• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7803-7807
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• 2015

Opisthorchis viverrini infection is a serious public health problem in Southeast Asia especially in the northeast and north of Thailand. Therefore, a cross-sectional survey using multistage sampling was conducted from the rural communities of Surin province, Thailand, during September 2013 to July 2014. O. viverrini infection was determined using Kato's thick smear technique. Socio-demographic, information resources, and history data were collected using predesigned semi-structured questionnaires. A total of 510 participants completed interviews and had stools collected. Some 32 (6.47%) participants were infected with O. viverrini. The rate was slightly higehr in males (6.61%) than females (6.32%). High frequencies were found in the age groups 61-70 (19.4%) and 71-80 years (19.4%), those involved in agriculture (10.5%), and in primary school (10.3%). The distribution of high infection was found in Tha Tum (16.7%) and Sankha district (16.7%), followed by Samrong Thap (13.3%), Si Narong (13.33%), and Buachet district (13.33%). Chi-square testing indicated that age (61-70 and 71-80 year old), education (primary school) and occupation (agriculture), were significantly associated with O. viverrini infection (p-value<0.05). Of 72.6% participants who had past histories with stool examination, 17.0% of them had been infected with O. viverrini and 43.2% treated with praziquantel. This finding confirmed that O. viverrini is still a problem in Surin province, Thailand, and therefore, interventions are urgently required for mass treatment and health education implementation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1105-1109
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• 2012

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women in India and the disease burden is increasing annually. The lack of awareness initiatives, structured screening, and affordable treatment facilities continue to result in poor survival. We present a breast cancer survival scenario, in urban population in India, where standardised care is distributed equitably and free of charge through an employees' healthcare scheme. We studied 99 patients who were treated at our hospital during the period 2005 to 2010 and our follow-up rates were 95.95%. Patients received evidence-based standardised care in line with the tertiary cancer centre in Mumbai. One-, three- and five-year survival rates were calculated using Kaplan-Meier method. Socio-demographic, reproductive and tumor factors, relevant to survival, were analysed. Mortality hazard ratios (HR) were calculated using Cox proportional hazard method. Survival in this series was compared to that in registries across India and discrepancies were discussed. Patients mean age was 56 years, mean tumor size was 3.2 cms, 85% of the tumors belonged to T1 and T2 stages, and 45% of the patients belonged to the composite stages I and IIA. Overall 5-year survival was 74.9%. Patients who presented with large-sized tumors (HR 3.06; 95% CI 0.4-9.0), higher composite stage (HR 1.91; 0.55-6.58) and undergone mastectomy (HR 2.94; 0.63-13.62) had a higher risk of mortality than women who had higher levels of education (HR 0.25; 0.05-1.16), although none of these results reached the significant statistical level. We observed 25% better survival compared to other Indian populations. Our results are comparable to those from the European Union and North America, owing to early presentation, equitable access to standardised free healthcare and complete follow-up ensured under the scheme. This emphasises that equitable and affordable delivery of standardised healthcare can translate into early presentation and better survival in India.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7267-7270
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• 2014

Background: The incidence of upper aero-digestive tract (UADT) cancers, including C00-C14, C30-C32, C15 and C16, is increasing rapidly in Kamrup Urban District (KUD) of Assam, North East (NE) India. According to the NCRP (2013) report 37.6% of all cancers in both sexes are UADT cancers in the NE region, accounting for 53.3% in males and about 27.5% in females of the total cases. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted for patient information from the period of 2008-2011. Age-standardized or age-adjusted rates (ASR or AAR) (per 100,000 person-years) were calculated using the World Standard Population as proposed by Segi and modified by Doll et al. The registry population area at risk was estimated using the 1991 and 2001 census population by sex, as well as the growth rate during that interval using the difference distribution method. Results: There were 5,638 cases registered during the last four years of the study (2008-2011) accounting for 56.7% (3,198/5,638) of the total in males and 43.3% (2,440/5,638) in females. The male: female ratio was 1.31:1.00. The overall age adjusted rates (AAR) were 179.4 and 153.8 per 100 000 males and females respectively. Cancer of the oesophagus was most common in both sexes, with most appreciable gender variation for tongue and hypopharynx, presumably reflecting differential expsoure to risk factors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7377-7381
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• 2014

