss some diagnostically important microcalcifications. In order to improve diagnosis of cancer correctly, image enhancement technology is often used to enhance the image and help radiologists. This paper presents a comparative study in digital mammography image enhancement based on four different algorithms: wavelet-based enhancement (Asymmetric Daubechies of order 8), Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE), morphological operators and unsharp masking. These algorithms have been tested on 114 clinical digital mammography images. The comparison for all the proposed image enhancement techniques was carried out to find out the best technique in enhancement of the mammogram images to detect microcalcifications. For evaluation of performance of image enhancement algorithms, the Contrast Improvement Index (CII) and profile intensity surface area distribution curve quality assessment have been used after any enhancement. The results of this study have shown that the average of CII is about 2.61 for wavelet and for CLAHE, unsharp masking and morphology operation are about 2.047, 1.63 and 1.315 respectively. Experimental results strongly suggest that the wavelet transformation can be more effective and improve significantly overall detection of the Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system especially for dense breast. Compare to other studies, our method achieved a higher CII.

Systematic treatments such as hormone and chemotherapy are selected according to tumor characteristic after major therapeutic approaches such as surgery. This study attempted to analyze and compare the status of Estrogen Receptor (ER) and Progesterone Receptor (PR) in primary and recurrent sites of breast cancer in patients. We reviewed all medical records of breast cancer women who were treated between January 1995 and December 2008. One hundred eighty two out of 2241 patients (8.12%) had a metastatic breast cancer. Amongst them 48 patients had tumor and biopsy-driven samples, however 13 samples were destroyed and only 35 samples were investigated in this study, therefore 35 malignant biopsy specimens of breast cancer patients were examined by immunohistochemistry essay for ER and PR. Binominal proportional test and Chi square test were conducted to determine the significant correlation between positive cases of hormone receptors among primary and metastases sites. Hormone Receptor in the primary tumor (HR1) of 9 patients (25.7%) was positive (ER1 and/or PR1) and in the recurrent areas (HR2) of 8 patients (22.9%) was positive (either ER2 or PR2 positive). Kappa coefficients of diagnostic agreement in primary and recurrent cases were 0.077 and 0.125 for estrogen and progesterone, respectively which indicated that the amount of coefficient of agreement is not considerable between primary and recurrent sites. The current study indicated that receptor status in recurrent tumors did not pose predictable value based on the analysis of hormone receptors in primary stage, so it is not an appropriate basis to set up therapeutic protocol in the metastatic patients. Therefore, tissue sampling and hormone receptor re-analyzing of metastatic sites should be considered in these cases.

There are many physiological and psychological factors, which affect sensitivity to pain in children afflicted with ALL. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the relation between salivary cortisol and sensitivity to pain, and also study the role of age and gender. Seventy eight children (33 girls and 45 boys, aged 3 to 12 years) with ALL participated in this study. Morning salivary cortisol was measured and Behavior Scales of Sensitivity to Pain for Children (BSSPC) and Pre-Linguistic Behavioral Pain Reactivity Scale (PL-BPRS) were applied. The results showed a high significant correlation between cortisol levels and pain sensitivity. Cortisol suppression was observed in some participants. The roles of gender and age in relation between cortisol levels and sensitivity to pain were assessed by using moderated regression. Gender and age moderated the relation between sensitivity to pain and cortisol level. Conditional fear can explain for high sensitivity to pain amongst the participants; chemotherapy drugs might play a role in cortisol suppression and parenthood style perhaps determines sex difference in reaction to pain.

Deterministic thinking is one of the major cognitive distortions. This type of thinking ignores any possibility in making a conclusion about events. Any consequence of an event may be thought as: 2×2= 4. Equality is a dominant factor among all conclusions of this kind of distortion. Distortion emerges in cognitive rigidity in the mind and could be the source of all distortions. Cognitive rigidity is a main reason for depression and other psychosocial maladjustments. Challenging distortion was discussed as a new method for improving psychological conditions of cancer patients. Adapting the cultural base of the method, distortion is explained as a destructive factor which ruins the balance of fear and hope, the two important signs of faith in Islamic perspective. The consequence of challenging distortion to reduce depression and anxiety has been explained based on the Islamic Culture. For the first time, in this study, it was proposed that how this method can be used in the treatment of psychological disorders of cancer patients.

Occupational and environmental exposures mostly represent mixtures of genotoxic agents, whereas the specificity of biomarker measurements varies widely. Exploration of correlations among biomarkers contributes to the further progress of molecular cancer epidemiology and to the selection of the optimal biomarkers for the investigation of human exposure to carcinogens. The aim of this study was to assess the potential cytogenetic damage associated with occupational exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) among automobile mechanics by using Micronuclei (MN) and other Nuclear Abnormalities (NA) as a biomarker. The study population composed of 110 occupationally exposed automobile mechanics and 100 unexposed controls. All the study participants were males. Both the exposed and control individuals were selected from automobile garages located in the urban area of Coimbatore City, South India. Exfoliated buccal cells were collected from 110 automobile mechanics and 100 age and sex matched controls. Further, cells were examined for MN frequency and Nuclear Abnormalities (NA) other than micronuclei, such as binucleates, broken eggs and karyolysis. Results showed a statistically significant difference between occupationally exposed automobile mechanics and control groups. MN and NA frequencies in automobile mechanics were significantly higher than those in control groups (p < 0.05) and also significantly related to smoking habit (p < 0.05). In addition, a higher degree of NA was observed among the exposed subjects with smoking, drinking, tobacco chewing, which is an indicative of cytogenetic damage in these individuals. MN and other NA reflect genetic changes, events associated with carcinogenesis. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that automobile mechanics exposed to PAHs are under risk of significant cytogenetic damage. Therefore, it is important to provide and offer better awareness of occupational hazards among these workers to promote occupational safety.

As children comprise a considerable proportion of our population, the importance of local epidemiologic research and geographic and racial differences can’t be disputed on childhood malignancies. In this descriptive retrospective study, we extensively reviewed the medical records of patients younger than 15 years of age, diagnosed with solid malignant tumors, from 1996 to 2010, using the last version of International Classification of Childhood Cancers. In our study the order of incidence of solid malignancies was relatively similar to the other national studies, with lymphomas and Central Nervous System (CNS) tumors as the most common, followed by Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) tumors, soft tissue sarcomas and renal tumors. The peak age of diagnosis was between 1 and 4 years old. In our study, the overall male to female ratio was 1.38, with a trend towards male dominance in the older age groups. We also observed a disturbing trend of childhood solid malignancies. The total number of cases almost doubled from 2009(54(6.9%)) to 2010(96(12.2%)). This trend was particularly detected in CNS and SNS tumors. Further analysis showed that malignant CNS tumors had played a more pronounced role in this change. Changes in trends of some tumor categories have illustrated a desperate need to further research in regional and national levels. Also the gathered data can be used to make more accurate programs for a better control of cancer and to help policymakers to allocate more evidence-based resource for hospitals.

Pleuropulmonary Blastoma [PPB] is a very rare, highly aggressive and malignant tumor that originates from either the lungs or pleura. It occurs mainly in children aged less than five or six years. It has poor prognosis with three different subtypes: cystic [type I], combined cystic and solid [type II] and solid [type III]. PPB is treated with aggressive multimodal therapies including surgery and chemotherapy. We present a case of 3.5 years old boy with PPB type II successfully treated with complete surgical resection followed by neoadjuvant chemotherapy.