Breast cancer is the most common cancer in females in Iran and in most of the developed countries. Studies have shown that having chronic stress in individuals predisposes several types of cancer including breast cancer. Research results showed that spiritual factors correlate with indices of physical consequences such as heart disease, cancer, and death, so do psychiatric conditions and changes in receptor gene expression in depression, anxiety, and social dysfunction. Different studies demonstrated the role of neurotransmitters in occurrence and progression of cancers. They affected cells by their various types of receptors. An effective gene in mental and physical conditions is Dopamine receptor. Accordingly, the study was conducted to evaluate effects of psychotherapy (spiritual intervention) on changes in Dopamine receptor gene expressions in breast cancer patients. 90 female volunteers, including 30 healthy individuals and 60 diagnosed with breast cancer, considering exclusion criteria, were selected for the purpose of the study. The breast cancer patients were further categorized into experimental and control groups of 30 each. Blood samples were collected both prior to and following the spiritual intervention to analyze changes in their dopamine gene receptor expressions. We observed that DRD2-DRD4 in the control group (breast cancer patients) PBMC increased compared to healthy individuals. Also, DRD2-DRD4 in intervention group PBMC decreased compared to the control group and to even lower than those of healthy individuals. The findings were of great significance in management and treatment of cancer because they revealed the possibility of using alternative treatments (e.g., spiritual interventions) apart from conventional medical treatments.

Oncogenic KRAS mutations represent the largest genomically defined subset of lung cancer, and are associated with activation of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway. There are currently no therapies specifically approved for patients with KRAS-mutant (KRASm) non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and these patients derive less clinical benefit from chemotherapy than the overall NSCLC population. In a recent phase II study, selumetinib (AZD6244, ARRY-142886), an oral, potent and selective, allosteric MEK1/2 inhibitor with a short half-life, combined with docetaxel, improved clinical outcome as second-line treatment for patients with KRASm NSCLC. This combination will be further evaluated in the phase III SELECT-1 study.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. This study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy and safety of adding regulatory T cell inhibitor cyclophosphamide to pemetrexed therapy for the second-line treatment of NSCLC with wild-type epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). A total of 70 patients were screened between March 2011 and December 2013, out of which 62 patients were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomized to receive 500 mg/m(2) pemetrexed in combination with 20 mg/kg cyclophosphamide in a 21 day cycle (n=30) or 500 mg/m(2) pemetrexed (n=32), and followed up for 30 months. Disease progression was observed in 23 patients in the pemetrexed plus cyclophosphamide arm and 27 patients in the pemetrexed monotherapy arm. Median progression-free survival was 3.6 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 to 5.9 months) in the pemetrexed plus cyclophosphamide arm and 2.2 months (95% CI, 1.3 to 3.1 months) in the pemetrexed monotherapy arm. The 6-month PFS rates were 22% (95% CI, 10 to 34) and 14.5% (95% CI, 6 to 23) in the pemetrexed plus cyclophosphamide arm and pemetrexed monotherapy arm, respectively. Median overall survival was 9.8 months for the pemetrexed combination therapy arm and 8.8 months for the pemetrexed arm, and the 1-year survival rates were 46% and 33%, respectively. The present study showed that pemetrexed in combination with low-dose cyclophosphamide may be a better treatment approach than pemetrexed monotherapy when considering second-line treatment for wild-type EGFR NSCLC.

Sorafenib monotherapy has shown benefits in phase II trials as third-/fourth-line treatment in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

AGO-OVAR 16 demonstrated that pazopanib maintenance therapy significantly increased progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with ovarian cancer whose disease had not progressed after first-line therapy. In a sub-study, we evaluated the effect of clinically important germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations on PFS.

