International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:8 Issue: 4, Aug 2015

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has an essential role in tumor metastasis by inducing the construction of abnormal blood vessels. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is involved in different parts of cancer growth such as tumor initiation, angiogenesis and metastasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of VEGF and EGFR in ovarian cancer in southern Iran and to assess the correlation between expression of these two markers and patients’ age, tumor stage, and grade. Patients and In this cross-sectional study, 50 paraffin blocks of serous ovarian adenocarcinomas and 50 paraffin-embedded specimens from control individuals operated for reasons other than malignancy were immunohistochemically stained using anti-human VEGF and EGFR antibodies. A significant difference in the frequency of positive expression of VEGF was observed in ovarian cancer patients (25.0%) compared with the control group (8.0%) (P = 0.023). A significant difference between EGFR expression in patients (56.8%) and controls (24.0%) was also obtained (P = 0.001). No significant correlation between VEGF and EGFR expression and patients’ age, tumor grade and stage were detected (P > 0.05). The significant increase in both VEGF and EGFR in the patients with ovarian cancer compared to healthy individuals could have prognostic value. Identifying these markers may be useful for chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic strategies for patients with serous ovarian cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women, with a high rate of mortality. The burden of disease and its serious outcome could be prevented by early detection. Thus, the objective of this study was investigation the awareness, attitude and practice of breast cancer screening women. Patients and This cross-sectional study has conducted on 500 representative samples of women aged 20 - 65 years who referred to urban area of Babol health centers in 2012. The data have collected with standard questionnaire. The demographic data, the knowledge of risk factors and symptoms and sign, the health belief, and the practice of women in breast cancer screening have collected by interview. The results show that only 14.8% of participants had a high level of knowledge for breast cancer risk factors and 33.8% at high level of awareness of symptoms and signs. The level of awareness has significantly associated with higher age (P = 0.03) and higher educational level (P = 0.04). Only 10.2% and 8.4% of women have performed breast self- examination (BSE) monthly and breast clinical examination (BCE) annually respectively. The practice of women with BSE has significantly associated with aging (P = 0.005), higher educational level (P = 0.007), higher knowledge (P = 0.001) and positive attitude toward perceived benefits and confidence and health motivation (P = 0.001). The low level of awareness and practice of breast cancer screening have found in this study, emphasized an extension of framework health educational program, particularly in younger and low educated women.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a common malignancyworldwide and its outcome is most closely related to the extent of disease at presentation. Early diagnosis of an asymptomatic recurrence increases the likelihood of a complete surgical resection. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of colorectal cancer recurrence and survival rate within 5 years, after surgery. Patients and During the 9-year period since 21st Mar, 2004 to 20th Mar, 2013, patients whose primary colorectal cancer were resected in Taleghani hospital, Tehran, Iran were selected in a historical cohort. The necessary data such as demographic, age, gender, family history of CRC, site and size of tumor, stage of tumor, operation details, histological results, treatment method, histopathologic, etc. were collected. Then the recurrence and survival of colorectal cancer within 5 years after operation and their risk factors were evaluated. P value less than 0.05 were considered significant. All analysis was done using SPSS software. A total of 107 patients underwent resection for colorectal cancer during the study period, with mean age of 53.50 ± 12.68 years (range 24 - 76 years), survival rate of 73.8% (rectum 70.0% and colon 75.9%), and mean survival time of 142.17 ± 21.60 month. The recurrence rate of CRC patients, during five years after surgery was 5.7%. Regional lymph nodes, Distance metastasis and Adjuvant therapy were significant prognosis factors of survival after surgery. The rate of recurrence in Iranian patients was low, which could be due to improvement of exactness and expertise of surgeons or better adjuvant therapy. The significant association between survival and adjuvant therapy clarifies this finding. Early diagnosis and primary detection could increase the rate of survival.

