Background: Bowel cancer is the most prevalent digestive system cancer and is the 4th largest cause of cancer-related death worldwide. In Iraq, colon and rectal cancer (CRC) is the 6th most common malignancy in males and the 5th in females. This cancer is sluggish in growth, which gives a window of opportunity to screen for both precursor lesions and early cancer. The Cluster of Differentiation 47 (CD47) protein is a type of transmembrane glycoproteins found on nearly all human cells, including non-hematopoietic and hematopoietic cells. CD47 promotes CRC growth by triggering angiogenesis and apoptosis of tumor cell. Objectives: To evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of (CD47) in various colorectal samples from Iraqi patients with CRC by immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay. Specimens and methods: A total of 45 paraffin-embedded CRC tissue specimens and clinical data were obtained from the Medical City Teaching Hospital in Baghdad and a number of private laboratories in Baghdad, Iraq. In addition, 30 control colon and rectum tissues with no significant pathology were collected from the Forensic Medicine Department for comparison purposes after taking the official approvals. Results: The results revealed a high expression of CD47 in CRC cases, but with no significant correlation with clinicopathological features. Also, the result of figures in this study revealed negative membranous expression of CD47 (score 0), strong membranous expression of CD47 (score 3), moderately membranous expression of CD47 (score 2), and weak membranous expression of CD47 (score 1) Conclusion: Patients with CRC had high CD47 expression, allowing tumor cells to modulate CD47SIRP inhibitory signaling and prevent immune cell attack.
Prostate cancer is the commonest male cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. Over many decades, prostate cancer detection represented a continuous challenge to urologists. Although all urologists and pathologists agree that tissue diagnosis is essential especially before commencing active surgical or radiation treatment, the best way to obtain the biopsy was always the big hurdle. The heterogenicity of the tumor pathology is very well seen in its radiological appearance. Ultrasound has been proven to be of limited sensitivity and specificity in detecting prostate cancer. However, it was the only available targeting technique for years and was used to guide biopsy needle passed transrectally or transperineally
... Show MoreBackground: Oral mucositis is regarded as one of the major complications of radiation therapy especially in patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of glutamine in preventing or minimizing the development of mucositis of the oral cavity. Subjects and methods: Forty-six participants were randomly selected amongst those who were planned to receive radiation therapy for head and neck region cancers. They were randomly divided into two groups of 23 subjects, one group received glutamine and the second group received a placebo. Results: Glutamine had a statistically significant effect in reducing the occurrence and/or severity of oral mucositis in the treated patients compared to patients in the con
... Show MoreBackground: Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been extensively applied to improve wound healing due to some biostimulatory properties presented by laser arrays apparently able to accelerate the repair of soft tissue injuries. However, the role of proinflammatory interlukines not been studied yet. IL_1 ? represent one of the most important poroinflammatory interlukines that involved in wound healing. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of 790-805nm diode laser on the expression of IL_1 ? during wound healing in mice. Materials and Methods: Standard-sized wounds (1.5cm) were carried out in the face of 96 white albino mice. Half of them underwent LLLT treatment (360 J/cm 2) at 790-805 nm delivered immediately after wound pro
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to assess nurse's knowledge and role in the management of thalassemic patients in the Sulaimania Thalassemia Centre. Methodology: This study utilized a qualitative approach to explore nurses’ knowledge about thalassemia through semi structured group interviews. Questionnaire was synthesized through a comprehensive review of literature. Results: The results show that nurses in Kurdistan region of Iraq have a limited role in terms of decision making and there is lack of nursing documentation other than that of recording abnormal events, and a lack of knowledge about and engageme
Breast cancer is one of the comments malignant tumors worldwide especially in Iraq; it is a leading cause of death in Iraqi women. Determination of estrogen and progesterone receptors status is helpful in selecting the patients most likely to receive benefit from endocrine therapy, and provide prognostic information on recurrence and survival since their expression is related to the degree of the tumor differentiation. From November 2012 to March 2013, 150 breast cancer patients at Al-Amal Hospital in Baghdad were attended to start treatment of disease for the first time. All patients included in this study did not receive chemotherapy. Patients were asked to bring their paraffin embedded tissue blocks to participate in estrogen, progest
... Show MoreBackground: Insulin resistance is present in 50% or more of patients with primary hypothyroidism. Metformin can decrease TSH levels in these patients by a complex matter, this can be of great help in clinical practice.
Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the effect of metformin in reducing TSH levels in patients with primary hypothyroidism.
Methods: Hundred patients with primary hypothyroidism, 82 females, 18 males were included in this study, everyone was followed up for two months after adding metformin 850 mg twice daily in addition to thyroxin.
Results: 36 patients (36%) have a normal baseline TSH and no change after 2 months, 64 pa
... Show MoreThe influx of data in bioinformatics is primarily in the form of DNA, RNA, and protein sequences. This condition places a significant burden on scientists and computers. Some genomics studies depend on clustering techniques to group similarly expressed genes into one cluster. Clustering is a type of unsupervised learning that can be used to divide unknown cluster data into clusters. The k-means and fuzzy c-means (FCM) algorithms are examples of algorithms that can be used for clustering. Consequently, clustering is a common approach that divides an input space into several homogeneous zones; it can be achieved using a variety of algorithms. This study used three models to cluster a brain tumor dataset. The first model uses FCM, whic
... Show MoreToxoplasmosis is regarded as one of the most important global life-threatening diseases in immune-compromised people. The intracellular protozoon Toxoplasma gondii is the causative pathogen of toxoplasmosis. Aim of this study is to investigate the possible association between T. gondii infection and breast cancer (BC) in Iraqi women, also to assess the effect of T. gondiion interleukin 10 (IL-10) of the immune response. By ELISA method, blood samples from 81 women with breast cancer and 60 apparently healthy women have been examined for presence of anti-toxoplasmaantibodies, also the levels of serum IL-10 were estimated in these subjects. Results showed that women with BC had the highest prevalence rate of toxoplasmosis. The anti- T.gondii
... Show More