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.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune mediated disease of the central nervous system, mostly affecting young adults with mean age of 30 years, twice as high in women compared to men. The etiology of MS is not fully elucidated. MS symptoms are directly related to demyelination and axonal loss, along with other psychological symptoms, can result in functional limitations, disability and reduced quality of life (QoL). The QoL assessments in patients with a chronic disease may contribute to improving treatment and could even be of prognostic value. The goals of this study were to compare the QoL of Iraqi patients with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS),using three different diseas
... Show MoreThis study aims to (1) identify the level of job enrichment and organizational cynicism among workers in some youth and sport forums, and (2) identify the influence the job enrichment in the organizational cynicism from their perspective. A descriptive survey was used to guide this study. The study included 478 workers who were randomly selected from the youth and sport forums in Baghdad City in 2019. The Job Enrichment Scale and the Organizational Cynicism Scale were used. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social science, version 26. The study results revealed that the level of job enrichment and organizational cynicism among workers were unsatisfactory. This calls for paying more attention to these phenomena and improve
... Show MoreObjective: The study aimed to 1) measure the prevalence of depression and anxiety among Iraqi pharmacy and medical students at a number of universities in Baghdad using Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and 2) investigate the association between various sociodemographic factors and students’ HADS scores. Methods: This study was based on a cross-sectional descriptive design in four universities in Baghdad, Iraq. Depression and anxiety were screened using an Arabic version of the HADS. An online survey was administered via Qualtrics to convenience samples of students at four colleges of pharmacy and a college of medicine between March and June 2018. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors associated
... Show MoreThe mediation system is based on settling the dispute amicably through the intervention of a third party by bringing views closer away from the judiciary, which is an amicable way to settle disputes, which disputants resort to voluntarily, but some Western legislation has begun to impose resorting to mediation to settle disputes compulsorily, to take advantage of its advantages, get rid of the disadvantages of resorting to the judiciary in some disputes, and relieve pressure on the courts.
Most reinforced concrete (RC) structures are constructed with square/rectangular columns. The cross-section size of these types of columns is much larger than the thickness of their partitions. Therefore, parts of these columns are protruded out of the partitions. The emergence of columns edges out of the walls has some disadvantages. This limitation is difficult to be overcome with square or rectangular columns. To solve this problem, new types of RC columns called specially shaped reinforced concrete (SSRC) columns have been used as hidden columns. Besides, the use of SSRC columns provides many structural and architectural advantages as compared with rectangular columns. Therefore, this study was conducted to explain the structura
... Show MoreIt was aimed to understand the interleukin-4 (IL-4) role in etio-pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two approaches were adopted. In the first one, a quantitative expression of IL4 gene was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and such findings were correlated with some demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters, which included gender, duration of disease, disease activity score (DAS-28), rheumatoid factors (RFs), C-reactive protein (CRP) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (ACCP) antibodies. In the second approach, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of IL4 gene (rs2243250) was inspected by DNA sequencing using specific primers. Fifty-one Iraqi RA patients (22 males and 29 fem
... Show MoreThe Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is one of the most influential elements in the Iraqi national security since 2014. It has a new and effective role in the Iraqi political arena, as a result of participating in combat operations against ISIS in Nineveh Governorate, which prompted several minorities within the province to sympathize with its presence and its role in particular in Sinjar after ISIS committed the most brutal crimes against the Aizidi minority, Turkey took advantage of the security conditions that Iraq went through after the entry of ISIS into the country to expand its influence in the north, using the pretext of the PKK and the previous agreement between the two countries on border protection. Also, the continued
... Show MoreFibro-adenoma is the most common lesion of the breast, it occurs in25%of asymptomatic women (1,2 )
It is usually a disease of early reproductive life, the peak incidence is between the ages15 and 35 years.(3,4) It presents as firm highly mobile, non tender mass .(5)
Less than 5% of fibro-adenomas grow rapidly and display the clinical and histologic characteristics of giant fibro-adenoma which is defined as a-tumour either having a diameter greater than 5 cm. And /or amass weighing more than 500 grams, and are conventionally a benign tumor of breast.(6)
Giant fibro-adenomas appear as well-circumscribed but not encapsulated masses on mammography and solid and the texture is homogenous and hypoechoic with low level echoes on U/S. (