Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Iraq and the United Kingdom. While the disease is frequently diagnosed among middleaged Iraqi women at advanced stages accounting for the second cause of cancer-related deaths, breast cancer often affects elderly British women yielding the highest survival of all registered malignancies in the UK. Objective: To compare the clinical and pathological profiles of breast cancer among Iraqi and British women; correlating age at diagnosis with the tumor characteristics, receptor-defined biomarkers and phenotype patterns. Methods: This comparative retrospective study included the clinical and pathological characteristics of (1,940) consecutive female patients who were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from 2014 to 2016 in Iraq (Medical City Teaching Hospital, Baghdad: 635 cases) and UK (John Radcliffe, Oxford and Queen's, BHR University Hospitals: 1,305 cases). The studied parameters in both groups comprised the age of the patient at the time of diagnosis, breast cancer histologic type, grade, tumor size, lymph node status, clinical stage at presentation, Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR) and HER2 positive tumor contents and the receptor defined breast cancer surrogate subtypes. Results: The Iraqi patients were significantly younger than their British counterparts and exhibited higher trend to present at advanced stages; reflected by larger size tumors and frequent lymph node involvement compared to the British (p<0.00001). They also had worse receptor-defined breast cancer subtypes manifested by higher rates of hormone receptor (ER/PR) negative, HER2 positive tumor contents, Triple Positive and Triple Negative phenotypes (p<0.00001). Excluding HER2 status, the significant differences in the clinical and tumor characteristics between the two populations persisted after adjusting for age among patients younger than 50 years. Conclusion: The remarkable differences in the clinical and tumor characteristics of breast cancer between the Iraqi and British patients suggest heterogeneity in the underlying biology of the tumor which is exacerbated in Iraq by the dilemma of delayed diagnosis. The significant ethnic disparities in breast cancer profiles recommend the prompt strengthening of the national cancer control plan in Iraq as a principal approach to the management of the disease.
The development of better tools for diagnosis and more accurate prognosis of cancer includes the search for biomarkers; molecules whose presence, absence or change in quantity or structure is associated with a particular tumour or prognosis/therapeutic outcome. While biomarkers need not be functionally relevant, if cell survival, then they could also provide new targets for therapeutic drugs. In recent years attention has been applied to a group of proteins known as cancer testis antigens (CT antigens) [1]. These proteins are products of genes whose expression was normally confined to the testis, yet they are expressed in tumour cells. CT genes are bound to serve a wide array of roles in the testes, which have many highly differentiated cel
... Show MoreThis study focused on extracting the outer membrane nanovesicles (OMVs) from Escherichia coli BE2 (EC- OMVs) by ultracentrifugation, and the yield was 2.3mg/ml. This was followed by purification with gel filtration chromatography using Sephadex G-150, which was 2mg/ml. The morphology and size of purified EC-OMVs were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) at 40-200 nm. The nature of functional groups in the vesicle vesicle was determined by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. The antitumor activity of EC-OMVs was conducted in vitro by MTT assay in human ovarian (OV33) cancer cell line at 24,48 and 96hrs. The cytotoxicity test showed high susceptibility to the vesicles in ovarian compared to normal
... Show MoreObjective: Atorvastatin therapy is now recommended for reduction of cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM), based on convincing evidence of reductions in mortality and vascular events in major clinical outcome trials. The aim is to evaluate the effects of atorvastatin on proinflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-6), HbA1c andleptin in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: Sixty fivenewly diagnosed T2DM patients were randomly allocated into 2 groups; group I treated with metformin only; in group II atorvastatin was added with metformin. Twenty healthy subjects were enrolled as control group. While maintaining their usual eating habits, fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment. Results
... Show MoreBackground: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov2) which utilizes angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2) to invade the host cells. This membrane-bound peptidase is widely distributed in the body; its activity antagonizes the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Once SARS-Cov2 enters the cell, it causes downregulation of ACE2, resulting in the unopposed activation of RAAS. The unregulated activity of the RAAS system can deteriorate the prognosis in COVID-19 patients. A soluble form of ACE2 (sACE2) was reported to have a role in the SARS-Cov2 invasion of the susceptible cells.
Aim of the study: This study aims to inve
... Show MoreImmunization is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health applications. The results of immunization are difficult to see as the incidence of disease occurrence is low while adverse effects following the immunization are noticeable, particularly if the vaccine was given to apparently healthy person. High safety expectations of population regarding the vaccines so they are more prone to hesitancy regarding presence of even small risk of adverse events which may lead to loss of pub
... Show MorePrimary and secondary response loss , often mediated by the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADAs), limit treatment efficacy. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is important in optimizing infliximab therapy by correlating drug level with clinical outcomes. This study aimed to find the relationship between infliximab level, ADA presence, and clinical activity in Iraqi Crohn's disease (CD) patients. This cross-sectional study included adult Crohn's disease patients receiving maintenance infliximab (IFX) treatment. Data on demographics and clinical characteristics were collected. Infliximab level and ADA were measured using ELISA. Forty-three patients were included. Patients in remission had significantly higher infliximab levels and lower
... Show MoreTrigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is one of the most commonly painful cranial neuralgia characterized by paroxysmal attacks as short lasting facial pain along the trigeminal nerve branches. The aim of the present study is to innovate a biochemical relationship between (melatonin, GALNT12 and Zn) and TN and also to examine the biochemical action of tegretol (carbamazepine) as a treatment on the above biochemical parameters. Blood samples were collected from fifty four (54) trigeminal neuralgia patients diagnosed by magnetic radiation image (MRI). Patients were classified into four groups: G3 (40- 70) years composed of (12) diagnosed male (without treatment), G4 (48- 75) years composed of (12) diagnosed female (without treatment), G5 (34- 76)
... Show MoreInfection of the gastric mucosa with Helicobacter pylori is strongly associated with chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. Helicobacter pylori virulence factors include a variety of proteins that are involved in its pathogenesis, such as VacA and CagA. Another group of virulence factors is clearly important for colonization of H.pylori in the gastric mucosa. These include urease, motility factors (flagellin), and Superoxide dismutase (SOD). Because of this organism's microaerophilic nature and the increased levels of reactive oxygen in the infected host, we expect that other factors involved in the response to oxidative stress are likely to be required for virulence. Superoxide dismutase is a near
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