Breast cancer constitutes about one fourth of the registered cancer cases among the Iraqi population (1)
and it is the leading cause of death among Iraqi women (2)
. Each year more women are exposed to the vicious
ramifications of this disease which include death if left unmanaged or the negative sequels that they would
experience, cosmetically and psychologically, after exposure to radical mastectomy.
The World Health Organization (WHO) documented that early detection and screening, when coped
with adequate therapy, could offer a reduction in breast cancer mortality; displaying that the low survival rates
in less developed countries, including Iraq, is mainly attributed to the lack of early detection programs coupled
with inadequate diagnostic and treatment facilities (3)
. Although mammography machines, as main screening
tools for breast cancer, are available in the major hospitals in each province in Iraq, yet those are mainly used
for diagnostic purposes in patients who present with palpable breast lumps. Obviously, due to cost effective
measures, lack of resources and the economical challenges that Iraq is facing, it is not expected that the
authorities could provide mammography devices across every health care centre in the country to be used for
screening of all Iraqi women.
Accordingly, promoting other feasible tools could support in solving that dilemma. Clinical Breast
Examination (CBE) for women, by highly trained health care providers in Primary Health Care Centers, along
with diagnostic mammography in the major hospitals for referred cases, could offer cost effective approaches
for early detection of breast cancer in Iraq. The resources required to provide these services are within the
reach of all countries with limited resources
(4)
.
The issue of raising awareness on breast cancer and its early detection measures needs to be addressed.
Observations reported in Iraqi studies obviously reflect the the limited knowledge of the general population
about the disease, its preventive measures and their ignorance regarding the significance of CBE and early
medical consultation (5, 6)
. Public health awareness campaigns should be endorsed by policy makers to encourage every Iraqi women to look for abnormal signs and symptoms in their breasts and to seek medical
advice promptly.
Background: Breast Cancer is the most common malignancy among the Iraqi population; the majority of cases are still diagnosed at advanced stages with poor prospects of cure. Early detection through promoting public awareness is one of the promising tools in its control. Objectives: To evaluate the baseline needs for breast cancer awareness in Iraq through exploring level of knowledge, beliefs and behavior towards the disease and highlighting barriers to screening among a sample of Iraqi women complaining of breast cancer. Methodology: Two-hundred samples were enrolled in this study; gathered from the National
Objective(s): To determine the impact of psychological distress in women upon coping with breast cancer.
Methodology: A descriptive design is carried throughout the present study. Convenient sample of (60) woman with breast cancer is recruited from the community. Two instruments, psychological distress scale and coping scale are developed for the study. Internal consistency reliability and content validity are obtained for the study instruments. Data are collect through the application of the study instruments. Data are analyzed through the use of descriptive statistical data analysis approach and inferential statistical data analysis approach.
Results: The study findings depict that women with breast cancer have experien
... Show MoreThis study evaluated the knowledge and practice of breast self-examination (BSE), among a sample of educated Iraqi women. The study sample comprised 858 women aged 18–62 years affiliated to 6 major Iraqi universities, categorized according to occupation as teaching staff (11.5%), administrative staff (18.0%) and students (70.5%). Data were collected by a self-completed questionnaire. In all, 93.9% of the women had heard about BSE, the main source of information was television (39.9%), doctors (18.4%) and the awareness campaign of the Iraqi National Breast Cancer Research Programme (11.6%). Only 53.9% of the women practised BSE; the most common excuses by those that did not were lack of knowledge of the significance of BSE (42.0%) and lack
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(1)
Breast cancer is the most repeatedly detected cancer category and the second reason cause of cancer-linked deaths among women worldwide. Tumor bio-indictor is a term utilized to describe possible indicators for carcinoma diagnosis, development and progression. The goal of this study is to evaluate part of some cytokines and biomarkers for both serum and saliva samples in breast cancer then estimate their potential value in the early diagnosis of breast cancer by doing more researches in saliva, and utilizing saliva instead of blood (serum and plasma) in sample collection from patients. Serum and salivary samples were taken from 72 patients with breast cancer and 45 healthy controls, in order to investigate the following
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(4)
The Machine learning methods, which are one of the most important branches of promising artificial intelligence, have great importance in all sciences such as engineering, medical, and also recently involved widely in statistical sciences and its various branches, including analysis of survival, as it can be considered a new branch used to estimate the survival and was parallel with parametric, nonparametric and semi-parametric methods that are widely used to estimate survival in statistical research. In this paper, the estimate of survival based on medical images of patients with breast cancer who receive their treatment in Iraqi hospitals was discussed. Three algorithms for feature extraction were explained: The first principal compone
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(1)
It is considered as one of the statistical methods used to describe and estimate the relationship between randomness (Y) and explanatory variables (X). The second is the homogeneity of the variance, in which the dependent variable is a binary response takes two values (One when a specific event occurred and zero when that event did not happen) such as (injured and uninjured, married and unmarried) and that a large number of explanatory variables led to the emergence of the problem of linear multiplicity that makes the estimates inaccurate, and the method of greatest possibility and the method of declination of the letter was used in estimating A double-response logistic regression model by adopting the Jackna
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It is considered as one of the statistical methods used to describe and estimate the relationship between randomness (Y) and explanatory variables (X). The second is the homogeneity of the variance, in which the dependent variable is a binary response takes two values (One when a specific event occurred and zero when that event did not happen) such as (injured and uninjured, married and unmarried) and that a large number of explanatory variables led to the emergence of the problem of linear multiplicity that makes the estimates inaccurate, and the method of greatest possibility and the method of declination of the letter was used in estimating A double-response logistic regression model by adopting the Jackna
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Background : To assess the actual practice of breast self-examination (BSE), as an early detection tool for breast cancer, among a sample of patients affected with breast cancer in Iraq.Methods: A random sample of 200 female patients with breast cancer was analyzed to evaluate the extent of their actual practice of breast self-examination before the diagnosis of the disease. The examined variables included the age of the patients, marital status, education, occupation, smoking habit, family history of cancer, frequency of gravidity, parity and abortions. Results: The age of patients ranged from (24-70) years with a mean age of 48 years. The highest frequency of the examined sample
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(1)
This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study evaluated the knowledge, attitude and practice towards breast cancer and breast self-examination [BSE] among 387 [302 females and 85 males] educated Iraqis affiliated to 2 Iraqi universities. The participants were categorized into 3 occupations: student [71.3%], teaching staff [10.3%] and administrative staff [18.3%]. About half of the participants had a low knowledge score [< 50%]; only 14.3% were graded as [Good] and above. Almost 75% of the participants believed that the best way to control breast cancer was through early detection and other possible preventive measures. Most participants [90.9%] had heard of BSE, the main source of informatio
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(33)
(33)
The last few years witnessed great and increasing use in the field of medical image analysis. These tools helped the Radiologists and Doctors to consult while making a particular diagnosis. In this study, we used the relationship between statistical measurements, computer vision, and medical images, along with a logistic regression model to extract breast cancer imaging features. These features were used to tell the difference between the shape of a mass (Fibroid vs. Fatty) by looking at the regions of interest (ROI) of the mass. The final fit of the logistic regression model showed that the most important variables that clearly affect breast cancer shape images are Skewness, Kurtosis, Center of mass, and Angle, with an AUCROC of
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