• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2021

The main cause of cervical cancer is a persistent infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV). Cervical cancer is reported as a preventable cancer in more than 80% of cases with early diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Papanicolaou test (Pap test) has been a global strategy to prevent cervical cancer, and recently, HPV test has been reported to be effective against cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. However, pelvic examinations give patients anxiety, discomfort, pain, distress, and psychological stress. HPV test via a urine sample caused less physical and psychological stress and more advantage than the Pap test. Therefore, it is necessary to study the usefulness of the HPV test for easy-to-collect urine samples. A total of 220 samples were collected from a pair of cervical and urine samples from 110 women and only 108 pairs of samples out of 110 were used because 2 cases were not amplified by β-globin. Among 108 pairs of cervical and urine samples, the prevalence of HPV was 37.0% (40/108) in cervical samples, 34.3% (37/108) in urine samples and HR-HPV was 22.2% (24/108) in cervical samples, 18.5% (20/108) in urine samples. In this study, urine samples showed a lower positive rate of HPV than cervical samples. There were many variables that could affect the condition of the urine sample. However, the HR-HPV agreement rate of the cervix and urine samples was 94.44% and the Kappa value was 0.823, which was "almost perfect". Through these results showed the significance of cervical cancer screening using a urine sample. Cervical screening is crucial, as cervical cancer can be prevented in more than 90% of cases. Urine samples collected by non-invasive methods may have the potential advantage of increasing acceptance of cervical cancer screening. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new cervical cancer screening strategy using urine samples through further study based on the results of this study.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.101-110
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• 2011

Objectives: Screening for colorectal cancer is considered cost effective, but is underutilized in the U.S. Information on the efficiency of "tailored interventions" to promote colorectal cancer screening in primary care settings is limited. The paper reports the results of a cost effectiveness analysis that compared a survey-only control group to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) web-based intervention (screen for life) and to a tailored interactive computer-based intervention. Methods: A randomized controlled trial of people 50 and over, was conducted to test the interventions. The sample was 1224 partcipants 50-70 years of age, recruited from Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, a large multi-specialty clinic in Houston, Texas. Screening status was obtained by medical chart review after a 12-month follow-up period. An "intention to treat" analysis and micro costing from the patient and provider perspectives were used to estimate the costs and effects. Analysis of statistical uncertainty was conducted using nonparametric bootstrapping. Results: The estimated cost of implementing the web-based intervention was $40 per person and the cost of the tailored intervention was $45 per person. The additional cost per person screened for the web-based intervention compared to no intervention was $2602 and the tailored intervention was no more effective than the web-based strategy. Conclusions: The tailored intervention was less cost-effective than the web-based intervention for colorectal cancer screening promotion. The web-based intervention was less cost-effective than previous studies of in-reach colorectal cancer screening promotion. Researchers need to continue developing and evaluating the effectiveness and costeffectiveness of interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1249-1259
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• 2023

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for osteoporosis screening. Materials and Methods: Eligible patients who had and had not undergone DXA screening were identified from among those aged 50 years or older at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. Age, sex, screening year (index year), and Charlson comorbidity index of the DXA and non-DXA groups were matched using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) for propensity score analysis. For cost-effectiveness analysis, a societal perspective, 1-year cycle length, 20-year time horizon, and discount rate of 2% per year for both effectiveness and costs were adopted in the incremental cost-effectiveness (ICER) model. Results: The outcome analysis included 10337 patients (female:male, 63.8%:36.2%) who were screened for osteoporosis in southern Taiwan between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2021. The DXA group had significantly better outcomes than the non-DXA group in terms of fragility fractures (7.6% vs. 12.5%, P < 0.001) and mortality (0.6% vs. 4.3%, P < 0.001). The DXA screening strategy gained an ICER of US$ -2794 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) relative to the non-DXA at the willingness-to-pay threshold of US$ 33004 (Taiwan's per capita gross domestic product). The ICER after stratifying by ages of 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and ≥ 80 years were US$ -17815, US$ -26862, US$ -28981, and US$ -34816 per QALY, respectively. Conclusion: Using DXA to screen adults aged 50 years or older for osteoporosis resulted in a reduced incidence of fragility fractures, lower mortality rate, and reduced total costs. Screening for osteoporosis is a cost-saving strategy and its effectiveness increases with age. However, caution is needed when generalizing these cost-effectiveness results to all older populations because the study population consisted mainly of women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.19
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• pp.8229-8237
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• 2014

