Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy and the second leading cause of mortality among women in Iraq forming 23% of cancer related deaths. The low survival from the disease is a direct consequence to the advanced stages at diagnoses. Aim: To document the composite stage of breast cancer among Iraqi patients at the time of diagnosis; correlating the observed findings with other clinical and pathological parameters at presentation. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study enrolling the clinical and pathological characteristics of 603 Iraqi female patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The composite stage of breast cancer was determined according to UICC TNM Classification System of Breast Cancer and the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging. The studied parameters comprised age of the patient, stage of the disease, marital and educational status, history of lactation and hormonal intake (for a minimum period of 6 months), family history of breast or any other cancer, the effected breast side, hormone (Estrogen and Progesterone) receptor (ER, PR) and Her2 contents of the primary cancer. Statistical analysis was performed to correlate the recorded composite stages at diagnosis with the corresponding clinical and pathological data utilizing SPSS version 16.0 statistical program. Results: Out of 603 patients, seven (1.2%) had ductal carcinoma in situ (Stage 0). Stages I, II and III and IV were documented in 9.5%, 47.1%, 33.2% and 9.1% of the patients at the time of diagnoses. Overall 70.8% of patients presented in the age group (40-59 years), 79.3% were married and 32.2% were highly educated. History of lactation, hormonal intake, family breast cancer and contralateral breast involvement was observed in 73.4%, 26.5%, 20.2% and 6.5% respectively. No correlation was elicited between the stage of breast cancer and the age of the patients, history of lactation or contralateral breast involvement. On the other hand, significant associations were demonstrated with respect to the marital and educational status, history of hormonal intake and breast cancer in the family. Immuno-histochemical evaluation revealed ER+PR+Her2+ (Triple Positive/Luminal B), ER-PR-Her2- (Triple Negative), ER+PR+Her2- (Luminal A) and ER-PR-Her2+ (Her2) subtypes in 13.4%, 11.8%, 48.2% and 9.8% of the examined breast samples respectively. When correlating the composite stage at diagnosing breast cancer with the corresponding subtypes the relationship was highly significant at p<0.01. Conclusions and Recommendations: The study reports a regression in Stage IV breast cancer at the time of initial presentation among Iraqi patients specifically in those with family history of the disease; pointing out to the fruitful outputs of initiating the National Program for Early Detection of Breast Cancer in the country. Further professional efforts, endorsed by practical policy decisions, are recommended to down stage breast cancer through promoting evidence based protocol guidelines and adopting comprehensive well designed diagnostic, screening and cancer control strategies.
Fibroblast growth factors-23 (FGF-23) are a class of cell signaling proteins produced by macrophages. They have a range of roles, but they play a particularly important role in the development of animal cells, where they are essential for appropriate growth. Phosphate, which is found in the body as both organic and mineral phosphate, plays crucial roles in cell structure, communication, and metabolism. Most phosphate in the body resides in bone, teeth, and inside cells, with less than 1% circulating in serum. The aim of the study is to evaluate the levels of the Fibroblast Growth Factors-23 and phosphate and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) in acromegaly patients against healthy control. A case control study Fibroblast Growth Fact
... Show MoreToxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic parasite in immune-compromised persons. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in psoriasis patients is investigated. In addition, the treatment effect on psoriasis patients infected with toxoplasmosis through evaluating Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF-α) cytokine levels is studied. Blood samples were collected from 130 individuals who involved 60 control samples and 70 samples with psoriasis. They attended Medical City Hospital in Baghdad province from October 2017 - February 2018. Then, the anti- T. gondii antibodies (IgM and IgG) and TNF- α in the sera were determined via the enzyme linked immune-sorbent assay. The highe
... Show MoreBackground: Drug resistant epilepsy is defined as failure of adequate trials of two tolerated, appropriately chosen and used antiepileptic drug schedules to achieve sustained seizure freedom. Up to 30% of patients referred to clinics with a diagnosis of pharmaco-resistant epilepsy may have been misdiagnosed, and many can be helped by optimizing their treatment.Pseudoresistance, in which seizures persist because the underlying disorder has not been adequately or appropriately treated, must be ruled out or corrected before drug treatment can be considered to have failed.
Objectives: The objectives of this study were to determine the causes of drug failure in patients with epilepsy and to differenti
... Show MoreToday, the prediction system and survival rate became an important request. A previous paper constructed a scoring system to predict breast cancer mortality at 5 to 10 years by using age, personal history of breast cancer, grade, TNM stage and multicentricity as prognostic factors in Spain population. This paper highlights the improvement of survival prediction by using fuzzy logic, through upgrading the scoring system to make it more accurate and efficient in cases of unknown factors, age groups, and in the way of how to calculate the final score. By using Matlab as a simulator, the result shows a wide variation in the possibility of values for calculating the risk percentage instead of only 16. Additionally, the accuracy will be calculate
... Show MoreBackground: Chronic hyperplastic candidiasis is the least common type of oral candidiasis. The diagnosis, long-term treatment, and prognosis of this potentially malignant oral condition are still currently unclear. Objective: the aim of this study is to analyze the demographic features and clinical characteristics of oral chronic hyperplastic candidiasis. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on blocks and case sheets of patients who were diagnosed with chronic hyperplastic candidiasis in the archives of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology at the College of Dentistry/University of Baghdad. Demographic and clinical characteristics were analyzed. Results: twenty-one cases with chronic hyperplastic candidiasis were coll
... Show MoreBackground: Oil refinery workers are continuously exposed to numerous hazardous materials. Petroleum contains the heavy metals as a natural constituent or as additives. These metals induce the production of ROS which associated with an oxidative damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids. This study was conducted to assess the salivary levels of heavy metals, salivary oxidative status, oral immunological activity (salivary sIgA) and assessment of the oral findings among the workers of Al-Daura oil refinery in Baghdad city. Subjects, Materials and Methods: This study was done in Al-Daura oil refinery; samples consist of 60 workers involved in refinery processes (study group) and 20 non-workers (control group). Oral examination and saliva collection
... Show MoreThis study dealt with IL-13 1024 (C/T) gene genotyping among patients with Thyroid goiter in Iraq. Forty blood samples from patients with Thyroid goiter were collected and compared with 30 healthy persons as controls. The genotyping results of IL-13 1024 (C/T) gene using ARMS-PCR revealed presence TT, CC and CT genotypes beside T and C alleles. The T allele and TT genotype frequency were higher in Thyroid goiter patients compared to the same genotype and allele in healthy persons (P = 0.060). These increasing results were related with increasing risk factor of Thyroid goiter (odds ratio [OR] 2.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.99–71.4). No significant differences between genotypes for Thyroid goiter patients and controls were revealed by
... Show MoreKE Sharquie, GA Ibrahim, AA Noaimi, HK Hamudy, J Saudi Soc Dermatol Dermatol Surg, 2010 - Cited by 2
The study was conducted for the detection of Aflatoxin B1(AFB1) in the serum and urine of 42 early and middle childhood patients (26 male and 16 female ) with renal function disease, liver function disease, in additional to atrophy in the growth and other symptoms depending on the information within consent obtained from each patient, in addition to 8 children, apparently healthy, as the control. The technique of HPLC was used for the detection of AFB1 from all samples. The results showed that out of 42 patient children, 19 (45.2%) gave positive detection of AFB1 in the serum among all age groups patients with a mean of 0.88 ng/ml and a range of (0.12-3.04) ng/ml. This was compared with the cont
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