• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.12
• /
• pp.6115-6119
• /
• 2012

Introduction: Increasing prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection and its association with cervical cancer as a leading cause of death make it necessary to evaluate and improve the public knowledge, especially of university students, about this cause of disease. Methods: A cross-sectional study of knowledge and attitude of a total 669 students from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences was therefore performed with a modified validated questionnaire, arranged into 5 parts and containing 55 questions, in July 2011. Questions were directed to study socio-demographic characteristics of the participant, knowledge about HPV disease, transmission route, relationship with cervical cancer, predisposing factors, and participants attitude toward people with HPV infection. Results: All of the participants were Moslem with a mean age $25.6{\pm}5.33$ years of age. All of the participants had heard of HPV, and acquired their knowledge through university courses (90.6%); the majority of them knew that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease and a potential cause for genital warts but general knowledge about details was not high. Mean knowledge score of residents and post graduate midwifery and nursing students was high as compared to other groups (P<0.001). Statements that indicated the presence of fear to communicate with people suffering HPV and people's avoidance to rely on babysitting of these patients were observed. Educational level (${\beta}$=0.21, P<0.001), age (${\beta}$=0.18, P=0.002,) and smoking (${\beta}$=-0.11, P=0.006) were predicted to effect knowledge. Conclusions: Moderate level of knowledge about HPV among medical university students makes it necessary to set effective national public health efforts on HPV education and prevention considering he excess of young population in Iran vulnerable to cervical cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.15
• /
• pp.6301-6306
• /
• 2014

Cervical cancer is one the most common malignancies among females. In recent years, its incidence rate has shown a rising trend in some countries so that development of anticancer drugs for cervical cancer is an urgent priority. In our recent anticancer drug discovery screen, 1, 2-di (quinazolin-4-yl)diselane (LG003) was found to possess wide spectrum anticancer efficacy. In the present work, the in vitro anticancer activity of LG003 was evaluated in the SiHa cervical cancer cell line. Compared with commercial anticancer drugs 10-hydroxycamptothecin, epirubicin hydrochloride, taxol and oxaliplatin, LG003 showed better anticancer activity. Furthermore, inhibition effects were time- and dose-dependent. Morphological observation exhibited LG003 treatment results in apoptosis like shrinking and blebbing, and cell membrane damage. Lactate dehydrogenase release assay revealed that LG003 exerts such effects in SiHa cells through a physiology pathway rather than cytotoxicity, which suggests that title compound LG003 can be a potential candidate agent for cervical cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.1571-1574
• /
• 2015

Background: Treatment of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) decreases the prevalence of gastric cancer, and may inhibit gastric precancerous lesions progression into gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of treatment on subsequent gastric precancerous lesion development. Materials and Methods: We prospectively studied 27 patients who had low grade dysplasia at the time of enrollment, in addition to dysplasia atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia observed in all patients. All were prescribed quadruple therapy to treat H. Pylori infection for 10 days. Patients underwent endoscopy with biopsy at enrollment and then at follow up two years later. Biopsy samples included five biopsies from the antrum of lesser curvature, antrum of greater curvature, angularis, body of stomach and fundus. Results of these biopsies were compared before and after treatment. Results: Overall, the successful eradication rate after two years was 15/27 (55.6%). After antibiotic therapy, the number of patients with low grade dysplasia decreased significantly (p=0.03), also with reduction of the atrophic lesions (p=0.01), but not metaplasia. Conclusions: Treatment of H. pylori likely is an effective therapy in preventing the development of subsequent gastric premalignant lesions.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.3583-3586
• /
• 2016

Background: Since the breast is strongly relevant to sexual desire, and physical and sexual attractiveness, the high prevalence of breast cancer (BC) in Iran and long-term survival of patients experiencing side effects means that measures to identify associated sexual problems are necessary. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess sexual function and affecting factors in women with BC. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 94 women with BC, referred to Imam Reza (AS) Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, in 2014. The data were collected through demographic and clinical questionnaires and also a sexual function questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Results: The total score of women's sexual function was about $24.3{\pm}4.41$. Of the total, 63 (71.3%) reported sexual dysfunction, for example reduced satisfaction or more pain. Age was the only significantly related factor. Conclusions: Breast cancer can adversely affect women's sexual function and decrease quality of life. Thus, taking measures to overcome women's sexual problems are necessary.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.10
• /
• pp.4587-4590
• /
• 2016

