• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.301-312
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• 2001

Purpose: Stomach cancer is one of the most common malignancies in Korea, but there is no report on FDG PET in patients with stomach cancer. We observed findings of FDG PET in patients with stomach cancer. Materials and Methods: In 13 patients with pre-operative stomach cancer, PET and CT were performed. Primary lesion and regional lymph nodes detection were aualyzed. Correlation between FDG uptake ratio and each prognostic factor of primary lesion was analyzed. In 19 patients diagnosed as recurrence or displaying suspicious symptoms, conventional work up including tumor marker and PET were performed. Recurrence detection of anastomotic site, distant metastasis, and tumor marker elevation were analyzed. Results: Sensitivity for primary lesion detection was 83.3% (CT 71.4%) and two submucosal lesions were undetected. FDG uptake ratio was variable and had no correlation with invasion-depth, size, Borrmann type, staging and differentiation. Sensitivity for regional lymph node detection was 58.3% (CT 58.3%) and the lesions less than 1cm were undetected. Sensitivity for recurrence detection was 100% but there were three false positives. Sensitivity for distant metastasis detection was 64.3% and significantly higher than that of conventional work-up (21.4%). Average of tumor marker level in patients who were confirmed as recurrence was higher than false positive. Conclusion: PET is more useful than conventional work up in distant metastasis detection when recurrence is suspected. In pre-operative stomach cancer, PET is comparable to CT for detection of primary lesion and regional lymph node metastasis and detection of distant metastasis requires further study.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.31-34
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• 2015

While mammography has been used for diagnosis of breast cancer in Kazakhstan for a long period, published data are very limited. Recently stress has been placed on increasing the accuracy by double reading of mammograms. Here we provide an overview of breast cancer screening in the different regions of Kazakhstan with data on the stages of cancers detected. A total 459,816 women aged 50, 52, 54, 56, 58 and 60 years were screened in 2012 and 379,903 in the first 9 months of 2013. Clear differences in levels of detection were noted between urban and rural residents, the latter demonstrating lower rates for both screening and cancer detection. Women aged 50 were more likely to undergo screening than their counterparts aged 60. While there were no clear relationships evident between screening rates and stage or numbers of breast cancers observed, this might be due to a number of complicating factors like geographical variation in risk factors as well as ethnicity. Future analyses should focus on the efficacy of mammography in Kazakhstan to reduce mortality.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.213-223
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• 2001

Breast cancer accounts for the higher proportion of cancer related deaths among women, and the incidence of this malignant disease is still increasing. The commonly used screening method is mammography. However, mammography has the drawback of low specificity in differentiating malignant and benign breast diseases. To overcome this low specificity of mammography, scintimammography using various radiopharmaceuticals such as Thallium-201, Tc-99m MIBI, Tc-99m tetrofosmin and Tc-99m MDP was introduced and now actively under the investigation. Several studios have shown that high sensitivity and specificity in detection of primary breast cancer and axillary lymph node metastases using these radiopharmaceuticals. Scintimammography may play important roles in the diagnosis of primary breast cancer, evaluation of the patients with high risk, determining axillary lymph node metastasis, evaluation of the response to chemotherapy, determining the extent of disease, and surveillance of local recurrence. In the future, we should investigate the prognostic role of scintimammography after treatment of breast cancer patients and cost-effectiveness of scintimammography in the detection of primary breast cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.3591-3592
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• 2015

Endoscopy has been increasingly used in clinical practice and as a standardized examination procedure for gastrointestinal diseases. However, only a few studies on endoscopic screening for evaluating mortality reduction from gastric cancer have been carried out. Even if a high detection rate is obtained in clinical practice, such a rate cannot be directly accepted as evidence providing the effectiveness of cancer screening. Endoscopic screening for gastric cancer is not an exception of possibility to detect overdiagnosis. If detection rate is used for the evaluation of the effectiveness of cancer screening, the possibility of overestimating the effectiveness of cancer screening cannot be ruled out. To avoid the effect of overdiagnosis and confirm the effectiveness of endoscopic screening, mortality reduction from gastric cancer must be carefully evaluated by conducting reliable studies. The burden of gastric cancer remains real and this cannot be ignored in Eastern Asian countries. To determine the best available method for gastric cancer screening, evaluation of its effectiveness is a must. Endoscopic screening for gastric cancer has shown promising results, and thus deserves further comprehensive evaluation to reliably confirm its effectiveness and how its optimal use can be strategically promoted.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.549-549
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• 2012

