International Journal of Cancer Management
Volume:12 Issue: 4, Apr 2019

As breast cancer treatment going forward, need for supportive strategies grows. That creates an important call to summarize what has been done regionally. In this study, we systematically reviewed articles that proceeded rehabilitation and supportive care in breast cancer patients in Iran to present a research map of rehabilitation research in the past 10 years in Iran. All articles published from January 2006 to October 2015 were included. All of the breast cancer studies in Iran were searched in 3 English (Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus) and 2 Persian databases (SID and IranMedex).
Study Selection: All papers related to rehabilitation in breast cancer were included and categorized into 5 subgroups including qualitative, instrument, lymphedema, interventional, and observational studies. Three reviewers (two surgeons and an epidemiologist) screened the primary search and divided it into subgroups. Two reviewers used a checklist to critically appraise the full text of the selected articles. The necessary information of retrieved articles was extracted and recorded in the designed data extraction spreadsheet in Excel software. A total of 194 articles (102 in English and 92 in Persian) were assessed for eligibility of inclusion in the review, of which, 121 were excluded, and 73 studies were kept. The included studies consisted of 14 on qualitative design, 5 studies in the translation and validation of research instruments, 7 articles in the field of lymphedema, 20 articles about different intervention modalities on breast cancer patients (including education, social status, psychological, exercise, etc.), and 27 observational studies about anxiety, depression, quality of life, sexual function, emotional distress, complementary medicine, lifestyle, etc. Most of the reviewed studies insisted on a prevalence of physical, psychological, functional, and spiritual problems of breast cancer survivors and their caregivers. Designing a mega project to offer a palliative and rehabilitation service package according to the needs of Iranian patients may become a priority in their health care system.

DNA topoisomerase II alpha (Top2-α) enzyme is an important target for many anticancer drugs. A variety of TOP2A genomic variants has been found associated with the development of drug resistance to this enzyme. Here, we have characterized 2 non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) including rs762022284 and rs764177670 in TOP2A gene, which could affect its response to Amsacrine and Mitoxantrone as important inhibitors of the enzyme. The nsSNPs were genotyped in the Iranian population and the data were analyzed, using PLINK and PICcalc programs. Genotyping data indicated the allele frequency of 0.30 (PIC = 0.42) and 0.05 (PIC = 0.09) for rs762022284 and rs764177670, respectively. The data suggested that the presence of rs762022284 and rs764177670 nsSNPs could affect Top2-α response to Amsacrine and Mitoxantrone, indicating the necessity of consideration of population-dependent genotypes in cancer chemotherapy, using these drugs.

T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a malignant hyperplastic disease of the hematopoietic system. This tumor is the most common tumor in children and adolescents. Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) is described as a prosurvival protein from the Bcl2 family. It is an important factor in routine cancer treatments. In fact, in different types of cancers, Mcl-1 downregulation can be a potential target. The present study aims to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of MCL-1 siRNA in T-ALL cells. The present study evaluated the effects of Mcl-1 small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on survival in Jurkat cells. Specific Mcl-1 siRNA was transfected and using quantitative real-time PCR, the relative expression of Mcl-1 mRNA was determined. Moreover, cell survival was determined using the colorimetric MTT assay. The expression of mRNA reduced effectively in a dose-dependent manner at 48 hours after transfection with Mcl-1 siRNA. In addition, Mcl-1 siRNA treatment could significantly reduce tumor cell survival. Based on the results, downregulation of Mcl-1 by specific siRNAs in T-ALL cells can effectively reduce cell survival. Therefore, Mcl-1 siRNA may be a complementary agent along with standard methods in the treatment of T-ALL.

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most important public health issues; so, knowledge about signs, symptoms, and screening programs has impressive role in BC prevention. The objective of this study was measuring general physician’s knowledge regarding BC screening programs. This cross sectional study was performed among 200 general physicians (GP) of urban and rural areas from Jun to September, 2017 in Hamadan, Iran, using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed by SPSS. Significance level was set at P < 0.05. The mean score of total knowledge on breast cancer screening, risk factors, signs, and symptoms for 23 questions was 15.07 ± 2.4 (max: 20; min: 9), which meant that correct answers were given to more than half of them. In symptom knowledge area, 45.3% of physicians had correct answer to 4 questions, whereas about risk factor, 61.4% recorded correct answer to 8 questions. There was a significant reverse correlation between knowledge about screening programs and age of participants (r = -0.3; P < 0.001), and their years of work experience (r = -0.26; P < 0.001). In the current study, family physician knowledge on breast cancer signs, symptom, and screening programs was insufficient. It is recommended that there should be a well-designed health education program to compensate physicians’ knowledge deficits, especially in older ages in order to raise awareness toward cancer, with emphasis on the role of prevention and screening. Importance of early diagnosis in breast cancer and its high rate in our country are adequate reasons for considering this issue on top of our priorities.

Cervical cancer is known as a preventable cancer, which this concept has been proposed since cervical cancer screening protocols have been conducted in many countries. Regardless of this prominent advance, rate of cervical cancer screening in many societies is still low. The aim of this study was to assess post-menopausal women behavior regarding cervical cancer screening. This study was a cross -sectional population-based telephone survey, conducted among women in the post-menopausal period in Tabriz, Iran in November 2016. A structured questionnaire consisted of 4 sections, including sociodemographic information, family and past medical history, observed vulnerability to cancer, and other health-related insights, and utilization of cervical cancer screening was used. The main outcome of the study was having a cervical Pap smear test. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Of all 2 586 included respondents, 1 098 (42.45%) individuals never had undergone Pap smear test. Also, 2 015 women (77.91%) had not been recommended by health professional staff to perform a Pap smear test so far. The mean age of the participants was 56.51 ± 12.87 years. Low age, marriage, high education, employment, not smoking, and not having a chronic disease were associated with high uptake rate among respondents. Demographic characteristics and misconceptions have an outstanding role in the commitment of people in cancer screening programs. These results can be used by authorities to modify behaviors toward cervical cancer screening programs.

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers in the female reproductive system. Awareness of cervical cancer diagnosis, risk factors and screening can lead to rapid treatment and their well-being. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1900 female health workers in Isfahan province and 230 similar women in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data about knowledge and attitude. Numerical outcomes were analyzed using ANOVA and linear regression methods and categorical outcomes were applied to the chi-squared test. Data were analyzed at 5% significant level using SPSS 23. The result of linear regression showed that there was a significant difference in the mean score of knowledge about Pap smear in both provinces (P = 0.001). There was a significant relationship between the mean scores of knowledge about Pap smear in Isfahan province and marriage at an early age (P = 0.001), smoking (P = 0.005) and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province with cervical ulcer (P = 0.03). In addition, there was a significant difference in the mean score of attitude toward Pap smear between both provinces (P = 0.001) and there was a significant relationship between the mean scores attitude toward Pap smear in Isfahan province and marriage at an early age (P = 0.001), cervical ulcer (P = 0.002), and smoking (P = 0.001) and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province with genital infection (P = 0.012) increase the number of pregnancies (P = 0.002). Considering the importance of knowledge and attitude of female health worker in both provinces, it is necessary to carry out educational programs especially in the provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.