Germ cell tumors are neoplasms that originate from multi potential germ cells and can be intra or extra gonadal. According to pathologic classification, they have different subtypes. They account for 3% of pediatric malignancies and most commonly happen in children before the age of 15 years old. Epidemiologic evidence about pediatric germ cell tumors is scant in our region. The aim of current study was to determine demographic characteristics, recurrence and survival rate of germ cell tumor patients under the age of 21 years. Patients and During a 10-year period (1996 - 2006), 106 patients under the age of 21 years suffering from germ cell tumor were admitted to our centers. We extracted the data needed for our study from patients’ medical records in the hospitals. Thirty seven boys and 69 girls with a mean age of 8.4 ± 7.8 years were included. Most tumors were diagnosed before the age of one year (37%). The most common pathologic subtype was mature teratoma (44%). Ovary (35%) was the most common primary site. Surgery plus chemotherapy were used to treat 54 patients and BEP was the most common chemotherapy regimen. Metastasis and recurrent tumor were seen in 22% and 8% of cases, respectively. Four-year overall survival was 89%. Our study showed that demographic characteristics of GCT patients in our population are similar to patients of other geographic regions in the world. Primary tumor site, histologic subtype and metastasis were significant prognostic factors for survival.

Head and neck sarcomas are exceedingly rare and they include 4% - 10% of all sarcomas and less than 1% of all neoplasm of head and neck. The aim of this study is to evaluate the epidemiological characteristics of head and neck sarcomas of patients in Isfahan, Iran. Patients and In this retrospective study, from the 16000 patients whose files were evaluated, the total number of 105 head and neck sarcomas were collected. They were evaluated with due attention to age, gender of the patients and the most common location of the lesion. From the total number of 105 (0.6%) patients with sarcomas, 56 were men (53.33%) and 49 women (46.66%). The most common head and neck sarcomas among this population were Osteosarcoma (32 cases, 30.47%), Chondrosarcoma (14 cases, 13.33%), and Ewing sarcoma (11 cases, 10.47%).The most common soft tissue sarcoma was Rabdomiosarcoma. Mandible was the most common location for these lesions. In this study, the hard tissue sarcomas were more prevalent than soft tissue ones. Hence, special attention should be paid to the patients when being diagnosed.

Cervical cancer remains to be a major health problem and cancer-related cause of death among women in developing countries such as Iran where the most cases are diagnosed in locally advanced stage. This cross sectional-analytic study aims to report outcome 154 patients with carcinoma of cervix were treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy with cobalt 60 (Co-6o) remote after loading system. Patients and A total of 154 patients with the international federation of gynecologist and oncologist (FIGO) stages I-IVA with histopathologically confirmed carcinoma of cervix, followed by the radiation-oncology ward of Shohada-e-Tajrish Hospital in Tehran, Iran, between February 2008 and March 2015. They were completed their scheduled EBRT and HDR brachytherapy with Co-60 remote after loading system. Out of this, 132 patients completed their standard follow up protocol. They were analyzed for 3-year disease-free survival (DFS), 3-year overall survival (OS) incidence of acute and late complications for HDR brachytherapy. Fourteen patients (9.1 %) were in stage I (FIGO classification), 8 (5.2%) were in stage IIA, 26 (16.9%) were in stage IIB, 100 (64.9%) were in stage III, and 6 (3.9 %) were in stage IVA. The follow up duration was between 6 - 60 months with a median of 38 months. Overall rectal and bladder treatment toxicity rates were 33.7%. The 3-year DFS rate was 85.7%, 70.7 %, 41% and 16.6% for stages I, II, III, IVA respectively. Favorable prognostic factors in univariate and multivariate analysis were early stage, tumor size < 4 cm (after adjusting for the residual disease after radiation), no pelvic lymph node involvement and 1 week Gap between EBRT and HDR brachytherapy in 3-year DFS (P = 0.001, P = 0.012, P = 0.005, P = 0.005 respectively). The 3-year OS rate was 85.7%, 76.4%, 42%, and 33.3% for stages I, II, III, and IVA, respectively. Favorable prognostic factors in univariate and multivariate analysis were early stage, tumor size < 4 cm, no pelvic lymph node involvement, 1 week gap between EBRT and HDR brachytherapy and no distant metastasis (during the follow up) in 3-year OS (P = 0.001, P = 0.002, P = 0.002, P = 0.002, P = 0.001 respectively). HDR brachytherapy with Co-60 remote after loading system was successful and it showed HDR brachytherapy in treating patients with carcinoma of cervix was effective after EBRT with acceptable rectal and bladder complications.