Early detection of cancer biomarkers in the blood is of vital importance for reducing the mortality and morbidity in a number of cancers. From this point of view, immunosensors based on nanowire (NW) and carbon nanotube (CNT) field-effect transistors (FETs) that allow the ultra-sensitive, highly specific, and label-free electrical detection of biomarkers received much attention. Nevertheless 1D nano-FET biosensors showed high performance, several challenges remain to be resolved for the uncomplicated, reproducible, low-cost and high-throughput nanofabrication. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) graphene and reduced GO (RGO) nanosheets or films find widespread applications such as clean energy storage and conversion devices, optical detector, field-effect transistors, electromechanical resonators, and chemical & biological sensors. In particular, the graphene- and RGO-FETs devices are very promising for sensing applications because of advantages including large detection area, low noise level in solution, ease of fabrication, and the high sensitivity to ions and biomolecules comparable to 1D nano-FETs. Even though a limited number of biosensor applications including chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown graphene film for DNA detection, single-layer graphene for protein detection and single-layer graphene or solution-processed RGO film for cell monitoring have been reported, development of facile fabrication methods and full understanding of sensing mechanism are still lacking. Furthermore, there have been no reports on demonstration of ultrasensitive electrical detection of a cancer biomarker using the graphene- or RGO-FET. Here we describe scalable and facile fabrication of reduced graphene oxide FET (RGO-FET) with the capability of label-free, ultrasensitive electrical detection of a cancer biomarker, prostate specific antigen/${\alpha}$ 1-antichymotrypsin (PSA-ACT) complex, in which the ultrathin RGO channel was formed by a uniform self-assembly of two-dimensional RGO nanosheets, and also we will discuss about the immunosensing mechanism.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.791-797
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• 2016

Background: Punjab state is particularly reporting a rising burden of cancer. A 'door to door cancer awareness and early detection campaign' was therefore launched in the Punjab covering about 2.67 million population, wherein after initial training accredited social health activists (ASHAs) and other health staff conducted a survey for early detection of cancer cases based on a twelve point clinical algorithm. Objective: To ascertain unit cost for undertaking a population-based cancer awareness and early detection campaign. Materials and Methods: Data were collected using bottom-up costing methods. Full economic costs of implementing the campaign from the health system perspective were calculated. Options to meet the likely demand for project activities were further evaluated to examine their worth from the point of view of long-term sustainability. Results: The campaign covered 97% of the state population. A total of 24,659 cases were suspected to have cancer and were referred to health facilities. At the state level, incidence and prevalence of cancer were found to be 90 and 216 per 100,000, respectively. Full economic cost of implementing the campaign in pilot district was USD 117,524. However, the financial cost was approximately USD 6,301. Start-up phase of campaign was more resource intensive (63% of total) than the implementation phase. The economic cost per person contacted and suspected by clinical algorithm was found to be USD 0.20 and USD 40 respectively. Cost per confirmed case under the campaign was 7,043 USD. Conclusions: The campaign was able to screen a reasonably large population. High to high economic cost points towards the fact that the opportunity cost of campaign put a significant burden on health system and other programs. However, generating awareness and early detection strategy adopted in this campaign seems promising in light of fact that organized screening is not in place in India and in many developing countries.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.5519-5525
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• 2013

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in Thai women after breast cancer. Currently, the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear is the recommended procedure for cervical cancer screening in Thailand, but only a relatively small percentage of women follow this screening program. An alternative method to detect HPV genotypes associated with cervical cancer is self-sampling of urine, which is a more widely accepted method. Our study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of HPV in Thai women using urine and cervical swabs and prevalence of HPV in Thai men using urine samples. Materials and Methods: Tumorigenic HPV detection was accomplished by electrochemical DNA chip and PCR/direct sequencing. In addition to HPV prevalence, we report the concordance between different methods and sample types. One-hundred and sixteen women and 100 men were recruited. Histological examination revealed normal cytology in 52 women, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) in 9, low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) in 24, and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) in 31. One-hundred men were classified as heterosexuals (n=45) and homosexuals (n=55). Results: The most prevalent HPV genotype in our study was HPV16. The HPV detection rate was generally lower in urine samples compared with cervical samples. Overall, there was good agreement for the detection of carcinogenic HPV from female cervical samples between the DNA chip and PCR/sequencing, with 88.8% total agreement and a kappa value of 0.76. In male urine samples, the level of agreement was higher in heterosexuals compared with homosexuals. Conclusions: Further improvement is required to increase an overall yield of HPV DNA detection in urine samples before clinical application of a urine-based HPV screening program. The electrochemical DNA chip test is a promising technique for carcinogenic HPV detection.

