• Development and Reproduction
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.83-89
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• 2010

Apoptosis is a crucial mechanism for the proper regulation of homeostasis. BCL-2 family proteins are key molecules which control cellular survival and apoptosis. MCL-1 (myeloid cell leukemia-1) is a pro-survival member of BCL-2 family that promotes the survival of cells, and is highly expressed in diverse cancers including ovarian cancer, leukemia, and cervical cancer. Previously we identified IEX-1 (immediate early response gene X-1) as a binding partner of MCL-1. In the present study, we demonstrated that overexpression of IEX-1 induced apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells. Moreover, IEX-1 significantly attenuated the pro-survival function of MCL-1 in these cells. Also, IEX-1-induced cell death activity was able to be modulated by changes in the expression level of MCL-1. Thus, these results suggest that both IEX-1 and MCL-1 modulate each other's function controlling cellular survival and death and the inhibitory activity of IEX-1 toward MCL-1 may be applied for the development of chemotherapeutics.

• Korean Journal of Head & Neck Oncology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.131-138
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• 2001

Objectives: Alcohol intake has been reported to be a risk factor of laryngeal cancer. Since the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) genotype is a major determinant of personal alcohol drinking habit, there is a possibility that ALDH2 genotype would be a risk factor for laryngeal cancer. N-Acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) is a detoxifying enzyme and its polymorphism has been reported to be related to the risk of many environmental cancers. However, studies on the associations between these two genotypes and laryngeal cancer risk are scarce. We have assessed the effects of alcohol intake and the genotype of ALDH2 and NAT2 on the risk of laryngeal cancer in Koreans. Materials and Methods: Eighty-four pathologically proven laryngeal cancer patients and 168 age matched controls were included as the study subjects. Information about alcohol intake and smoking habit was collected using a self administered questionnaire. ALDH2 and NAT2 genotypes were analyzed using PCR-RFLP methods. Results: Alcohol intake was significant as a risk factor for laryngeal cancer (OR : 2.58, 95% CI : 1.24, 5.36), especially for supraglottic laryngeal cancer (OR : 3.24, 95% CI : 1.02, 10.31). Personal drinking habit was closely related with personal smoking habit, which was a potent risk factor of laryngeal cancer. In a stratified analysis according to the level of cumulative smoking amount, drinking was significant neither in light smokers (equal or less than 30 pack-years) nor in heavy smoker (over 30 pack-years). The ALDH2 genotype was significantly associated with the risk of laryngeal cancer in a univariate analysis. The statistical significance, however, disappeared after adjusting alcohol intake using a multiple conditional logistic model. The NAT2 genotype was not significant as a risk factor for laryngeal cancer. Conclusion: Alcohol drinking and ALDH2 genotype would have indirect effects on laryngeal cancer by their correlations with cigarette smoking or with alcohol drinking. It is less likely that the NAT2 genotype would be a potent risk factor of laryngeal cancer.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2018

Purpose: Obesity, a worldwide epidemic, is associated with insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. Many strategies, including natural alternative anti-obesity agents, are used widely to prevent obesity. This study examined the effects of silkworm hemolymph on the weight control of C57BL/6N mice fed with a high-fat diet. Methods: The mice were divided into five groups: normal group (N), high-fat diet group (HFC), high-fat diet and silkworm hemolymph (at dose of 1 mL/kg BW (HFS-1), 5 mL/kg BW (HFS-5) and 10 mL/kg (HFS-10) for 12 weeks. Results: After 12 weeks treatment, the administration of silkworm hemolymph decreased the final body weight significantly along with a decrease in the weights of epididymal fat and total fat. The plasma LDL-cholesterol concentration was significantly lower in the HFS-1, HFS-5, and HFS-10 groups than in the HFC group. In addition, the leptin level of the HFS groups was significantly lower than those of the HFC group without a change in the plasma insulin concentration. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the silkworm hemolymph may have the potential to prevent obesity.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2505-2510
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• 2014