CYP2E1 PstI polymorphism G-1259C (rs3813867) genotype distributions vary significantly among different populations and are associated with both diseases, like cancer, and adverse drug effects. To date, there have been limited genotype distributions and allele frequencies of this polymorphism reported in the three major indigenous ethnic groups (KadazanDusun, Bajau, and Rungus) in Sabah, also known as North Borneo. The aim of this study was to investigate the genotype distributions and allele frequencies of the CYP2E1 PstI polymorphism G-1259C in these three major indigenous peoples in Sabah. A total of 640 healthy individuals from the three dominant indigenous groups were recruited for this study. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) at G-1259C polymorphic site of CYP2E1 gene was performed using the Pst I restriction enzyme. Fragments were analyzed using agarose gel electrophoresis and confirmed by direct sequencing. Overall, the allele frequencies were 90.3% for c1 allele and 9.7% for c2 allele. The genotype frequencies for c1/c1, c1/c2 and c2/c2 were observed as 80.9%, 18.8%, and 0.3%, respectively. A highly statistical significant difference (p<0.001) was observed in the genotype distributions between indigenous groups in Sabah with all Asian and non-Asian populations. However, among these three indigenous groups, there was no statistical significant difference (p>0.001) in their genotype distributions. The three major indigenous ethnic groups in Sabah show unique genotype distributions when compared with other populations. This finding indicates the importance of establishing the genotype distributions of CYP2E1 PstI polymorphism in the indigenous populations.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1557-1561
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• 2014

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and estimating its relative risks and trends of incidence at the area-level is helpful for health policy makers. However, traditional methods of estimation which do not take spatial heterogeneity into account suffer from drawbacks and their results may be misleading, as the estimated maps of incidence vary dramatically in neighboring areas. Spatial methods have been proposed to overcome drawbacks of traditional methods by including spatial sources of variation in the model to produce smoother maps. Materials and Methods: In this study we analyzed the breast cancer data in Iran during 2004-2008. We used a method proposed to cover spatial and temporal effects simultaneously and their interactions to study trends of breast cancer incidence in Iran. Results: The results agree with previous studies but provide new information about two main issues regarding the trend of breast cancer in provinces of Iran. First, this model discovered provinces with high relative risks of breast cancer during the 5 years of the study. Second, new information was provided with respect to overall trend trends o. East-Azerbaijan, Golestan, North-Khorasan, and Khorasan-Razavi had the highest increases in rates of breast cancer incidence whilst Tehran, Isfahan, and Yazd had the highest incidence rates during 2004-2008. Conclusions: Using spatial methods can provide more accurate and detailed information about the incidence or prevalence of a disease. These models can specify provinces with different health priorities in terms of needs for therapy and drugs or demands for efficient education, screening, and preventive policy into action.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7763-7768
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• 2014

Background: Gastritis and gastric cancer are the most common diseases in the Kazakh population. Polymorphisms in genes coding of cytokines have been played important role with gastric disease risk. The risk alleles of cytokines in patients with gastritis can predict the risk of developing gastric cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate cytokine gene polymorphisms as risk factors for the development of gastritis in a case-control study with gastritis patients and healthy individuals from the Kazakh ethnic group, living in North Kazakhstan. Materials and Methods: The polymerase chain reaction followed by direct sequencing were used for detection of two functional polymorphisms in the IL1 gene family, and TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assay Sets were applied for three potentially functional polymorphisms in the IL10 gene, and one in the TNFA promoter. Results: Association analysis of studied allelic variants and the development of gastritis in H. pylori-positive patients showed that IL1B -31C/C, IL1B -511T/T and IL1RN -2/2 allelic variants were associated with development of gastritis (OR=1.8 (1.07-3.16), p=0.025; OR=1.7 (1.04-2.99), p=0.035, and OR=4.92 (2.45-9.85), p<0.001) respectively. Haplotype C-Т that combines both homozygous allelic variants of IL1B gene also had a statistically significant association with slightly higher OR (OR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.08-1.88). Conclusions: The data from the current study showed that the genotype IL-1B -511Т/-31C-IL1-RN-2 and H. pylori infection increase risk of gastritis in the Kazakh population. That genotype combination might be a factor increasing the risk of developing gastric cancer.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.7029-7032
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• 2013

Background: Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a very common cancer in Northeastern Thailand. Most CCA patients see a physician at a late stage when curative surgery is not possible. After diagnosis, they generally are treated by partial surgery/percutaneous drainage, chemotherapy and supportive treatment. Objective: This study aimed to assess the survival rates of CCA patients after supportive treatment. Methods: A retrospective cohort design was applied in this study. Data for 746 CCA patients were extracted from the hospital-based cancer registry of Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University. The patients were diagnosed (at least by ultrasonography) between 1 January, 2009 and 31 December, 2009 and then followed up for current status until 30 June, 2011. The cumulative survival rate was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and independent prognostic factors were investigated using Cox regression. Results: The total follow-up time was 5,878 person-months, and the total number of deaths was 637. The mortality rate was therefore 10.8 per 100 person-year (95%CI : 10.1-11.7). The cumulative 3, 6, 9, 12 and 24 month survival rates were 59%, 39%, 31%, 24% and 14%, respectively. The median survival time after supportive treatment was 4 months. After adjusting for gender, age, stage, distant metastasis, histological grading and treatment, stage was a significant predictor of survival of CCA patients. Those in stage III and stage IV had a 6.78 fold higher mortality than the stage I and stage II cases (95% CI : 1.6-28.7). Conclusion: It is very important to encourage patients to see health personnel at an early stage.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6965-6969
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• 2013