Quantification of minimal residual disease may guide therapeutic strategies in mantle cell lymphoma. While multiparameter flow cytometry is used for diagnosis, the gold standard method for minimal residual disease analysis is real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR). In this European Mantle Cell Lymphoma network (EU-MCL) pilot study, we compared flow cytometry with RQ-PCR for minimal residual disease detection. Of 113 patients with at least one minimal residual disease sample, RQ-PCR was applicable in 97 (86%). A total of 284 minimal residual disease samples from 61 patients were analyzed in parallel by flow cytometry and RQ-PCR. A single, 8-color, 10-antibody flow cytometry tube allowed specific minimal residual disease assessment in all patients, with a robust sensitivity of 0.01%. Using this cut-off level, the true-positive-rate of flow cytometry with respect to RQ-PCR was 80%, whereas the true-negative-rate was 92%. As expected, RQ-PCR frequently detected positivity below this 0.01% threshold, which is insufficiently sensitive for prognostic evaluation and would ideally be replaced with robust quantification down to a 0.001% (10-5) threshold. In 10 relapsing patients, the transition from negative to positive by RQ-PCR (median 22.5 months before relapse) nearly always preceded transition by flow cytometry (4.5 months), but transition to RQ-PCR positivity above 0.01% (5 months) was simultaneous. Pre-emptive rituximab treatment of 2 patients at minimal residual disease relapse allowed re-establishment of molecular and phenotypic complete remission. Flow cytometry minimal residual disease is a complementary approach to RQ-PCR and a promising tool in individual mantle cell lymphoma therapeutic management. (clinicaltrials identifiers: 00209209 and 00209222).

The CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) is a promising biomarker for irinotecan/5-fluorouracil/leucovorin chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer. In the present study, we evaluated whether CIMP is a prognostic biomarker for standard-of-care oxaliplatin-based adjuvant therapy.

Though the associations between low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and health outcomes such as type 2 diabetes (T2D), myocardial infarction (MI), cancer, and mortality are well-studied, the effect of supplementation with vitamin D is uncertain. This may be related to genetic differences. Thus, rs7968585, a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the vitamin D receptor (VDR), has recently been reported as a predictor of composite health outcome. We therefore aimed to evaluate whether rs7968585 predicts separate clinical outcomes such as T2D, MI, cancer, and mortality in a community-based Norwegian population.

The added value of tumoural genomic profiles to conventional clinico-biological factors to predict progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was prospectively investigated in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) treated in the BFR14 study.

This study was conducted to evaluate microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers for use in predicting the efficacy of maintenance therapy with pemetrexed in patients with stage IIIb or IV lung adenocarcinoma and who had already received first-line treatment with pemetrexed plus platinum. Patients who were negative for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations or anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocations were assigned to a pemetrexed group and an observation group. Patients in the pemetrexed group (n = 76) received maintenance treatment with pemetrexed (500 mg/m(2), once every 21 days) plus best supportive care. Patients in the observation group (n = 72) agreed to receive only best supportive care until disease progression. Blood samples were collected from all patients in both groups before treatment and were used to detect expression levels of various miRNAs in serum by the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method. The expression levels of miR-25, miR-145, and miR-210 were significantly different in the 2 groups of patients. Furthermore, the median progression-free survival (PFS) times for patients in the pemetrexed and observation groups were 4.5 and 2.9 months, respectively. The PFS times among patients in the pemetrexed group varied significantly and were related to patient expression levels of miR-25, miR-145, and miR-210, whereas patients in the observation group showed no differences in PFS time. Our data suggest miR-25, miR-145, and miR-210 as predictors for the efficacy of maintenance treatment with pemetrexed in lung adenocarcinoma patients who were negative for EGFR mutations or ALK translocations.

Renin-angiotensin system components have been demonstrated in the biology of infantile hemangioma (IH). Captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, is proposed as a therapeutic alternative to oral propranolol.

Despite the substantial outcome improvements achieved in paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), survival in teenage and young adult (TYA) patients has remained inferior. We report the treatment outcomes and toxicity profiles observed in TYA patients treated on the UK paediatric ALL trial, UKALL2003. UKALL2003 was a multi-centre, prospective, randomized phase III trial, investigating treatment intensification or de-escalation according to minimal residual disease (MRD) kinetics at the end of induction. Of 3126 patients recruited to UKALL2003, 229 (7·3%) were aged 16-24 years. These patients were significantly more likely to have high risk MRD compared to 10-15 year olds (47·9% vs. 36·6%, P = 0·004). Nonetheless, 5-year event-free survival for the TYA cohort (aged 16-24 years) was 72·3% [95% confidence interval (CI): 66·2-78·4] overall and 92·6% (95% CI: 85·5-99·7) for MRD low risk patients. The risk of serious adverse events was higher in patients aged ≥10 years compared to those aged 9 or younger (P < 0·0001) and novel age-specific patterns of treatment-related toxicity were observed. TYA patients obtain excellent outcomes with a risk- and response-adapted paediatric chemotherapy protocol. Whilst those aged 10 years and older have excess toxicity compared with younger patients, the age association is specific to individual toxicities.

