• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5123-5125
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• 2013

Background: Breast cancer is one the most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. The aims of this study were to investigate the impact of dietary factors and health status indicators on breast cancer (BC) incidence. Materials and Methods: Risk factor data (RFD) of 89,404 individuals (15-64 years old) were gathered by questionnaire and laboratory examinations through a cross sectional study from the Non-Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (NCDSC) of Iran. BC incidences of all provinces through 2001-2006 segregated by age and gender were obtained from the Cancer Registry Ministry of Health (CRMH). Results: a significant positive relationship was seen between diabetes mellitus, fish comsupmption, percent of academic education and non-consumption of fruit, and breast cancer in women. However, non fish consumption, percent age illiteracy and taking fruit showed a significant negative relationship with the incidence of breast cancer. In addition, multiple linear regression analysis showed associations among percentage with academic education, fruit consumption and diabetes. Conclusions: We conclude that dietary factors such as fish and furit consumption, dairy products, health status indicators, academic education, and some diseases like diabetes mellitus can affect the BC incidence, although the results of ecologic studies like this must naturally be interpreted with caution.

• Journal of Medicine and Life Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.46-50
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• 2018

Cancer, a leading mortality disease following cardiovascular disease worldwide, has high incidence as one out of every four adults in Korea. It was known to be caused by several reasons including somatic mutation, activation of oncogene and chromosome aneuploidy. Cancer cells show a faster growth rate and have metastatic and heterogeneous cell populations compared to normal cells. Cancer stem cells, the most invested field in cancer biology, is a theory to explain heterogeneous cell populations of cancer cells among several characteristics of cancer cells, which is providing the theoretical background for incidence of cancer and treatment failure by drug resistance. Cancer stem cells initially explain heterogeneous cell populations of cancer cells based on the same markers of normal stem cells in cancer, in which only cancer stem cells showed heterogeneity of cancer cells and tumor initiating ability of leukemia. Based on these results, cancer stem cells were reported in various solid cancers such as breast cancer, liver cancer, and lung cancer. Breast cancer stem cells were first reported in solid cancer which had tumor initiating ability and further identified as anti-cancer drug resistance. There were several identification methods in breast cancer stem cells such as specific surface markers and culture methods. The discovery of cancer stem cells not only explains heterogeneity of cancer cells, but it also provides theoretical background for targeting cancer stem cells to complete elimination of cancer cells. Many institutes have been developing new anticancer drugs targeting cancer stem cells, but there have not been noticeable results yet. Many researchers also reported a necessity for improvement of current concepts and methods of research on cancer stem cells. Herein, we discuss the limitations and the perspectives of breast cancer stem cells based on the current concept and history.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.391-396
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• 2023

Currently, state-of-the-art devices such as SPECT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI are rapidly spreading nationwide, and the penetration rate of nuclear medical devices is also ranked fifth in the world. However, PET/MRI's system is slower and less common because it is more complex than PET/CT. The purpose of this study is to provide optimal information on PET/MRI according to the patient's disease. The subjects obtained information on head and neck cancer, pediatric patients, breast cancer patients, heart disease patients, lung cancer patients, and rectal cancer patients. We tried to accumulate protocols by obtaining a lot of information about each disease. In diagnosing head and neck cancer, it is believed that it is highly likely to be used in evaluating preoperative stage determination, recurrence and remote metastasis after treatment, and unclear primary cervical lymph node metastasis. Diagnosis and continuous follow-up of pediatric patients can increase patient benefits by minimizing radiation exposure. Breast cancer provides a comprehensive evaluation of the clinical need to determine the extent of disease in breast and local lymph nodes and the systematic stages of early diagnosis or recurrence. In diagnosing heart disease patients, MR-based PET motion correction helps to realize the full potential of PET images. For lung cancer patients, the clinical value and usefulness of the resolution and detection ability of integrated PET/MRI for soft tissues such as lung cancer will be sufficient. In diagnosing rectal cancer patients, the detection of missing residual diseases can change the clinical response evaluation for rectal cancer patients treated with TNT, and both the initial stage and treatment response evaluation are possible. Therefore, this literature study provided basic clinical data for PET/MRI tests.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.142-148
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• 2008

