Iranian Journal of Breast Diseases
Year:2015 | Volume:8 | Issue:1|Papers Count:7

Introduction: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancer which can be used to achieve negative margins in surgery and increases the possibility of breast conservation. Several studies have shown that pathological complete response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy increases survival rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of complete pathologic response and its effective factors in patients with breast cancer who were referred to the Breast Cancer Research Center.Method: In this cross-sectional study patients with stage I to III of breast cancer were included who had received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer research center between 1376 to 1392.Cases with complete pathologic response defined as cases which there is no tumor residue in the breast and axilla. This group of patients was compared with the patients who had residual tumor at pathology. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 19.Results: overall 179 patients were enrolled in the study. The patients` mean age was 45.4.73% of patients had received the chemotherapy regimen with Taxanes. 34patients (19%) were identified in the complete pathologic response group and 145 patients (81%) were identified in partial response or no pathologic response group. Significant differences were not observed between the two groups with respect to their age, menopausal status, family history of breast cancer, tumor size, tumor histology, estrogen and progesterone receptor, Her-2 neu and phenotypic type. However ki67 index was significantly different between the two groups (p=0.013) So that in the patients who had Ki67 more than 40, complete pathologic response was more observed.Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, among the demographic, clinical, pathological and therapeutic factors of this survey, Ki67 can be a predicting factor of pathologic response after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy.

Introduction: Lymph edema of upper limb is the major causes of physical and psychological distress in breast cancer patients. High levels of anxiety and depression occurs in patients with lymph edema .The aim of this study was assessment of the effect of relaxation techniques on lymph edema volume, anxiety and depression in women with lymph edema under treatment by complex decongestive therapy (CDT).Method: This study is a quasi-experimental clinical trial with a total 31 women with lymph edema (edema volume>200 cc). The control group includes 16 patients with CDT and experimental group includes 15 patients with CDT plus relaxation techniques. Intervention was conducted in two phases, the first phase last 3 weeks (6 days a week) and second phase continued for 4-6 weeks. Data collection was done before start of study, 3 weeks and 7-9 weeks after intervention by measuring of arm volume by water displacement method and determining anxiety and depression by hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS).Results: In this trial, edema volume, anxiety and depression decreased 63.6%, 54.1% and 65.5% in intervention group and receptively 60.7%, 31.4% and 35.2% in control group. There was significantly reduction of depression score in first phase (p=0.02) and total duration (p=0.004) and percent reduction of anxiety score (p=0.005) in the study period compare to control group.Conclusion: The results of this study will provide information on the effectiveness of relaxation techniques on depression, anxiety and arm volume reduction in patients with lymph edema.

Introduction: Breast cancer represents a significant health problem in women worldwide and improvements in our ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat the disease requires a greater understanding of the molecular basis of breast carcinogenesis. Methylation analysis of cell cycle genes can be used as a way of identifying important genes in tumorigenesis and can have diagnostic/prognostic value. The aim of this study was to investigate the methylation status of RASSF1A promoter, as a cell cycle regulatory gene, in two breast cancer cell lines.Method: In this basic research, MSP (methylation-specific PCR) was used as a qualitative method to assess the methylation pattern of RASSF1A promoter in two breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). This method involves initial modification of DNA by sodium bisulfite, converting all unmethylated, but not methylated, cytosines to uracil, and subsequent amplification with primers specific for methylated and unmethylated DNA.Results: MSP results show that in both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, regardless of their molecular subtype, promoter of the tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A is completely methylated. The lack of unmethylated band in both mentioned cell lines also indicate this issue.Conclusion: These findings confirm that RASSF1A promoter region hypermethylation may play an important role in breast cancer pathogenesis. Considering that epigenetic changes are reversible, screening for aberrant methylation patterns of CpG sites within the promoter of essential genes during the tumorigenic process, such as cell cycle genes, can contribute to the development and application of therapeutic agents targeting these alterations in human breast cancers.