Background: Tobacco consumption has been identified as the single biggest cause of inequality in morbidity and mortality. Understanding pattern of socioeconomic equalities in tobacco consumption in India will help in designing targeted public health control measures. Materials and Methods: Nationally representative data from the India Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted in 2009-2010 was analyzed. The survey provided information on 69,030 respondents aged 15 years and above. Data were analyzed according to regions for estimating prevalence of current tobacco consumption (both smoking and smokeless) across wealth quintiles. Multiple logistic regression analysis predicted the impact of socioeconomic determinants on both forms of current tobacco consumption adjusting for other socio-demographic variables. Results: Trends of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption across wealth quintiles were significant in different regions of India. Higher prevalence of smoking and smokeless tobacco consumption was observed in the medium wealth quintiles. Risk of tobacco consumption among the poorest compared to the richest quintile was 1.6 times higher for smoking and 3.1 times higher for smokeless forms. Declining odds ratios of both forms of tobacco consumption with rising education were visible across regions. Poverty was a strong predictor in north and south Indian region for smoking and in all regions for smokeless tobacco use. Conclusions: Poverty and poor education are strong risk factors for both forms of tobacco consumption in India. Public health policies, therefore, need to be targeted towards the poor and uneducated.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6419-6425
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• 2013

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is a treatment modality whereby chemotherapy is used as the initial treatment of HNSCC in patients presenting with advanced cancer that cannot be treated by other means. It leads to shrinkage of tumours to an operable size without significant compromise to essential oro-facial organs of the patients. The molecular mechanisms behind shrinkage due to NACT is not well elucidated. Materials and Methods: Eleven pairs of primary HNSCCs and adjacent normal epithelium, before and after chemotherapy were screened for cell proliferation and apoptosis. This was followed by immunohistochemical analysis of some cell cycle (LIMD1, RBSP3, CDC25A, CCND1, cMYC, RB, pRB), DNA repair (MLH1, p53) and apoptosis (BAX, BCL2) associated proteins in the same set of samples. Results: Significant decrease in proliferation index and increase in apoptotic index was observed in post-therapy tumors compared to pre-therapy. Increase in the RB/pRB ratio, along with higher expression of RBSP3 and LIMD1 and lower expression of cMYC were observed in post-therapy tumours, while CCND1 and CDC25A remained unchanged. While MLH1 remained unchanged, p53 showed higher expression in post-therapy tumors, indicating inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis. Increase in the BAX/BCL2 ratio was observed in post-therapy tumours, indicating up-regulation of apoptosis in response to therapy. Conclusions: Thus, modulation of the G1/S cell cycle regulatory proteins and apoptosis associated proteins might play an important role in tumour shrinkage due to NACT.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6197-6208
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• 2013

Cancers will continue to be a threat to health unless they can be controlled by combinations of treatment modalities. In this review, evaluate the role of resveratrol (RSV) as a radiosensitizing agent was evaluated and underlying mechanisms holistically explored in different cancer models focusing on therapeutic possibilities. The ability of RSV to modify the effect of radiation exposure in normal and cancer cells has indeed been shown quite convincingly, the combination of RSV and IR exhibiting synergistic effects on different cancer cells. This is relevant since controlled exposure to IR is one of the most frequently applied treatments in cancer patients. However, radiotherapy (XRT) treatment regimes are very often not effective in clinical practice as observed in patients with glioma, prostate cancer (PCa), melanoma, for example, largely due to tumour radioresistant properties. Sensitization of IR-induced apoptosis by natural products such as RSV is likely to be relevant in cancer control and treatment. However, all cancers do not respond to RSV+IR in a similar manner. Therefore, for those such as the radioresistant PCa or melanoma cells, the RSV+IR regime has to be very carefully chosen in order to achieve effective and desirable outcomes with minimum toxicity to normal cells. They are reports that the highest concentration of 100 ${\mu}M$ RSV and highest dose of 5 Gy IR are sufficient to kill cells by induction of apoptosis, indicating that RSV is effective in radiosensitizing otherwise radioresistant cells. In general, it has been shown in different cancer cells that RSV+XRT effectively act by enhancing expression of anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic molecules, and inhibiting pro-proliferative and anti-apoptotic molecules, leading to induction of apoptosis through various pathways, and cell death. If RSV+XRT can suppress the signature of cancer stemness, enhance the radiosensitivity by either targeting the mitochondrial functionality or modulating the tumour necrosis factor-mediated or Fas-FasL-mediated pathways of apoptosis in different cancers, particularly in vivo, its therapeutic use in the control of cancers holds promise in the near future.