Multidisciplinary Cancer Investigation
Year:2017 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:6

Since human beings could travel beyond the earth atmosphere, scientists started to investigate the effect of microgravity on human cells. Microgravity has different effects on normal and cancer cells, but the related mechanisms are not well-known till now. The aim of the present review is to focus on the consequences of exposing the cancer cells to reduced gravity. Some cancer cells organize three-dimensional structures under microgravity. Obviously, microgravity is an external stress, which can affect cell proliferation, apoptosis, cytoskeleton and signaling pathways. In addition, it touches immune-related components, regulates immune responses, and implicates immune cell activation. Low mutation aggregation and cancer rate in astronauts may lead to use microgravity as a therapeutic approach. However, it reduces the invasion and migration in some types of cancer cells, triggers the oncogenic signaling pathways including KRAS, and inhibits proliferation in normal lymphocytes. In conclusion, using microgravity as a therapeutic method in cancer treatment needs to be more investigated on both cancer and normal cells, and might not become true in the near future.

INTRODUCTION:Cancer initiation and progression is a challenging scenario through developmental processes, which may be more complicated by occurrence of metastasis. Basically, diverse genetic alterations, including mutations, formation of truncated proteins and related pathways play key roles either in diagnosis or the most influential therapeutic purposes. These may lead to an applicable preventive package against metastatic events [1]. By considering the biological and clinical characteristics, it has been stated that “Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA)” cancer patients are diversely defined compared to patients of older age groups. In this regard, it was aimed to investigate exceptional metastatic AYA cancer patients at genomic level and by considering the capability of molecular alterations in drug innovation [2]. …

Introduction: Marine actinomycetes have a great potential to produce unique bioactive compounds due to their special adaptation in the harsh ocean environment. The current study aimed to isolate anti-cancer compounds producing actinomycetes from sediments of Harra forests of the Persian Gulf and investigate their potential as anti-breast cancer metabolites.Methods: In the current study, 40 sediment samples of Harra forests of the Persian Gulf were collected. Samples were diluted and cultured in a starch casein agar selective medium. The strains were isolated and purified, using morphological and microscopic methods. Forty strains were cultured in a starch casein broth and the metabolites were extracted using ethyl acetate. The produced metabolites were extracted from active strains and their cytocidal activities were evaluated against the breast cancer cell line. Finally, effective-metabolites-producing bacteria were identified using the molecular method.Results: Of the sediments, 186 strains were isolated and identified. Results showed that the isolates had cytocidal activities against the breast cancer cell line. The results also revealed that the 2HP and 4HP strains showed more anti-cancer activities than the others. Results of this study showed that sediments of Harra forests of the Persian Gulf were rich in active actinomycetes, which can be used in the production of new anticancer compounds.Conclusions: The obtained results give evidence that it is essential to scrutinize these marine microorganisms, which have a great potential to be used in the pharmaceutical fields, in search for new drugs.

Introduction: Breast cancer could adversely affect the self-esteem of women, family performance, sexual role, and quality of life. Sources of support are considered as one of the most effective coping strategies against problems and consequences of breast cancer. The current study aimed at evaluating different supportive sources and their impact on coping behavior of patients with breast cancer.Methods: The current descriptive, analytic, cross-sectional study included 100 patients with breast cancer. The instruments consisted of a questionnaire designed to measure the sources of support and another questionnaire on coping behavior with the disease. The data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation, linear regression, and descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) with SPSS version 14.Results: The mean age of the patients was 45.59±9.1 years. Overall, 69% of the study subjects were married and 77% were housewives. There was a positive and significant correlation between the received supportive sources and the disease coping behavior (P=0.049). In addition, the mean score of supportive source received from mothers and sisters was the highest in women with breast cancer (3.86).Conclusions: Results of the current study indicated that women with breast cancer had the highest rate of coping behavior when their mothers and sisters supported them. This emphasizes the importance of required advice for all sources of support available for patients; therefore, the patients with breast cancer could deal with their disease more desirably.

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) and its diagnosis are of great importance in the middleeast, according to the increasing burden of this disease and the large number of unreported cases. Less than 20% of all TB cases only have extra-pulmonary manifestations and breast TB is a rare form of extra-pulmonary TB. It includes about 1% of all breast lesions. Case Presentation: This study presents an 83 year-old breast TB female case with the complaints of fatigue, lethargy, and fever. In the physical examination, the patient had a discharging abscess in upper outer quadrant of her right breast associated with edema and erythema, accompanied with multiple axillary and supraclavicular adenopathies. Imaging showed multiple cervical, axillary, and abdominal adenopathies. Clinical manifestations were highly suggestive of inflammatory breast carcinoma. Further investigations, including lymph node biopsy and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) helped with the diagnosis of TB in the patient. The patient was treated with quadruple therapy of TB. Conclusion: Because of its nonspecific clinical features, TB mastitis is often being misdiagnosed and underreported. Early diagnosis of breast TB could reduce patients’ morbidity and also facilitate an effective treatment of patients with inflammatory breast lesions. TB should be the first differential diagnosis of granulomatous mastitis.

Repairing and enhancing patient wellbeing are considered the most significant goals in the health sector. It is observed that a trustful relationship between physicians and other medical team members on one side and the patients and their families on the other side is really important to achieve the fundamental purposes in the “Art of Medicine” [1]. This is why in almost all of the “codes of medical ethics”, this issue receives the highest level of attention. In very famous ancient documents, “Hippocratic Oath”, in the Iranian version of the Hippocratic Oath called “Ahwazi Advice” [2], and more recent international conventions such as “1948 Declaration of Geneva” [3] and national documents such as “American Medical Association Code of Ethics” [4] the issue of “trust” plays a very important role. …