Introduction: The goal of this study was assessing the prophylactic effect and adjuvant therapy of exercise on cytokines involved in anti-angiogenesis in estrogen-dependent breast cancer. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, in this type of cancer which often includes a type of carcinoma, epithelial cells lining the breast ducts or Lobulus are suffering from a malignant proliferation. The physical activity used an adjuvant to improve the quality of life in those who are suffering from cancer .Most of the studies have concentrated on the effects of exercise on quality of life, strength, muscular endurance and performance indicators for cancer patients, only a few studies have examined the cellular and molecular mechanisms of exercise on inflammation and have noted the tumor metastasis.Method: In this experimental study, 20 Balb/C female mice were collected and randomly were put into 2 groups of 10 teeth, Rest - Tumor - Exercise (TE), the Rest - Tumor - Rest (TR). After environmental orientation, and estrogen-dependent MC4-L2 cancer cells were injected to them. Then, one group of mice performed a 6weeks period endurance exercise 5days per week. Tumor volume was measured by a digital caliper weekly. Finally, the mice were dead; tumor tissue was removed and Tumor sample was homogenized and levels of cytokines were measured and quantified using ELISA.Results: Based on the results of t-test in both variables, the growth of tumor volume in the group (TE) compared to group (TR) had a significant decrease (p=0.0001), and the concentration of IL-2 in tumor tissue (TE) than group (TR) showed a significant increase (p=0.013). The Pearson correlation between tumor size and levels of IL-2 in tumor tissue (TE), there was a significant inverse relationship (p=0.002, r=-00.8)Conclusion: Endurance exercise reduces the changes in levels of cytokines, according to the reducing inflammation in the tissue and tumor volume in endurance exercise group which is in the same level with IL-2, exercise can therapy or cure along with other methods presented. Increasing of anti-angiogenic cytokines such as IL-2 is effective in reducing tumor volume in athletic group. The exercise can be used as an adjunct therapy along with other methods.

Introduction: Breast cancer is reported to be the most common cancer in Iranian women. Cancer may be complicated with depression and anxiety. Also, the quality of life of breast cancer patients is lower in comparison with the general population. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of life of and relative severity of depression in breast cancer survivors and the correlation between treatment of depression and quality of life.Method: Our study was a cross-sectional study, and we used clustered sampling. The sample population consisted of 50 women diagnosed and treated for Breast cancer who had admitted the Breast Cancer Clinic of Jahad-Daneshgahi. Depression was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory-Short Version (BDI-SV) and quality of life was assessed with the Short-Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36). The data were analyzed using parametric paired and independent sample T-test.Results: Among our sample population, 31 patients (62%) admitted our psychiatrist and was treated for depression. The mean BDI-SV scores of our sample population at the beginning and end of our study were 18, and 6.5 respectively, showing a significant change according to Paired Sample T-test (p<0.000). The mean SF-36 score of our sample population at the beginning and the end of our study were 51.68, and 68.25 respectively. Also showing a significant change (p<0.000). Independent Sample T-test showed that the SF-36 score of the two groups which did and did not consult a psychiatrist to be not significantly different (p=0.999).Conclusion: The results of this study show significant reduction in the severity of depression and significant increase in the quality of life of our sample population, three months after the completion of therapeutic interventions for cancer. The non-significant difference between the final SF-36 score in the two groups which did and did not consult a psychiatrist, represents the importance of other factors increasing the quality of life that should be considered in the treatment of patients.

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most incident cancer and the fifth cause of death due to malignancies among Iranian women. A strong sense of meaning and purpose in life of breast cancer patients appears to decrease hopelessness in their life. The present study has investigated effectiveness of group logo therapy on decreasing hopelessness in women with breast cancer who were covered by the Cancer Research Center (CRC), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.Method: The research was semi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group. For this purpose, 30 patients with breast cancer were selected by convenience sampling and divided into two experimental and control groups. Then, all 30 patients completed Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). The experimental group participated in 8 sessions of counseling through group logo therapy; however, the control group did not receive any type of psychological training. In the end, both groups were tested again. After collecting questionnaires, data was analyzed using analysis of covariance and by eighteenth edition of statistical software (SPSS).Results: The research result has shown that group logo therapy was significantly effective in reducing hopelessness in women with breast cancer (p<0.0005). In other words, this intervention could reduce hopelessness in experimental group.

Introduction: The growing trend of breast cancer in recent years has shown the necessity of reliance on new and safe methods to diagnose and control of this disease. Data mining, as one of the most accurate and reliable techniques, has been frequently used to diagnose or predict various cancers. Data mining is one of this techniques that a well-known applications of is "Pattern Recognition" among large patient data sets. In this paper, the researches recognize and explore the unknown patterns in a real breast cancer data set using data mining algorithms.Method: Due to excessive missing data in the collection, only data on 665 patients were available. Since the number of fields in the remaining records had null values, as one of the data preprocess and preparation phases, these values were estimated using the EM algorithm in SPSS20 software. Fields have been converted into discrete fields and finally the APRIORI algorithm has been used to analyze and explore the unknown patterns. After the rule extraction, an expert in the field of breast cancer eliminated redundant and meaningless relations.Results: 100 association rules with a confidence value of more than 0.9 explored by the APRIORI algorithm and after the clinical expert feedback, 8 clinically meaningful relations have been detected and reported.Conclusion: In this study, a number of less -known and interesting patterns have been extracted using the data mining algorithms. The use of data mining concepts, especially in medical data is very useful with considering the large volume of data and unknown relationships between causes of disease and the demographic characteristics. Due to the high number of risk factors, the use of these techniques is effective for cancer data. After pattern recognition these patterns or models provide the future study hypotheses and the next studies, for example RCTs will confirm or reject the hypotheses.