Background: The standard radiotherapy (RT) fractionation practiced in India and worldwide is 50Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks to the chest wall or whole breast followed by tumour bed boost in case of breast conservation (BCS). A body of validated data exists regarding hypofractionation in breast cancer. We here report initial results for 135 patients treated at our center with the START-B type of fractionation. Materials and Methods: From May 2011 till July 2012, women with all stages of breast cancer (excluding metastatic), who had undergone BCS or mastectomy were planned for 40Gy in 15 fractions over 3weeks to chest wall/whole breast and supraclavicular fossa (where indicated) followed by tumour bed boost in BCS patients. Planning was done using Casebow's technique. The primary end point was to assess the acute toxicity and the cosmetic outcomes. Using cosmetic scales; patients were assessed during radiotherapy and at subsequent follow up visits with the radiation oncologist. Results: Of the 135 patients, 62 had undergone BCS and 73 mastectomy. Median age of the population was 52 years. Some 80% were T1&T2 tumours in BCS whereas most patients in mastectomy group were T3&T4 tumours (60%). 45% were node negative in BCS group whilst it was 23% in the mastectomy group. Average NPI scores were 3.9 and 4.9, respectively. Most frequently reported histopathology report was infiltrating ductal carcinoma (87%), grade III being most common (58%), and 69% were ER positive tumours, and 30% were Her 2 Neu positive. Triple negative tumours accounted for 13% and their mean age was young (43 yrs.) The maximum acute skin toxicity at the end of treatment was Grade 1 in 94% of the mastectomy grouppatients and 71% in BCS patients. Grade 2 toxicity was 6% in mast group and 23% in BCS group. Grade 3 was 6% in BCS group, no grade 3 toxicity in mastectomy patients and there was no grade 4 skin toxicity in any case. Post RT at 1 month; 39% of BCS patients had persisting Grade I skin reaction which was only 2% in mastectomy patients. At 3 months post RT, 18% patients had persisting hyperpigmentation. At 6 months 8% patients had persisting erythema in the BCS group only. Some 3% BCS and 8% mastectomy patients had lymph edema till the date of evaluation. Cosmetic outcome in BCS patients remained good to excellent 6 months post surgery and radiotherapy. 1 patient of BCS and 3 patients of mast had developed metastatic disease at the time of evaluation. Conclusions: Hypofractionated RT is well tolerated in Indian population with reduced acute skin toxicity and good cosmetic outcome. Regimens such as these should be encouraged in other centers to increase machine output time. The study is on-going to assess long term results.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7657-7661
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• 2013

Background: This study concerns uptake and results of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening of government servant as part of the Health Screening Program that was conducted in Brunei Darussalam in 2009. Materials and Methods: Government servants above the age of 40 or with family history of CRC were screened with a single fecal occult blood test (FIT, immunohistochemistry). Among 11,576 eligible subjects, 7,360 (66.9%) returned their specimen. Subjects with positive family history of CRC (n=329) or polyps (n=135) were advised to attend clinics to arrange screening. All the subjects with positive FIT (n=142, 1.9%) were referred to the endoscopy unit for counselling for screening colonoscopy. Results: Overall only 17.7% of eligible subjects attended for screening; 54.9% (n=79/142) of positive FIT, 8.8% (n=29/329) of positive family history of CRC and none with history of polyps (n=0/135). Of these, only 54 patients (50.5%) agreed for colonoscopy, 52 (48.6%) declined as they were asymptomatic, and one was not offered (0.9%) due to his very young age. On screening colonoscopy, 12.9% (n=7) had advanced lesions including a sigmoid carcinoma in situ and six advanced polyps. The other findings included non advanced polyps (n=21), diverticular (n=11) and hemorrhoids (n=26). One patient who missed his screening colonoscopy appointment re-presented two years later and was diagnosed with advanced right sided CRC. All the advanced lesions were detected in patients with positive FIT, giving a yield of 20.5% for advanced lesions including cancers in the 5.1% FIT positive subjects. Conclusions: Our study showed screening for CRC even with a single FIT was effective. However, the uptake rate was poor with just over half of the patients agreeing to screening colonoscopy. Measures to increase public awareness are important. Since one limitation of our study was the relatively small sample size, larger studies should be conduced in future.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.321-329
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• 2017

This paper presents a bone metastasis Detection algorithm on abdominal computed tomography images for early detection using fully convolutional neural networks. The images were taken from patients with various cancers (such as lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, etc), and thus the locations of those lesions were varied. To overcome the lack of data, we augmented the data by adjusting the brightness of the images or flipping the images. Before the augmentation, when 70% of the whole data were used in the pre-test, we could obtain the pixel-wise sensitivity of 18.75%, the specificity of 99.97% on the average of test dataset. With the augmentation, we could obtain the sensitivity of 30.65%, the specificity of 99.96%. The increase in sensitivity shows that the augmentation was effective. In the result obtained by using the whole data, the sensitivity of 38.62%, the specificity of 99.94% and the accuracy of 99.81% in the pixel-wise. lesion-wise sensitivity is 88.89% while the false alarm per case is 0.5. The results of this study did not reach the level that could substitute for the clinician. However, it may be helpful for radiologists when it can be used as a screening tool.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.2078-2087
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• 2010

