BACKGROUND: Carcinoma of urinary bladder is one of the most common malignancies worldwide and constitutes a major health problem. Multiple risk factors are associated with this tumor and its prognosis will depend on different clinicopathological parameters. Over expression of P53 protein and mutant Rb gene is associated with more aggressive clinical and histopathological features of the tumor such as advanced stage and higher grade. AIM: The immunohistochemical expression of Rb gene and P53 gene will be assessed through their protein products in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder and then will be correlated with other well-known risk factors and prognostic parameters of bladder TCC, such as grading, tumor size, smoking

     Thyroid carcinoma incidence is increasing year after year and ranking second among top ten cancers in Iraq, especially among women, and this increased the requirement for the improvement of the molecular detection accuracy because of its potential role in the early detection. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs1136410, A>G and rs1805414, A>G) in PARP1 gene were found to be associated with thyroid carcinoma risk in several genome wide association studies, therefore, this is a case-control study that was carried out to identify whether these polym

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in women worldwide and in Iraq. Proliferation rates of neoplastic process can be useful in predicting prognosis, aggressiveness of cancers and to guide treatment protocols in clinical practice.
Objectives: To evaluate the role of Ki67 as a proliferative marker through analysing the associations between Ki67 with the clinic-pathological parameters, hormone receptors and Her2/neu expression.
Patients and methods: Forty paraffin blocks belonging to patient with breast carcinoma and ten blocks with benign diseases were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study and used for the immunohistochemical assessment of hormone receptors, Her2/neu and Ki67.
Results: Mean age of

Background: Invasion in oral cancer involves alterations in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that accompanied by loss of cell adhesion. Catenins stabilize cellular adherence junctions by binding to E-cadherin, which further mediates cell-cell adhesion and regulates proliferation and differentiation of epithelial cells. The Wnt/β-catenin pathway is one of the major signaling pathways in cell proliferation, oncogenesis, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Aims of the study: to detect immunohistochemical distribution pattern and different subcellular localization of β-catenin in oral squamous cell carcinoma and relate such expression to Bryne’s invasive grading system. Materials and Methods: This study included 30 paraffi

Objectives: To identify the frequency and types of microsatellite instability among a group of sporadic CRC patients and to correlate the findings with clinicopathological characteristics. Methods: During an 8-month period, all patients with sporadic CRC who attended to two teaching hospitals in Baghdad, Iraq were recruited to this cross-sectional study regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, or tumor characteristics. Demographic, clinical, and histopathological features were recorded. DNA was extracted from FFPE-blocks of the resected tumors and normal tissues. PCR amplification of five microsatellite mononucleotide repeat loci (BAT25, BAT26, NR-21, NR-24, and MONO-27) and 2 pentanucleotide repeat control markers (Penta C and Pent

: Cervical cancer representsone of the possibly preventable cancer. The study was designed to find the possible correlation of Tafazzin on the progression of cervical carcinoma. Two groups of paraffinized blocks were included. The study group of 30 cervical tumors as well as 15 biopsies of healthy cervical tissues. After sectioning on a positive charge, immunohistochemical application (IHC) was performed to detect Tafazzin expression. Nighnty percentage (27 out of 30) of the studies group showed positive overexpression as shown in with a significant association of the expression with cervical cancer with a significant association. There is a possible role of TAZ in hastening the development of cervical cancer through different mechanisms. F

Background: Transitional cell carcinomas (TCC) of the bladder are a major health problem. Recently, some studies link high risk Human papilloma viruses' type 16 and type 18 with bladder carcinoma.
Materials and methods: Fifty formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissues with TCC of the bladder from Specialized Surgical Hospital in Baghdad were included in this study. In addition, ten
apparently normal bladder autopsies were collected from the Forensic Medicine Institute Archives and used as control group. Tissue blocks were sectioned and sticked on charged slides and used for the detection of HPV-16 and HPV-18.
Results: The expression of HPV-16 and HPV-18 DNA signals in TCC of the bladder tissues in the&nbs

Recent reports provided evidence that epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and some matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) contribute to the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. This study investigated the expression pattern of some EMT markers (E-cadherin and Vimentin) and some MMPs (MMP-2 and MMP-9) in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC). Fifty five paraffin embedded biopsies were included in this study. Expression pattern of E-cadherin and Vimentin was evaluated by immunohistochemistry while cytoplasmic mRNA expression of both MMP-2 and MMP-9 were determined by in situ hybridization. The expression of all markers were significantly increased with the increase of patient's age (? 50 years), and furthermore an increase in men expression