• Journal of Breast Cancer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.363-370
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• 2018

Purpose: Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women worldwide, and therefore, improved approaches for its early detection are urgently needed. As microRNAs (miRNAs) are increasingly recognized as critical regulators in tumorigenesis and possess excellent stability in plasma, this study focused on using miRNAs to develop a method for identifying noninvasive biomarkers. Methods: To discover critical candidates, differential expression analysis was performed on tissue-originated miRNA profiles of 409 early breast cancer patients and 87 healthy controls from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. We selected candidates from the differentially expressed miRNAs and then evaluated every possible molecular signature formed by the candidates. The best signature was validated in independent serum samples from 113 early breast cancer patients and 47 healthy controls using reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The miRNA candidates in our method were revealed to be associated with breast cancer according to previous studies and showed potential as useful biomarkers. When validated in independent serum samples, the area under curve of the final miRNA signature (miR-21-3p, miR-21-5p, and miR-99a-5p) was 0.895. Diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 97.9% and 73.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The present study established a novel and effective method to identify biomarkers for early breast cancer. And the method, is also suitable for other cancer types. Furthermore, a combination of three miRNAs was identified as a prospective biomarker for breast cancer early detection.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.136-145
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• 2011

Oral cavity cancer accounts for approximately 3-4% of all malignancies and is a significant worldwide health problem. The Korea Central Cancer Registry estimates that there will be approximately 1500 new cases of oral cancer in Korea. Oral cancer occurs most commonly in middle-aged and elderly individuals. The majority of oral malignancies occur as squamous cell carcinomas and despite remarkable advances in treatment modalities, the 5-year survival rate has not significantly improved over the past several decades, hovering at about 50% to 60%. The unfavorable 5-year survival rate may be attributable to several factors. First, oral cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage, with late stage 5-year survival rates as low as 22%. Additionally, the development of secondary primary tumors in patients with early stage disease has a major impact on survival. The early detection of oral cancer and premalignant lesions offers the promise to cure chance of oral cancer. The major diagnostics moddalities for oral cancer include oral cavity examination, supravital staining, oral cytology, and optical detection systems. But the clinical finding of oral mucosa is the most important key to confirm the oral cancer until now. The traditional clinical examination of oral cavity can be performed quickly, is without additional diagnostic expense to patients, and may be performed by health care professionals. Therefore, clinicians must be well-acquainted with clinical characteristics of oral cancer and practice routine screening for oral cancer in dental clinic to decrease the morbidity and mortality of disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2429-2432
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• 2013

Background and Objectives: Yanting in Sichuan Province is one of the highest risk areas of esophageal cancer (EC) in the world. We here summarize the epidemiology of EC in Yanting using data from the national screening programme during 2006-2011. Methods: Random cluster sampling was used to select a proportion of natural villages from six towns in Yanting, and residents aged 40-69 years old were invited for screening. Participants were screened using endoscopy with iodine staining and then confirmed by histological examinations. Results: The overall detection rates of low-grade hyperplasia (LH), moderate hyperplasia (MH), high-grade hyperplasia (HH), carcinoma in situ (CIS), intramucosal carcinoma (IC) and invasive carcinoma (INC) were 5.33%, 1.28%, 0.68%, 0.15%, 0.06% and 0.29%, respectively. The detection rates of LH, MH, HH and INC increased with age, reaching the peak among those aged 60-65 years, and the prevalences of LH and MH were higher among men than among women. In addition, the detection rates of hyperplasia were much higher in mountainous than in hilly areas. Conclusions: Among the high risk population, there are a great number of people with early-stage EC or precancerous conditions who do not have presenting symptoms. In particular, the elderly, men, or those living in mountainous areas are the most vulnerable population. It is therefore important to reinforce health education and screening services among such high risk populations.