• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2321-2323
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• 2016

Background: Inflammatory hematological parameters like the neutrophil/lymphocyte (N/L) ratio have been investigated in many cancer types and significant relationships found with prognosis, for example. The aim of this present study was to investigate the impact of hematological parameters notably on N/L ratio and mean platelet volume (MPV) in papillary thyroid cancer cases. Materials and Methods: A total of 79 patients who underwent a thyroidectomy operation in Findikli, Goiter Research and Treatment Center during 2011-2015 period were enrolled in the study, 41 with papillary thyroid cancer and 38 with benign goiter confirmed by pathological examination. We collected clinical and laboratory data for the patients from hospital records retrospectively. Blood samples taken at admission were assessed for parameters compared between the groups. Results: No significant differences between papillary thyroid cancer and benign goiter groups were apparent in terms of age, the N/L ratio, MPV, white blood cell count (WBC), red blood cell count (RBC), hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet, neutrophil, lymphocyte, red blood cell distribution width (RDW) and platelet crit (PCT) levels (p>0.05). Only the level of platelet distribution width (PDW) significantly differed, being lower in the papillary cancer group (p<0.05). Conclusions: No significant relationship between papillary thyroid cancer and inflammatory hematological parameters including in particular the N/L ratio and MPV. The relevance of the PDW values remains unclear.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.sup3
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• pp.17-22
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• 2016

Colorectal cancer is a major cause of mortality worldwide. Fecal occult blood testing has proven a very effective screening tool for early detection and mortality reduction. The aim of this study was to determine predictors factors related to fecal occult blood testing using the Health Belief Model method among residents of Bushehr, Iran. A cross sectional study was performed on a sample of 600 men and women more than 50 years of age. The sample was selected by a convenience method from patients referred to public and private laboratories throughout the city. Each subject filled out a questionnaire which was designed and developed based on Health Belief Model constructs. Statistical analysis was conducted using ANOVA, T-test, chi-square test, and logistic regression. Fecal occult blood tests were performed on 179 (29.8%) out of 600 subjects, of which 95 patients (58.1%) did a periodic examination test and 84 patients (46.9%) had a doctor's advice for testing. According to the logistic regression model, the perceived barriers (P=0.0, Exp(B)= 0.3), perceived benefits (P<0.01, Exp(B)= 1.9) and self-efficacy (P<0.01, Exp(B)= 1.6) were predictive factors related to occult blood testing among subjects. The results showed that reducing people's perception of barriers to testing, increasing perceived benefits of screening, and reinforcing self efficacy can have major effect in increasing the rate of fecal occult blood screening for colorectal cancer prevention.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.10
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• pp.4225-4231
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• 2014

Aim: To determine prognostic value of blood parameters on overall and progression-free survival in cases received adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy with diagnosis of stage I-III breast cancer. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed files of 350 patients with non-metastatic breast cancer who were treated in the Radiation Oncology Department of Kayseri Teaching Hospital between 2005 and 2010. Pretreatment white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil, monocyte, basophil and eosinophil counts, and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were recorded. The relationship between clinicopathological findings and blood parameters was assessed. Results: Overall, 344 women and 6 men were recruited. Median age was $55.3{\pm}0.3$ years (range: 22-86). Of the cases, 243 (61.4%) received radiotherapy while 329 (94.3%), received chemotherapy and 215 (61.4%) received hormone therapy. Mean overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was 84.4 and 78.8 months, respectively. During follow-up, 48 patients died due to either disease-related or non-related causes. Local recurrence was detected in 14 cases, while distant metastasis was noted in 45 cases. In univariate analysis, age, pathology, perinodal invasion were significantly associated with overall survival, whereas gender, stage and hormone therapy were significantly associated with progression-free survival. In multivariate analysis, histopathological diagnosis (OR: 0.3; 95%: 0.1-0.7; p=0.006) and perinodal invasion (OR: 0.1; 95% CI: 0.1-1.3; p=0.026) were significantly associated with overall survival, whereas tumor stage (OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 0.0-0.7; p=0.014) and hormone therapy (OR: 2.1; 95%: 1.2-3.8; p=0.010) were significantly associated with progression-free survival. Conclusions: It was found that serum inflammatory markers including WBC, neutrophil, lymphocyte and monocyte counts, and NLR and PLR had no effect on prognosis in patients with breast cancer who underwent surgery and received adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3305-3310
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• 2014