Evading the immune destruction and angiogenesis has been the two hallmarks of cancer. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is a cytokine with immune suppressing (pro-tumorigenic) and anti-angiogenic (anti-tumorigenic) properties, thus making the role of IL-10 in tumorigenesis enigmatic. Previous studies have suggested a critical role of IL10 altered expression in complex process of tumor-microenvironment, co-evolution and tumorigenesis. Evaluating the role of IL10 (-1082A/G) gene promoter polymorphism in breast cancer patients from South India. Patients and A case-control study was conducted with a total of 285 individuals, these include 125 histologically confirmed breast cancer patients and 160 age and sex matched controls. Genotypes were determined by allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (AS-PCR), followed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Statistical analysis was done to test the significance of results obtained. Statistical analysis revealed that AA genotype of the Il-10 -1082A/G polymorphism is significantly associated with breast cancer (AA vs. AG: χ2 = 14.46, P = 0.0001432, OR = 2.854, 95% CI = 1.68 - 4.849). Up on stratifying subjects based on cancer stage, age at onset, menopausal status, AA genotype has associated with all the sub groups, except for post-menopausal women. There was no significant association which was observed with respected to hormonal status (ER, PR) and Her2/neu status. The present study suggests that IL-10 AA genotype as a risk factor in the etiology of breast cancer in the South Indian population.

Breast cancer associates with severs severe distress and stress. Since Because of that, the stress management program can train necessary skills to cope with stress; therefore, the current study investigates the effectiveness of stress management on enhancement of quality of life. The aim of the current study is to examine the effectiveness of stress management model in quality of life for breast cancer patients. Patients and This research is a quasi-experimental study with pre and post-tests. The 21 subjects were selected from cancer institute of Imam Khomeini in Tehran in 2014. The participants were allocated to two matched groups based on their pre-test scores. They were assigned randomly to the control and experimental groups. Stress management was conducted with the experimental group during 10 sessions. Then the questionnaire was administered at post-test. Statistical analysis was conducted by using the independent t-test and analysis of variance. The research instrument was the core quality of life questionnaire QLQ-C30. The results of the independent t-test showed that there is a significant difference between the pretest and post-test scores in the experimental group (P < 0.05). Also, there is no significant difference between means of quality of life subscales and socio demographic of the patients such as; age, education and disease stage (P < 0.05). The results indicate that stress management can change the irrational and distortion thoughts. So, it enhances the quality of life in breast cancer patients.

Pituitary adenomas have been the most common sellaturcica tumors. There have been many unusual types of pituitary tumors that might neglect by radiologists and clinicians. One of these tumors would be the malignant glioma. A 62-year-old male has complained from sudden frontal headache, nausea, vomiting, decreased vision, blurred vision and double vision. In skull radiographic, there was an expansion of sellaturcica and a lesion with clear border on T1; heterogeneous; iso - to hypotense; size about 3/5 × 2/5 cm with no surrounding edema that it has homogeneously attracted contrast Lesion, that shown a signal hypointensity on T2 with heterogeneous enhancement. In the coronal sections, the tumor expanded to the suprasellar region and optic chiasmatic that has compressed especially on the left side. Partial tumor resection has conducted. The surgery has done by a transsphenoidal approach. The pathologist has diagnosed a glioblastoma. This diagnosis has confirmed using immunohistochemistry technique. There have been many unusual types of pituitary tumors that might neglect by radiologists and clinicians. One of these tumors would be the malignant glioma.

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a subset of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and an unusual disease in children. Herein we have reported a 7- year- old girl with a large necrotic skin ulcer on the chest caused by systemic form of anaplastic large-cell lymphoma and simultaneous active toxoplasmosis diagnosed by PCR on lymph node specimen. There were few reports showing a role for toxoplasma infection to cause some malignancies such as lymphoma in adults. Based to our knowledge, this has been the first report of simultaneous systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma and active toxoplasmosis, documented by positive PCR on tissue biopsy in a child. This case report has suggested more attention to the accompanying Toxoplasma gondii infection as a probable cause of some types of lymphomas.