Background: Organized cervical screening has decreased the incidence of cervical cancer. However, screening strategies vary in different countries. Objectives: We performed a systematic review to evaluate the economic aspects of different screening methods. Materials and Methods: We searched databases and then data were abstracted from each study. We evaluated articles based on different types of screening tests as well as screening age and intervals, and using incremental cost effectiveness ratio via calculating quality adjusted life years (QALY), or life years gained (LYG) per cost. We compared the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of each study using GDP per capita. Furthermore, we compared national guidelines with recommendations of cost-effectiveness studies in different countries. Results: A total of 21 articles met our criteria, of which 19 studies showed that HPV DNA testing, 13 suggested an age of 30 years or more, and 10 papers concluded that at least a 5-year or longer interval were the most cost-effective strategies. In some countries, the national guidelines did not match the recommendations of the cost-effectiveness studies. Conclusions: HPV testing, starting at age 30 years or older and repeated at 5-year or longer intervals, is the most cost-effective strategy in any setting. Closer collaboration with health economists is required during guideline development.

• Journal of the Korean Statistical Society
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.103-115
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• 1977

A strategy for selecting subsets of variables from a given linear model in a mixture system is discussed. The purpose is to achieve better fitting surfaces for estimation of the response in an experimental region of interest. A criterion is proposed for screening variables and illustrated with an example.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1571-1576
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• 2016

Alteration of the acetylation status of chromatin and other non-histone proteins by HDAC inhibitors has evolved as an excellent epigenetic strategy in treatment of cancers. The present study was sought to identify compounds with positive pharmacological profiles targeting HDAC1. Analogues of Vorinostat synthesized by Cai et al, 2015 formed the test compounds for the present pharmacological evaluation. Hydroxamte analogue 6H showed superior pharmacological profile in comparison to all the compounds in the analogue dataset owing to its better electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding patterns. In order to identify compounds with even better high affinity and pharmacological profile than 6H and Vorinostat, virtual screening was performed. A total of 83 compounds similar to Vorinostat and 154 compounds akin to analogue 6H were retrieved. SCHEMBL15675695 (PubCid: 15739209) and AKOS019005527 (PubCid: 80442147) similar to Vorinostat and 6H, were the best docked compounds among the virtually screened compounds. However, in spite of having good affinity, none of the virtually screened compounds had better affinity than that of 6H. In addition SCHEMBL15675695 was predicted to be a carcinogen while AKOS019005527 is Ames toxic. From, our extensive analysis involving binding affinity analysis, ADMET properties predictions and pharmacophoric mappings, we report Vorinostat hydroxamate analogue 6H to be a potential candidate for HDAC inhibition in treatment of cancers through an epigenetic strategy.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2011

An efficient screening method was developed for rapid selection of a few overproducers of itaconic acid (IA) among the great many mutants derived from mother strains of Aspergillus terreus. For this purpose, an attempt was made to reveal the relationships of the growth rate and sporulation of each mutant on PDA solid medium with its IA productivity in the final liquid production-culture. As a result, it was possible to classify the mutated strains into 5 groups (from [A] to [E] group) according to theirmorphologies (i.e., growth rate and sporulation extent) on the PDA slants. Notably, most of the high-yielding mutants of IA were observed to belong to [A]group which had the properties of the highest growth rate and sporulation among the 5 groups, whereas the mutant groups of [C], [D] and [E] with the contrasting morphological features showed significant reductions in their IA productivities. From these results, it was concluded that the probability of selecting IA overproducing mutants could be remarkably enhanced when the mutated colonies showing faster growth rates are firstly selected on the PDA plate, and then further screening process is performed on the basis of the sporulation extents of the mutants selected. Consequently, through the application of the strategy developed in this study, costs and time involvedin the labor-intensive task of strain improvement could be reduced to a great extent, because the time-consuming liquid culture processes did not need to performed for the unfavorable mutants belonging to the groups other than group [A].