Background: In many countries gastric cancer has the highest incidence among the gastrointestinal cancers and is the second most common cancer in Iran. The aim of this study was to identify and map high risk gastric cancer regions at the county-level in Iran. Methods: In this study we analyzed gastric cancer data for Iran in the years 2003-2010. Area-to-area Poisson kriging and Besag, York and Mollie (BYM) spatial models were applied to smoothing the standardized incidence ratios of gastric cancer for the 373 counties surveyed in this study. The two methods were compared in term of accuracy and precision in identifying high risk regions. Result: The highest smoothed standardized incidence rate (SIR) according to area-to-area Poisson kriging was in Meshkinshahr county in Ardabil province in north-western Iran (2.4,SD=0.05), while the highest smoothed standardized incidence rate (SIR) according to the BYM model was in Ardabil, the capital of that province (2.9,SD=0.09). Conclusion: Both methods of mapping, ATA Poisson kriging and BYM, showed the gastric cancer incidence rate to be highest in north and north-west Iran. However, area-to-area Poisson kriging was more precise than the BYM model and required less smoothing. According to the results obtained, preventive measures and treatment programs should be focused on particular counties of Iran.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.408-414
• /
• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the anti-hyperglycemia effects of the Triticum aestivum wheat sprout (TAWS) water extracts in the diabetic mice. Diabetic experimental model was established by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin into male Balb/c mice. Mice were divided into five groups: normal (CON), diabetic control (DM), and three experimental groups (DM-100, diabetes with TAWS extracts 100mg/kg; DM-50, diabetes with TAWS extracts 50 mg/kg; DM-25, diabetes with TAWS extracts 25 mg/kg). TAWS extracts were administered orally in diabetic mice. Body weight, food intake, and blood glucose levels were recorded for 12 days and blood insulin levels were measured at the day 12. Oral administration of TAWS extracts reduced slightly food intake and induced a little body weight gain in DM-100 groups. The blood level of glucose was decreased in the dose-dependent manner; 55% in the DM-100 group and 39.7% in the DM-50 group. The blood level of insulin also was improved 10 folds in the DM-100 group and 3.6 folds in the DM-50 group compared to the DM group. The contents of total phenolic compounds and total flavonoids in 1 g dry mass of TAWS extracts were 6.6 mg of tannic acid equivalents and 1.0 mg of 8-hydroquinolline equivalents, respectively. In addition, the antioxidant and DPPH radical scavenging activity of TAWS extracts were 1.2 mM and 1.8 mM ascorbic acid equivalents, respectively. These results suggest that TAWS water extracts could contribute to attenuate clinical symptoms of diabetes mellitus.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.2639-2642
• /
• 2012

Background: The patterns of gastric cancer recurrence vary across societies. We designed the current study in an attempt to evaluate and reveal the outbreak of the recurrence patterns of gastric cancer and also prediction of time to recurrence and its effected factors in Iran. Materials and Methods: This research was performed from March 2003 to February 2007. Demographic characteristics, clinical and pathological diagnosis and classification including pathologic stage, tumor grade, tumor site and tumor size in of patients with GC recurrent were collected from patients' data files. To evaluate of factors affected on the relapse of the GC patients, gender, age at diagnosis, treatment type and Hgb were included in the research. Data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression models. Results: After treatment, 82 patients suffered recurrence, 42, 33 and 17 by the ends of first, second and third years. The mean ( SD) and median ( IQR) time to recurrence in patients with GC were 25.5 (20.6-30.1) and 21.5 (15.6-27.1) months, respectively. The results of multivariate analysis logistic regression showed that only pathologic stage, tumor grade and tumor site significantly affected the recurrence. Conclusions: We found that pathologic stage, tumor grade and tumor site significantly affect on the recurrence of GC which has a high positive prognostic value and might be functional for better follow-up and selecting the patients at risk. We also showed time to recurrence to be an important factor for follow-up of patients.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
• /
• 2002.09a
• /
• pp.275-278
• /
• 2002

