Basic and Clinical Cancer Research
Volume:15 Issue: 1, Winter 2023

Cancer is one of the deadliest diseases in recent decades. Which has different types. Despite advances in the treatment of cancer, they are still the most critical threat to public health. Although conventional therapies have played a major role in the treatment or eradication of the disease, the emergence of emerging diseases requires new therapies such as vaccine design. Significant challenges in cancer drug treatment such as drug resistance and side effects of drug toxicity and high cost have made the treatment process more difficult. The aim of this study was to design a new and effective strategy for preparing a vaccine against cancer using some antigenic proteins in this disease. After preparing appropriate epitopes of antigenic protein compounds in cancers and examining their antigenic and immunogenic properties, the process of fusion vaccine composition was performed with the help of various bioinformatics tools to study the physicochemical properties and two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures and Their validation as well as immunological and simulation properties were investigated and finally the codons of vaccine constructs were optimized to increase the translation rate of its cloning process in the expression vector pET28a (+) to evaluate the expression of protein in prokaryotic cells in E. coli K12 system. Finally, the docking process was performed with some receptors that are effective in immunological processes in the body, such as TLRs, MHCI, and MHCII. Selected epitopes of physiologically important cancer proteins theoretically cover a high percentage of the world’s population. The vaccine was designed with a stable, antigenic, and non-sensitizing composition. Structural analysis of the TRL5/vaccine binding complex and its simulation process reveal sufficiently stable critical with the prospect of receptor recognition. The dynamics of the immune response, having the potential to stimulate and produce active and memory B cells, and the production of CD8+T, and CD4+T cells show a favorable role in stimulating and creating effective immune responses by Th2 and Th1 cells. Computational results using bioinformatics tools showed that our designed immunogenic structure has the potential to stimulate cellular and humoral immune responses against cancer properly. Therefore, based on these data and after evaluating the effectiveness of the candidate vaccine through in vivo and in vitro immunological tests, it can be suggested as a candidate vaccine against cancer.

Esophageal cancer, a highly aggressive and often fatal gastrointestinal disease, frequently reaches advanced unresectable stages. The standard treatment involves definitive chemoradiation due to concerns about regional failure. To address this, intensified radiation dosages and advanced techniques like Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and Three-Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D-CRT) are being explored. This study aimed to compare dosimetric factors in patients with esophageal carcinoma undergoing IMRT versus 3D-CRT treatments.

Twenty patients were alternately assigned to receive either treatment. Each patient’s alternate virtual plan resulted in a total of forty plans. Dosimetric evaluations included coverage of the Planning Target Volume (PTV) and dose-volumes of lungs, heart, and spinal cord. Treatment consisted of 50.4 Gy radiation with concurrent weekly paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy. Statistical analysis was conducted using the two-tailed Paired t-Test.

Dosimetric evaluations revealed no significant distinctions in PTV parameters such as maximum dose, minimum dose, mean dose, D2%, D50%, and V95% between IMRT and 3D-CRT plans. However, IMRT exhibited improvements in D98% and Homogeneity Index. While Conformity Index did not differ significantly, IMRT displayed reduced lung irradiation in various aspects such as Dmean, V20, and V30, while 3D-CRT showed lower irradiation in V5 and V10. IMRT effectively spared the heart with lowered heart irradiation in V30. Spinal cord Dmax remained consistent across both techniques.

IMRT demonstrated better dose homogeneity and superior lung and heart sparing capabilities compared to 3D-CRT in treating esophageal carcinoma. While both techniques had similar dose conformity, IMRT’s potential to reduce longterm radiation-induced lung and heart complications through improved sparing of these organs is noteworthy.

National comprehensive cancer control programs combat cancer through different measures, including primary prevention, early detection, treatment, and palliative and supportive care. Among the others, early detection programs seem to be a promising intervention and lead to lower cancer mortality. We define research priorities for the early detection of cancers in Iran.

We applied the multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) tools using three key attributes, including “5-year prevalence”, “mortality to incidence ration as severity of disease,” and “economic burden,” to rank different cancers for research priorities. The priorities were ranked based on four scenarios based on the weighting of the attributes. We also used the differences in the 5-year survival between localized and advanced tumors as the effect of early detection and incorporated it as the decision rule into the priority-setting model.