Background: A cancer survivor is defined as anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the rest of their life. The purpose of this study was to examine whether physical functions, health-related outcomes, nutritional status and blood markers in community-dwelling cancer survivors aged 75 years and older are different from those who do not have cancer Materials and Methods: Two hundred seventy-five participants were asked by physicians, nurses, and physical therapists, questions regarding cancer history in a face-to-face interview. Data were collected for demographic information, physical functions, such as handgrip strength, knee extension power, abdominal muscle strength, static standing balance, walking speed and the timed-up-and-go test, health-related outcomes, nutritional status, and blood markers. The measured parameters of survivor diagnosed with cancer were compared with those without a history of cancer. Results: Thirty-seven older adults were previously diagnosed with cancer. Female cancer survivors had lower knee extension power (p<0.05), abdominal muscle strength (p<0.05), walking speed (p<0.05), timed-up-and-go test score (p<0.05), and time to spend on walking per day (p<0.05) than older women without a history of cancer. In men, none of the measured parameters were significantly different between cancer survivors and older men with no history of cancer. Conclusions: The present study shows that partial physical function of women cancer survivors aged 75 years and older differs from that in women with no history of cancer.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.27 no.10
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• pp.1058-1069
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• 1994

This study was performed to study the effects of dietary factors on breast and cervical cancer incidence in female Koreans. The subjects were 60 breast and 109 cervical cancer patients recruited from five general hospitals in Seoul. Food intake, anthropometric measurement, and blood compositions were studied through personal interview and using medical records, from August 1991 to September 1992. Body weight, body mass index, triceps skinfold thickness and body muscle mass were at upper limit of normal value, which suggest that these patients had a tendency of overweight. The levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit of the patients were below the normal values. The values of serum protein, albumin, and calcium were in the normal range but close to the lower bound. Therefore the nutritional status assessed by blood composition seems to be marginal. The results of diet history showed that most of the nutrient intake of the subjects met with RDA. The fat intake were 22.9-36.9g/day which supplies about 15-16% of total calories. The results of this study do not agree with those reports of western societies which showed the positive correlation between calorie and fat intake and the incidence of breast and cervical cancer. Even through the calories and fat intake of the subjects were not high, it was higher than national average, especially in breast cancer patients. From this study, dietary factors does not seem to be a major risk factor in cancer incidence in Korea. However, the tendency of the increasing consumption of fat could be a contributing risk factor together with overweight.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1213-1219
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• 2005

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.339-346
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• 2000

Background : The moot important prognostic factor in non-small cell lung cancer is the TNM stage. Even after complete resection in early non-small cell lung cancer, the five-year survival rate is still low. However, new prognostic factors, including molecular biologic factors, have recently been found to guide the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. We evaluated the prognostic value of the loss of blood-group antigen A in tumor tissue, which has been implicated as an important prognostic factor for overall survival and the timing of the disease progression. Methods : The loss of blood-group antigen A was assessed immunohistochemically in paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 26 patients with blood types A or AB, who had undergone curative surgery. Monoclonal antibody was used to detect the blood group antigen A expression. Results : Fifteen patients (58%) expressed antigen A in their tumor tissue, whereas 11 patients (42%) did not show antigen A. The median survival time of the blood A antigen positive group was 11 months, while the median survival time of the blood A antigen negative group was 18 months. The difference in survival between the two groups was not statistically significant. Conclusion : The loss of blood-group antigen A in tumor tissue was not found to be a significant prognostic factor in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. This study needs to be extended for further evaluation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6097-6100
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• 2012