The recognition of the natural background radiation is important not only for radiological education but also for the promotion of people's scientific view about radiation. We made a "room" on the web showing natural background radiation as part of a VRM (Virtual Radiation Museum). The "room" shows the video images of the tracks of charged particles from natural background radiation, alpha and beta ray track from known sources using a Large Scale Diffusion Cloud Chamber. The purpose of this study is to make clear the origin of a kind of track (named A-track) which is thick and easy to recognize with the length less than several cm in the cloud chamber, and to make numerical explanation of its counting rate. The study was carried out using a Large Scale Diffusion Cloud Chamber (Phywe, Germany) installed in the Niigata Science Museum. The Model RNC (Pylon Electronics, Canada) was used as Rn-222 source. Ra-226 activity in RNC was 111.6 Bq calibrated with NIST protocol. Rn-222 gas was injected into the cloud chamber. Continuous video recording with use of Digital Handycam (SONY, Japan) was carried out for 360 min. after injection of Rn-222 gas. The number of alpha-ray track (alpha track) in the video images was analyzed. The growth and decay curve of the total activity of Rn-222 and its alpha emitting progeny were calculated and compared with the count of the alpha tracks. As a result the alpha tracks formed by Rn-222 injection resemble A-Tracks. The relationship between A-track in the cloud chamber and atmospheric Rn is discussed.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.219-226
• /
• 2018

Objectives: This study aimed to explain the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) gap between the poorest and the wealthiest quintiles in the capitals of Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces (Kermanshah and Sanandaj), in western Iran. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 1772 adults. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (SES), lifestyle factors, body mass index, and HRQoL of participants were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The slope and relative indices of inequality (SII and RII, respectively) were employed to examine socioeconomic inequality in poor HRQoL. Blinder-Oaxaca (BO) decomposition was used to quantify the contribution of explanatory variables to the gap in the prevalence of poor HRQoL between the wealthiest and the poorest groups. Results: The overall crude and age-adjusted prevalence of poor HRQoL among adults was 32.0 and 41.8%, respectively. The SII and RII indicated that poor HRQoL was mainly concentrated among individuals with lower SES. The absolute difference (%) in the prevalence of poor HRQoL between the highest and lowest SES groups was 28.4. The BO results indicated that 49.9% of the difference was explained by different distributions of age, smoking behavior, physical inactivity, chronic health conditions, and obesity between the highest and lowest SES groups, while the remaining half of the gap was explained by the response effect. Conclusions: We observed a pro-rich distribution of poor HRQoL among adults in the capitals of Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces. Policies and strategies aimed at preventing and reducing smoking, physical inactivity, chronic health conditions, and obesity among the poor may reduce the gap in poor HRQoL between the highest and lowest SES groups in Iran.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.8
• /
• pp.3595-3600
• /
• 2012

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the practice and barriers of mammography and associated factors among Malaysian women in the general population. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 women in Shah Alam, Selangor; Malaysia. The questionnaire contained 27 questions and was comprised of two sections; socio-demographic characteristics and practices, knowledge and barriers of mammography. All the data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 13.0. Results: Of the 200 Malaysian women who participated in this study, the majority were under the age of 50 years (65.5%), Malay (86%), and married (94.5%). Regarding any family history of cancer in general, the majority of the participants had none (78%). However, some did report a close relative with breast cancer (16.5%). While the majority of them knew about mammography (68%), 15% had had a mammogram once in their life and only 2% had the procedure every two or three years. Univariate analysis showed that age, family history of cancer, family history of breast cancer, regular supplement intake, regular medical check-up and knowledge about mammogram were significantly associated with mammogram practice among the general population (p=0.007, p=0.043, P=0.015, p=0.01, p=0.001, p<0.001; respectively). Multivariate analysis using multiple linear regression test showed that age, regular medical check-up and knowledge about mammography testing were statistically associated with the practice of mammography among the general population in Malaysia (p=0.035, p=0.015 and p<0.001; respectively). Lack of time, lack of knowledge, not knowing where to go for the test and a fear of the test result were the most important barriers (42.5%, 32%, 21%, 20%; respectively). Conclusion: The practice of mammogram screening is low among Malaysian women.