Gastric cancer and cancers of the brain and nervous system ranked first in all the proposed scenarios. The most and least 5-year survival differences between localized and advanced cancers were observed for the kidney (80.5%) and the brain (3.3%) cancers. The top 10 priorities for early cancer detection in Iran were gastric, prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, kidney, bladder, and cervical cancers.

We used a quantitative method and demonstrated the priority areas for research in the early detection of cancer in Iran. Researchers and government may use these results to optimize their research strategies for cancer prevention in Iran.

Considering changes in the structure of Iran’s population, the prevalence of cancer is increasing. Increasing social awareness about cancer and screening for cancers are the most cost-effective approaches for breast cancer prevention. Studies show a significantly low rate of regular breast cancer screening behaviors. Given the importance of breast cancer and the decreasing effect of screening methods on the financial burden and disease complications, awareness about their attitude can provide appropriate information for Policy-making about breast cancer screening methods in Iran. This study aimed to investigate the attitude of women over 40 years-old visiting health centers affiliated toward breast cancer screening methods.

This is a descriptive/analytical study performed cross-sectionally in the health centers affiliated with TUMS. Two hundreds fifty-five women from Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex and some health centers that were subsidiaries of the south health centers of TUMS, were enrolled. To collect the required data, we developed a questionnaire based on tools used in similar studies. We used the Chi-square test to investigate the relationship of the attitude score with demographic and socioeconomic variables. The statistical analyses were performed in STATA.

About 77.6% of the participants agreed that breast cancers detected earlier are almost treatable. About 18.9% of the participants believed that (agree and highly agree) they will not develop breast cancer in the future, and 47.8% had no idea; 68.2% of the participants disagreed with the item “breast cancer is almost incurable even if detected in early stages;” about 22.0% of them believed that they are at higher risks for breast cancer compared to other women, and 61.3% of the participants agreed to visit a physician in case of feeling pain or a mass in the breast

The attitude of the Women participating in the study toward breast cancer screening is high; this finding can be used in plans aiming to raise awareness and conduct screening in Iran.

This study aims to conduct a systematic review of the current knowledge regarding the diagnostic performance of MRI in the investigation of non-mass lesions of the breast.

Up to July 2022, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase were searched comprehensively. All studies examining the diagnostic performance of MRI in non-mass lesions were included except review articles, articles published in a language other than English, and case reports or series of cases. Two independent reviewers performed a literature review and data extraction. A checklist for cross-sectional studies developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) was used to assess sources of bias.

The systematic review included two studies. If any enhancement is present on MRI, most ultrasound NMLs exhibit a non-mass-enhancement. We found that the distribution of non-mass enhancement lesions was primarily segmental and regional. The highest number of malignancies is associated with segmental distributions since 81.8% of the cases with segmental enhancement were ductal carcinomas, specifically DCIS.

Non-mass lesions of the US that do not enhance in MRI have a good prognosis. Breast cancer is very unlikely in these cases, so follow-up is acceptable unless there is a suspicion of malignancy on mammography. In cases where regional and segmental enhancement of NMLs occurs on CE-MRI, ductal carcinomas may be present, and a pathological examination is warranted.

Context: 

Stem cells play a key role in tissue repair and regeneration due to their self-renewal properties. In recent years, the use of stem cells as an important and valuable treatment method has created a new hope for the treatment of diseases and disorders that were previously difficult to treat. In this review article, the introduction of stem cells and their capabilities for treatment, as well as the sources of stem cells and the use of these sources for the treatment of diseases, including the treatment of leukemia, have been discussed.

Evidence Acquisition: 

Extensive search in Google Scholar and PubMed using keywords related to the article and review of various articles published between 1957 and 2022 about stem cells and the use of these cells to treat diseases.

Recently, it has been proven that hematopoietic stem cells can be produced from pluripotent embryonic stem cells, and hematopoietic stem cells can make different blood cells. These findings help medical science in the treatment of various types of blood cancer. Also, during the conducted research, it has been determined that induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSCs) can be used in the treatment of various diseases, including leukemia.NOTCH, Wnt, TGF-B1 signaling pathways play an important role in the proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells. Evidence shows that cancer stem cells have a high ability to create tumors. The presence of cancer stem cells has been reported in some patients, including those with acute myeloid leukemia.Also, the results of research conducted in recent years show that the SALL4 gene can be used in the treatment of leukemia.

The results of various researches show that treatment with stem cells, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, can be a suitable method for treating patients with leukemia.