Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of mortality among women in Iraq forming 23% of cancer related deaths. The low survival from the disease is a direct consequence to the advanced stages at diagnoses. Aim: To document the composite stage of breast cancer among Iraqi patients at the time of diagnosis; correlating the observed findings with other clinical and pathological parameters at presentation. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study enrolling the clinical and pathological characteristics of 603 Iraqi female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The composite stage of breast cancer was determined according to UICC TNM Classification System of Breast Cancer and the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging. The studied parameters comprised age of the patient, stage of the disease, marital and educational status, history of lactation and hormonal intake (for a minimum period of 6 months), family history of breast or any other cancer, the effected breast side, hormone (Estrogen and Progesterone) receptor (ER, PR) and Her2 contents of the primary cancer. Statistical analysis was performed to correlate the recorded composite stages at diagnosis with the corresponding clinical and pathological data utilizing SPSS version 16.0 statistical program. Results: Out of 603 patients, seven (1.2%) had ductal carcinoma in situ (Stage 0). Stages I, II and III and IV were documented in 9.5%, 47.1%, 33.2% and 9.1% of the patients at the time of diagnoses. Overall 70.8% of patients presented in the age group (40-59 years), 79.3% were married and 32.2% were highly educated. History of lactation, hormonal intake, family breast cancer and contralateral breast involvement was observed in 73.4%, 26.5%, 20.2% and 6.5% respectively. No correlation was elicited between the stage of breast cancer and the age of the patients, history of lactation or contralateral breast involvement. On the other hand, significant associations were demonstrated with respect to the marital and educational status, history of hormonal intake and breast cancer in the family. Immuno-histochemical evaluation revealed ER+PR+Her2+ (Triple Positive/Luminal B), ER-PR-Her2- (Triple Negative), ER+PR+Her2- (Luminal A) and ER-PR-Her2+ (Her2) subtypes in 13.4%, 11.8%, 48.2% and 9.8% of the examined breast samples respectively. When correlating the composite stage at diagnosing breast cancer with the corresponding subtypes the relationship was highly significant at p<0.01. Conclusions and Recommendations: The study reports a regression in Stage IV breast cancer at the time of initial presentation among Iraqi patients specifically in those with family history of the disease; pointing out to the fruitful outputs of initiating the National Program for Early Detection of Breast Cancer in the country. Further professional efforts, endorsed by practical policy decisions, are recommended to down stage breast cancer through promoting evidence based protocol guidelines and adopting comprehensive well designed diagnostic, screening and cancer control strategies.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are defined as a population of cells present in tumours, which can undergo self-renewal and differentiation. Identification and isolation of these CSCs using putative surface markers have been a priority of research in cancer. With this background we selected pancreatic normal and tumor cells for this study and passaged them into animal tissue culture medium. Further staining was done using alkaline phosphatase and heamatoxilin staining. Blue to purple colored zones in undifferentiated pluripotent stem cells and clear coloration in the chromatin material indicated pancreatic cells. Further studies on the cell surface marker CD 44 were done using ELISA. For this, the protein was extracted from cultivated normal and t
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The study aims to identify the common fears of preschool children and their relationship to the approaches to parental treatment in South Al Batinah Governorate from their mother’s point of view. Total of (466) mothers were selected as the study sample. The researcher used the scale of common fear and the scale of parental treatment approaches. The results of the study have shown that the most common fear among the study sample was (the fear of darkness) in the first level with a rate of 75.03%, and in the second level came the item (my child is afraid to sleep alone) by 72.74%, in the third level came to the item (fear of seeing insects) with a rate of 67.59%, and the last one was (the fear of rain) w
... Show MoreThe objective of the research is to measure the impact of social responsibility on the financial performance of the Bank of Baghdad for the period from 2014 to 2016 (3 years) through discussing and analyzing the level of practice of the Bank of Baghdad for social responsibility and the impact on their financial performance during the period. To measure the independent variable (CSR), the researcher used the CSR Disclosure Index and relied on the ROA as an indicator to measure the dependent variable (financial performance).The results of the research showed the main hypothesis of the research, which states that the social responsibility of the banks has no significant impact on the financial performance. In relation to the disclosure of s
... Show MoreAnchusa strigosa - prickly alkanet from Boraginaceae grows in roadsides, and fields of a broad range of habitats from mediterranean woodlands, to steppe vegetation, to true desert. It is commonly known as" him him" or "lisan al thawr". Anchusa can withstand hard weather conditions and hence is widely cultivated. The color of its flowers can range from pure white to deep cobalt blue. Various parts of A. strigosa are used in traditional medicine for treating several diseases or symptoms, such as abdominal pain, bronchitis, cough, and diarrhea. The goal of this study was to examine the cytotoxic effect of the crude extract of A. strigosa roots and leaves and their fractions against various tumor cell lines: adenoc
... Show MoreThe study aimed to evaluating the inhibitory activity of apigenin extracted from Salvia officinalis leaves on the growth of L20B cancer cell in vitro, and through two incubation periods; 48 and 72 hours. Accordingly, eight concentrations (1.56, 3.13, 6.25, 12.5, 25.0, 50.0, 100.0 and 200.0 micromol) of apigenin and similar concentrations of vitamin C and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) were tested. The apigenin revealed its significant inhibitory potentials against the growth of L20B cell line, especially at the low concentrations (1.56, 3.13 and 6.25 micromol) and at 72 incubation period in comparison with vitamin C and CCl4.
Curcumin (Cur) possesses remarkable pharmacological properties, including cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. However, the utilization of Cur in pharmaceuticals faces constraints owing to its inadequate water solubility and limited bioavailability. To overcome these hurdles, there has been notable focus on exploring innovative formulations, with nanobiotechnology emerging as a promising avenue to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of these complex compounds. We report a novel safe, effective method for improving the incorporation of anticancer curcumin to induce apoptosis by reducing the expression levels of miR20a and miR21. The established
Objective:
This study aims to asses the patients' compliance with essential hypertension in respect to antihypertensive
medications, follow-up, dietary pattern and health habits, to identify the associated long-term complications, and
to find out the relationship between patient's compliance, and demographic characteristics such as age, gender,
level of education, and duration of disease.
Methodology:
A descriptive study was carried out in Nasiriyah Teaching Hospital to achieve presented objectives .
Results:
The results of the study revealed that there were a significant association between educational level and total
patient's compliance, a significant association was found between the duration of disease and
Objective:
This study aims to asses the patients' compliance with essential hypertension in respect to antihypertensive
medications, follow-up, dietary pattern and health habits, to identify the associated long-term complications, and
to find out the relationship between patient's compliance, and demographic characteristics such as age, gender,
level of education, and duration of disease.
Methodology:
A descriptive study was carried out in Nasiriyah Teaching Hospital to achieve presented objectives .
Results:
The results of the study revealed that there were a significant association between educational level and total
patient's compliance, a significant association was found between the duration of disease and
Phase change materials are known to be good in use in latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems, but one of their drawbacks is the slow melting and solidification processes. So that, in this work, enhancing heat transfer of phase change material is studied experimentally for in charging and discharging processes by the addition of high thermal conductive material such as copper in the form of brushes, which were added in both PCM and air sides. The additions of brushes have been carried out with different void fractions (97%, 94% and 90%) and the effect of four different air velocities was tested. The results indicate that the minimum brush void fraction gave the maximum heat transfer in PCM and reduced the time
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