Purpose: We analyzed the treatment outcomes and prognostic factors of breast conserving surgery, followed by postoperative radiotherapy.Materials and Methods: A total of 424 breast cancer patients treated with breast conserving surgery and postoperative radiotherapy between February 1992 and January 2001 were retrospectively analyzed. A quadrantectomy and axillary lymph node dissection was performed in 396 patients. A total of 302 patients had T1 disease, and 122 patients had T2 disease. Lymph node involvement was confirmed in 107 patients. Whole breast irradiation was administered at up to 50.4 Gy in 28 fractions, followed by a 10 Gy boost in 5 fractions to the tumor bed. In addition, 57 patients underwent regional lymph node irradiation. Moreover, chemotherapy was administered in 231 patients. A regimen consisting of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil was most frequently used with 170 patients. The median follow-up time was 64 months. Results: The 5-year local control rate was 95.6%. During the follow-up period, local tumor recurrence was observed in 15 patients. The 5-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 93.1% and 88.7%, respectively. The 5-year overall survival rates, by stage, were 94.8% for stage I, 95.0% for stage IIA, 91.1% for stage IIB, 75.9% for stage IIIA, and 57.1% for stage IIIC. As for disease-free survival, the corresponding figures, by stage (in the same order), were 93.1%, 89.4%, 82.8%, 62.0%, and 28.6%, respectively. The advanced N stage (p=0.0483) was found to be a significant prognostic factor in predicting poor overall survival, while the N stage (p=0.0284) and age at diagnosis (p=0.0001) were associated with disease-free survival. Conclusion: This study has shown that breast conserving surgery and postoperative radiotherapy for early breast cancer results was excellent for local control and survival.

• Nutritional Sciences
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2000

We carried out a case-control study to investigate protective effect of lactating against breast cancer in Korea. Cases (n=108) were the newly histologically identified breast cancer between December 1997 and August 1999. Hospital-based controls were selected by frequency matching method with age ($\pm$4 age) and menopausal status from the patients at the same hospital in the plastic surgery, general surgery and opthalmology department. Interviews included information on general characteristics of subjects, disease history, family history of breast cancer, vitamin supplementation, alcohol intake, food intake, and reproductive factors as well as lactation history. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) were calculated by using unconditional logistic regression. Age distribution of case control subjects were similar. Late menarche age $\geq$ 17 in premenopausal women was related to the lower risk of breast cancer OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.28-0.91. Family history of breast cancer was related to the higher risk of breast cancer only in premenopausal women (OR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.35-2.71). Higher body mass index mass index (> 30) were associated with higher risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. For premenopausal women, women who had lactated $\geq$ 12 months to the first child had a significantly lower risk (OR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.24-0.97) than the women had no breast feeding experience. However, results from postmenopausal women did not show an association with decreased breast cancer risk. These findings suggest that lactation may be a protective factor of breast cancer in Korean women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7853-7857
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• 2015

Background: Mortality from breast cancer is high in low- and middle-income countries, in part because most patients have advanced stage disease when first diagnosed. Case-finding may be one approach to changing this situation. Materials and Methods: We conducted a pilot study to explore the feasibility of population-based case finding for breast cancer by community health workers (CHWs) using different data collection methods and approaches to management of women found to have breast abnormalities. After training 8 CHWs in breast problem recognition, manual paper data collection and operation of a cell-phone software platform for reporting demographic, history and physical finding information, these CHWs visited 3150 women >age 18 and over they could find-- from 2356 households in 8 villages in rural Bangladesh. By 4 random assignments of villages, data were collected manually (Group 1), or with the cell-phone program alone (Group 2) or with management algorithms (Groups 3 and 4), and women adjudged to have a serious breast problem were shown a motivational video (Group 3), or navigated/accompanied to a breast problem center for evaluation (Group 4). Results: Only three visited women refused evaluation. The manual data acquisition group (1) had missing data in 80% of cases, and took an average of 5 minutes longer to acquire, versus no missing data in the cell phone-reporting groups (2,3 and 4). One woman was identified with stage III breast cancer, and was appropriately treated. Conclusions: Among very poor rural Bangladeshi women, there was very limited reluctance to undergo breast evaluation. The estimated rarity of clinical breast cancer is supported by these population-based findings. The feasibility and efficient use of mobile technology in this setting is supported. Successor studies may most appropriately be trials focusing on improving the suggested benefits of motivation and navigation, on increasing the numbers of cases found, and on stage of disease at diagnosis as the primary endpoint.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1643-1655
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• 2021

Recent studies have reported dysbiosis of the microbiome in breast tissue collected from patients with breast cancer and the association between the microbiota and disease progression. However, the role of the microbiota in breast tissue remains unclear, possibly due to the complexity of breast cancer and various factors, including racial and geographical differences, influencing microbiota in breast tissue. Here, to determine the potential role of microbiota in breast tumor tissue, we analyzed 141 tissue samples based on three different tissue types (tumor, adjacent normal, and lymph node tissues) from the same patients with breast cancer in Korea. The microbiota was not simply distinguishable based on tissue types. However, the microbiota could be divided into two cluster types, even within the same tissue type, and the clinicopathologic factors were differently correlated in the two cluster types. Risk of regional recurrence was also significantly different between the microbiota cluster types (p = 0.014). In predicted function analysis, the pentose and glucuronate interconversions were significantly different between the cluster types (q < 0.001), and Enterococcus was the main genus contributing to these differences (q < 0.01). Results showed that the microbiota of breast tissue could interact with the host and influence the risk of regional recurrence. Although further studies would be recommended to validate our results, this study could expand our understanding on the breast tissue microbiota, and the results might be applied to develop novel prediction methods and treatments for patients with breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2439-2445
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• 2014

