Basic and Clinical Cancer Research
Volume:6 Issue: 3, Summer 2014

On May 27, 2014, our colleague, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Basic and Clinical Cancer Research, Shams Shariat Torbaghan passed away aged eighty-seven. His sudden death has left a void in the lives of colleagues and Iranian medical community has lost one of its most dedicated teachers and researchers.Doctor Shariat was born in 1926 in Torbaghan, a village near Kashmar in north-eastern Iran. After completing high school, he enrolled in Medical Faculty of Tehran University and received his MD degree in 1953. He attended in pathology residency program in 1956 and immediately after that he started as assistant professor at Medical Faculty of Tehran University. In 1961, he attended in cancer pathology training program at the Lyon Cancer Center. Dr Shariat became full professor in 1970.

Acute leukemia is the most common malignancy in children and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for 75% of acute leukemia cases. New treatment protocols have resulted in complete remission rates up to nearly 100% in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Today, one of the most important prognostic factors in acute lymphoblastic leukemia is intensity of the treatment. Risk stratification is accomplished based on clinical, morphological, immune-phenotypic and cytogenetic findings. The aim of this study was to determine some prognostic factors in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In this retrospective study information about age at onset of acute leukemia, sex, initial white blood cell count, FAB-subtype, immunophenotype, and clinical course of newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia were extracted from medical records of children admitted to pediatric oncology department of Shafa Hospital between 2011 and 2012. There were 21 male patients (51.2%) and 20 were female patients (48.8%). The mean age was 4.2 ± 6.34 years, and 24 patients (58.5%) had Arab origins, while 17 patients (41.5%) were of non-Arab ethnicity. Age distribution showed higher incidence of ALL in younger children: 1-4 years 47.5%, 5-9 years 27.5% and 25% in patients >10 years.L2 subtype was more common in our patients 51.2% while L1 subtype was reported 46.3%.Only one patient was reported to be L3 subtype (2.4%), yet we did not detect any significant relation between different age groups and trend for incidence for specific subtype. The number of white blood cell (WBC) at the time of admission was reported as: less than 10,000 cells/cm in 30%, between11-50,000 in 37.5% and >50,000 in 32.5% patients. Organ involvement was present in 47.5%, and central nervous involvement, (proved by positive malignant cells in CSF fluid) was detected in 4.9% of our patients. In our study, HLA-DR was 62.5 % in ALL patients and CD 20 and CD19 was the most common marker in these patients. In our work the most common markers in L1, which was found in 19 patients were reported CD 19, CD33, CD22, CD35, CD20 and CD9. Also the percentage of markers in L2 subtype had a similarity to L1 group. In this study, FAB-subtype L1 was less than previous studies, while FAB-subtype L2 and pre-B cell immunophenotype was more common than previous studies. Other results were the same as reported in older studies.

While Young men are at higher risk of developing testicular cancer (TC), testicular-self examination (TSE) is an easy, cost effectiveness method to early detection of this disease. The aim of the study was to investigate medical sciences student`s awareness, attitude and self-efficacy about TC and TSE. This cross-sectional study was carried out among full time young students (n=330) in a medical sciences university in the academic year 2010-2011. In order to collect data a self-administered questionnaire was applied by means of a convenience sampling method among 330 young males. Less than 5% of the students reported they had knowledge regarding TSE and only 10% were performing it. Just 2% of them were found to have good knowledge about TC and 17% had good awareness about TSE. Under 10 % of the participants had good attitude about performing TSE and over 81 % also showed poor self-efficacy. The findings showed weak awareness and self-efficacy about TC and TSE cross young males; it is suggested more attentions should be paid educational courses of Medical Sciences students, more importantly, in terms of Principles and Practice of Cancer Prevention.

McGill pain questionnaire (MPQ) is the most useful standard tools for pain assessment. Due to cultural differences, the questionnaire has been translated into several languages. We aimed to translate and adapt MPQ into Persian language and assess its reliability in Iranian cancer patients. The MPQ was translated by translation-base method with preserving the original structure. Subsequently we used Persian McGill Pain Questionnaire (P-MPQ) and interviewed 84 patients and repeated the interview after 24 hours in 30 patients. Alpha coefficient of questionnaire (n=84) was 0.85 and the stability coefficient (n=30) in all areas (sensory, emotional, and other assessment) were more than 0.8. Stability coefficient was significant and reliable for all the MPQ subclasses. Adaptation and reliability of Persian-McGill Pain Questionnaire (P-MPQ) are enough for epidemiologic studies of chronic pain in cancer patients in Iran.

The present study aims at comparing two training methods of self-management and relaxation on the aspects of quality of life in women with cancer. This is a pilot study which has been conducted by expanded pre-test and post-test pattern by control group. Community sample of this study were all women with breast cancer in Ardabil in 1390 (Approximated estimation: N=1000). Samples were 60 women with breast cancer who were randomly selected among cancer patients in Ardabil. The questionnaire of quality of life by Brody et al., 1997 and self- concept scale by Dargotis et al., 1979 were administered on subjects as data collection materials in clinical centers. Multivariate analysis of covariance and Tukey’s multiple comparison tests were used for data analysis. The results showed that applying training methods of self-management and relaxation improves significantly physical, emotional, social, communicative and functional, dimensions of quality of life and self-concept of women with cancer. Also data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between two methods of self- management and relaxation in effect. We conclude that self-management, and relaxation method by Benson can be used as effective, easy, inexpensive way to promote the quality of life of cancer patients in hospitals.

Positron emission tomography (PET) scan is a non-invasive, complicated and expensive medical imaging technology used for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases including cancers. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this technology in Iran. The major medical electronic databases including Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, MEDLINE and IranMedex were searched. Studies that compared PET scan with another diagnostic method in terms of sensitivity, specificity and safety were used. PET scan has been found to be a non-invasive and safe procedure for diagnosing metastatic NSCLC with a sensitivity and specificity of 74% to 95% and 81% to 97%, respectively. On the other hand, the sensitivity and specificity of computed tomography (CT) scan have been reported as 60% to 67% and 73% to 77%, respectively. The corresponding values for mediastinoscopy have been 78% and 100%. In lymphoma, the specificity and sensitivity of PET scan (90% and 79% to 100%, respectively) have been higher than those of gamma scan. Although PET scan is not an appropriate method for screening and diagnosing cancer, it can contribute to staging and follow-up processes in cases of NSCLC and lymphoma. This technology adds 0.046 years (about 17 days) to the patient''s life.