This study conducted a chi-square test and a logistic regression analysis by not only using a investigation data of discharged patients with damages from 2004 to 2006, but also using a census and a research data on the actual condition from health care system. The result follows; First, the centralization of medical utilization of operation patients is becoming apparent, centrally the capital area. To improve this, a policy that can not only provide medical centers and sickbed, but also improve the quality of local medical treatments for the localization of medical treatments. Second, propelling localization policy of certain diseases for the localization of medical utilization is needed as the rate of non-residential of operation patients that have diseases of the eye and adnexa, or cancers is high. Third, a localization policy for patients with damages is needed as the rate of treatments in other regions of operation patients with industrial accidents is increasing day by day.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.328-334
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• 2004

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of female death. Viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 are selectively retained and expressed in carcinoma cells infected with HPV (Human pa pilloma virus) type 16 and cooperated in immotalization and transformation of primary keratinocyte. E6 and E7 oncoproteins interfere the functions of tumor suppressor proteins p53 and retinoblasoma protein (pRb), respectively. Among a lots of natural products, Mentha arvensis Linne var.piperascens have inhibitory effects on bindings between E6 oncoprotein and tumor suppressor p53, E3 ubiqutin- protein ligase (E6AP). HPV oncoprotein inhibitors from Mentha piperita L. were isolated by solvent partition and column chromatography (Silica gel, RP-18) and inhibitory compounds were finally purified by HPLC using an ELISA screening system based on binding between E6 and E6AP. The aim of this study is to identify the structure of inhibitory compounds and to investigate whether these compounds have inhibitory effects on functions of E6 oncoprotein. We investigated whether caffeic acid methyl ester (CAM) extracted from Mentha piperita L. could inhibit the function of E6 oncoprotein. CAM inhibited the in vitro binding of E6 and E6AP which are essential for the binding and degradation of the tumor suppressor p53 and also inhibited the proliferation of human cervical cancer cell lines (SiHa and CaSKi) in a dose response manner. These results suggest that CAM inhibited the function of E6 oncoprotein, suggesting that it can be used as a potential drug for the treatment of cervical cancers infected with HPV.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.187-193
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• 2000

Purpose : DNA ploidy pattern was shown to correlate with several clinicohistologic findings in several tumors. Aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation of the clinicohistologic findings in colorectal cancer and the failure pattern in rectosigmoid cancer with DNA ploidy. Materials and Methods DNA flow cytometry using the Hedley methods on paraffin embedded specimen from 117 patients with colorectal cancers after curative resection was peformed. We tried to find the correlation between DNA ploidy and various clinicohistologic findings. And then the correlation DNA ploidy and the failure pattern in 75 patients of rectosigmoid cancer was analized. Results : Forty samples (34.2%) from tumors gave aneuploidy histogram. There was no significant difference in the frequency of DNA aneuploidy in terms of age, sex, depth of invasion, location and Dukes stage. But there was a significant correlation between DNA ploidy and the failure rates in Dukes stage B rectosigmoid cancer (P=0.048). Conclusions : These findings suggest that DNA ploidy pattern shows the correlation with the treatment failure rates in Dukes stage B rectosigmoid, but not with many other clinicohistologic findings. However,more patients will be needed to disclose these findings.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.589-594
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• 2013

Background: Prospective cohort studies to determine cofactors with oncogenic HPV-infections for cervical cancer are very rare from developing countries and such data are limited to the few screening trials. Large screening trials provide such data as a by product. Some of the cases are prevented by screening and do not surface as invasive cancers at all. Also, pre-invasive lesions are detected almost entirely by screening. Screening causes selection bias if attendance in or effectiveness of screening is correlated with the risk factors. The aim of this study was to quantify the influence of screening on risk factors for cervical cancer. Materials and Methods: Our material stems from a rural cohort of 80,000 women subjected to a randomised screening trial. The effect of screening on the incidence of cervix cancer was estimated with reference to socio-demographic and reproductive risk factors of cervical cancer. We compared these risks with the incidence of cancer in the randomised control population by the same determinants of risk. Results: The results in the screening arm compared to the control arm showed that the women of low SES and young age were benefitting more than those of high SES and old age. The relative risk by age (30-39 vs 50-59) was 0.33 in the control arm and 0.24 in the screening arm. The relative risk by education (not educated vs educated) was 2.8 in the control arm and 1.8 in the screening arm. The previously married women did not benefit (incidence 113 and 115 per 100,000 women years in control vs screening arms) whereas the effect was substantial in those married (86 vs 54). Conclusions: The results in controls were consistent with the general evidence, but results in attenders and nonattenders of the screening arm showed that screening itself and self-selection in attendance and effectiveness can influence the effect estimates of risk factors. The effect of cervical cancer screening programmes on the estimates of incidence of cervical cancer causes bias in the studies on etiology and, therefore, they should be interpreted with caution.