Cryptotanshinone (CPT), is a quinoid diterpene isolated from the root of the Asian medicinal plant, Salvia miotiorrhiza bunge. Numerous researchers have found that it could work as a potent antitumor agent to inhibit tumor growth in vitro, buith there has been much less emphasis on its in vivo role against breast tumors. Using a mouse tumor model of MCF7 cells, we showed that CPT strongly inhibited MCF7 cell growth in vivo with polarization of immune reactions toward Th1-type responses, stimulation of naive CD4+ T cell proliferation, and also increased IFN-${\gamma}$ and perforin production of CD4+ T cells in response to tumor-activated splenocytes. Furthermore, data revealed that the cytotoxic activity of CD4+ T cells induced by CPT was markedly abrogated by concanamycin A(CMA), a perforin inhibitor, but not IFN-${\gamma}$ Ab. On the other hand, after depletion of CD4+ T cells or blocked perforin with CMA in a tumor-bearing model, CPT could not effectively suppress tumor growth, but this phenomenon could be reversed by injecting naive CD4+ T cells. Thus, our results suggested that CPT mainly inhibited breast tumor growth through inducing cytotoxic CD4+ T cells to secrete perforin. We further found that CPT enhanced perforin production of CD4+ T cells by up-regulating JAK2 and STAT4 phosphorylation. These findings suggest a novel potential therapeutic role for CPT in tumor therapy, and demonstrate that CPT performs its antitumor functions through cytotoxic CD4+ T cells.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2851-2856
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• 2014

The aim of this study is to evaluate clinicopathologic characteristics and the multi-disciplinary treatment results of metaplastic breast cancer (MBC) patients treated in a single institute. Seventeen female patients with MBC treated in our department between June 2000 and January 2012 were identified and retrospectively evaluated. The median age at diagnosis was 46 years (range, 26-66 years). The median tumor size at diagnosis was 3.5 cm (range 1.5-12 cm). Six (35%) patients underwent breast conservation surgery and 11 (65%) mastectomy. Axillary lymph node metastasis was found in 6 (35%) patients. Twelve (71%) had triple negative tumors. Postoperative RT and systemic adjuvant treatment was given to all patients accordingly to stage and biological characteristics. Median follow-up time was 27 months (range, 12-151 months). At the time of this analysis, 14 (82%) patients were alive with no evidence of disease, and 1 (6%) was alive with disease. The 3-year OS was 91% and 5-year 80%, and DFS rates were 76% and 76%, respectively. Despite the young age of our patients with mostly high grade tumors, larger tumor size and higher rates of lymph node metastasis, the survival outcomes in our study are favorable in comparison with previously reported series.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7257-7260
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• 2013

To determine the pattern of disease in patients presenting with breast lumps and to determine the sensitivity and specificity of fine needle aspiration cytology of benign and malignant diseases as a diagnostic tool by correlating with histopathology findings. This retrospective study was carried out in the Department of Pathology, Maharaja Agrasen Medical College, Agroha, from Jan 2008 to April 2012. Fine needle aspiration cytology was performed on 370 cases and out of these 52 cases were received in the Department for histopathological examination. Fibroadenoma was the most common disease encountered, in 88 (24%), with a peak incidence in second and third decade of life. Fibrocystic disease was second, being common in the third and fourth decades of life. Peak incidences of duct ectasia, granulomatous and tubercular mastitis were seen in the third decade. Gynaecomastia showed two peak incidences in second and sixth decades of life. Out of total 370 cases undergoing fine needle aspiration, benign cases were 316 (85.4%), malignant and suspicious were 54 (14.6%) and 10 (2.70%) respectively. Out of total 22 histological confirmed malignant lesions 19 were interpreted as malignant cytologically while two as suspicious and one as benign. All thirty histologically confirmed benign cases were diagnosed as benign cytologically. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were 98%, 100%, 100% and 96.4% respectively. FNA cytology is highly accurate for diagnosis of breast masses. However, the clinician should correlate FNA cytological results with physical examination and imaging findings to prevent false negative and false positive events and to obtain optimal management of their patients.