Background: Previous studies have observed an association between ABO blood group and risk for certain gastrointestinal malignancies, including pancreatic and gastric cancer. However, it is unclear whether there is such an association with colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, possible relationships between ABO blood groups and Rh factor and KRAS status in patients with CRC were investigated. Materials and Methods: In 1,620 patients with CRC, blood group and Rh factor were examined and compared with the control group of 3,022,883 healthy volunteer blood donors of the Turkish Red Crescent between 2004 and 2011. The relationship of blood groups with wild type K-ras status was also evaluated. Results: Overall distributions of ABO blood groups as well as Rh factor were comparable between patients (45% A, 7.2% AB, 16.4% B, 31.4% O, and 87.2% Rh+) and controls (42.2% A, 7.6% AB, 16.3% B, 33.9% O, and 87.7% Rh+) (p=0.099). However, there were statistically significant difference between patients and controls with respect to O vs. non O blood group (p=0.033) and marginally significant difference for A vs. non-A blood group (p=0.052). Among patients, the median age was 62 (range 17-97), 58.1% were male. There were no statistically significant differences respect to sex and K-ras status. Conclusion: In present study, the ABO/Rh blood groups were statistically significantly associated with the risk of CRC. There were no relationship between K-ras status and ABO blood group and Rh factor. However further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to establish the role of blood groups and to define t he mechanisms by which ABO blood type affect CRC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.22
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• pp.10027-10031
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• 2014

Background: We investigated the risk of cancer mortality according to obesity status and metabolic health status using sampled cohort data from the National Health Insurance system. Materials and Methods: Data on body mass index and fasting blood glucose in the sampled cohort database (n=363,881) were used to estimate risk of cancer mortality. Data were analyzed using a Cox proportional hazard model (Model 1 was adjusted for age, sex, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level and urinary protein; Model 2 was adjusted for Model 1 plus smoking status, alcohol intake and physical activity). Results: According to the obesity status, the mean hazard ratios were 0.82 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.75-0.89] and 0.79 (95% CI, 0.72-0.85) for the overweight and obese groups, respectively, compared with the normal weight group. According to the metabolic health status, the mean hazard ratio was 1.26 (95% CI, 1.14-1.40) for the metabolically unhealthy group compared with the metabolically healthy group. The interaction between obesity status and metabolic health status on the risk of cancer mortality was not statistically significant (p=0.31). Conclusions: We found that the risk of cancer mortality decreased according to the obesity status and increased according to the metabolic health status. Given the rise in the rate of metabolic dysfunction, the mortality from cancer is also likely to rise. Treatment strategies targeting metabolic dysfunction may lead to reductions in the risk of death from cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.249-254
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• 2016

Molecular detection methods such as RT-PCR for detecting breast cancer-associated gene expression in the peripheral blood have the potential to modify breast cancer (BC) staging and therapy. In this regard, we evaluated the potential of erb-B2 molecular marker in BC detection and analyzed the expression of erb-B2 mRNA in the peripheral blood and fresh tissue samples of 50 pretreated female BC patients and 50 healthy females by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) method. We also assessed the correlation of erb-B2 mRNA marker positivity in peripheral blood and tumor tissue samples with clinical and pathological factors in BC patients in order to evaluate its prognostic value. It was shown that there is a significant difference between healthy females and BC patients with expression of the erb-B2 molecular marker (p<0.01). A significant difference between the expression of erb-B2 in the peripheral blood and tissue samples of BC patients (p<0.01) and the frequency of circulating erb-B2 mRNA expression in peripheral blood and in tissue was detected by RT-PCR. No correlation was found between erb-B2 mRNA expression in blood or tumor tissue samples and lymph node, tumor grade, tumor stage, tumor size, patient's age, ki67, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PGR), P53, and HER-2 status. However, in a small subset of 31 BC patients we found that expression of erb-B2 in peripheral blood or in both peripheral blood and tumor tissue was directly correlated with lympho-vascular invasion and perineural invasion as poor prognostic features. The highest rates of erb-B2 expression in peripheral blood or tumor tissue were in the ER and PR negative and HER-2 positive group. This study suggests that the application of the RT-PCR and immunohistochemical methods for erb-B2 molecular marker detection would provide a higher detection rate, especially in early stage BC.