• BMB Reports
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• v.43 no.12
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• pp.818-823
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• 2010

Plk 1 is overexpressed in many human malignancies including laryngeal carcinoma. However, its therapeutic potential has been never examined in laryngeal carcinoma. In the present study, a simple cellular morphology-based strategy was firstly proposed for rapidly screening the effective siRNAs against Plk1. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of Plk1 depletion via a novel identified effective siRNA against Plk1, Plk1 siRNA-607, on human laryngeal carcinoma Hep-2 cells. The results indicated that Plk1 siRNA-607 transfection resulted in a significant inhibition in Plk1 expression in cells, and subsequently caused a dramatic mitotic cell cycle arrest followed by massive apoptotic cell death, and eventually resulted in a significant decrease in growth and viability of the laryngeal carcinoma cells. Taken together, our present study not only suggests a simple strategy for rapidly screening effective siRNAs against Plk1 but also implicates that Plk1 may serve as a potential therapeutic target in human laryngeal carcinoma.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.2059-2065
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• 2013

This goal of this research was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the National Cancer Screening Program (NCSP) for breast cancer in the Republic of Korea from a government expenditure perspective. In 2002-2003 (baseline), a total of 8,724,860 women aged 40 years or over were invited to attend breast cancer screening by the NCSP. Those who attended were identified using the NCSP database, and women were divided into two groups, women who attended screening at baseline (screened group) and those who did not (non-screened group). Breast cancer diagnosis in both groups at baseline, and during 5-year follow-up was identified using the Korean Central Cancer Registry. The effectiveness of the NCSP for breast cancer was estimated by comparing 5-year survival and life years saved (LYS) between the screened and the unscreened groups, measured using mortality data from the Korean National Health Insurance Corporation and the National Health Statistical Office. Direct screening costs, indirect screening costs, and productivity costs were considered in different combinations in the model. When all three of these costs were considered together, the incremental cost to save one life year of a breast cancer patient was 42,305,000 Korean Won (KW) (1 USD=1,088 KW) for the screened group compared to the non-screened group. In sensitivity analyses, reducing the false-positive rate of the screening program by half was the most cost-effective (incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, ICER=30,110,852 KW/LYS) strategy. When the upper age limit for screening was set at 70 years, it became more cost-effective (ICER=39,641,823 KW/LYS) than when no upper age limit was set. The NCSP for breast cancer in Korea seems to be accepted as cost-effective as ICER estimates were around the Gross Domestic Product. However, cost-effectiveness could be further improved by increasing the sensitivity of breast cancer screening and by setting appropriate age limits.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.201-211
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• 2010

We present a highly effective T-DNA inserted gene screening method as part of a reverse genetics model system using the Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. spp. pekinensis). Three-step two-dimensional (2D) matrix strategies are potentially accurate and useful for the identification of specific T-DNA inserted mutants from a large population. To construct our Chinese cabbage model, we utilized a forward genetics screening approach for the abnormal phenotypes that were obtained from transgenic plants of Brassica rapa generated with Agrobacteria tumefaciens containing the pRCV2 vector. From one transgenic plant with an abnormal phenotype, we observed that the st1 gene (which is related to senescence-associated process proteins) contained a T-DNA fragment, and that its expression level was decreased. This T-DNA insert was then used as a control to construct an effective screening pool. As a result, the optimum template concentration was found to be 0.1-1 ng in our PCR strategy. For other conditions, positive changes to the Gibbs free energy prevented the formation of oligo dimers and hairpin loop structures, and autosegment extension gave better results for long fragment amplification. Using this effective reverse genetics screening method, only 23 PCR reactions were necessary to select a target gene from a pool of 100 individual DNAs. Finally, we also confirmed that the sequence we obtained from the above method was identical to the flanking sequence isolated by rescue cloning.