The CXCL12-CXCR4 axis is proposed to mediate metastasis formation. In this study, we examined CXCL12, CXCR4 and the relative CXCL12-CXCR4 expression as prognostic factors in two cohorts of colon cancer patients. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and in situ hybridization (ISH) were used to study CXCR4, CXCL12 and relative CXCL12-CXCR4 expression in tissue microarrays. Our study included totally 596 patients, 290 in cohort 1 and 306 in cohort 2. For tumour, node, metastasis (TNM) stage III, low nuclear expression of CXCR4 was a positive prognostic factor for 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) in cohort 1 (P = 0.007) and cohort 2 (P = 0.023). In multivariate analysis for stage III, nuclear expression of CXCR4 in cohort 1 was confirmed as a prognostic factor for DFS (hazard ratio (HR), 0.27; 95 % CI, 0.09 to 0.77). For TNM stage III, high cytoplasmic expression of CXCL12 was associated with better 5-year DFS in both cohorts (P = 0.006 and P = 0.006, respectively). We further validated the positive prognostic value of CXCL12 expression for 5-year DFS in stage III with ISH (P = 0.022). For TNM stage III, the relative CXCL12-CXCR4 expression (CXCL12 > CXCR4 vs CXCL12 = CXCR4 vs CXCL12 < CXCR4) was a prognostic factor for 5-year DFS in cohort 1 (92 % vs 46 % vs 31 %, respectively; P < 0.001) and cohort 2 (92 % vs 66 % vs 30 %, respectively; P = 0.006). In conclusion, CXCL12 and relative CXCL12-CXCR4 expression are independent prognostic factors for 5-year DFS in TNM stage III colon cancer.

Whether Helicobacter pylori eradication actually suppresses the development of metachronous gastric cancer (MGC) after endoscopic resection (ER) remains controversial. The aims of this study were to clarify (1) the molecular markers related to carcinogenesis in intestinal metaplasia (IM) by a cross-sectional study, and (2) the changes of those markers by an open-label, randomised controlled trial (RCT) of H. pylori treatment.

Physical inactivity is a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer. Physical activity interventions that can be delivered through the Internet have the potential to increase participant reach. The efficacy of an Internet-based physical activity intervention was tested in a sample of women at an elevated risk for breast cancer.

Genome instability and impaired DNA repair are hallmarks of carcinogenesis. The study was aimed at evaluating the DNA damage response in H2O2-treated lymphocytes using the alkaline comet assay in bladder cancer (BC) patients as compared to clinically healthy controls, elderly persons, and individuals with chronic inflammations. Polymorphism in DNA repair genes involved in nucleotide excision repair (NER) and base excision repair (BER) was studied using the PCR-RFLP method in the Belarusian population to elucidate the possible association of their variations with both bladder cancer risk and clinicopathological features of tumors. The increased level of H2O2-induced DNA damage and a higher proportion of individuals sensitive to oxidative stress were found among BC patients as compared to other groups under study. Heterozygosity in the XPD gene (codon 751) increased cancer risk: OR (95% CI) = 1.36 (1.03-1.81), p = 0.031. The frequency of the XPD 312Asn allele was significantly higher in T ≥ 2 high grade than in T ≥ 2 low grade tumors (p = 0.036); the ERCC6 1097Val/Val genotype was strongly associated with muscle-invasive tumors. Combinations of homozygous wild type alleles occurred with the increased frequency in patients with non-muscle-invasive tumors suggesting that the maintenance of normal DNA repair activity may prevent cancer progression.

Second-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) afatinib as first-line treatment has been demonstrated to improve overall survival (OS) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring an exon 19 deletion (del19) of EGFR compared to platinum-doublet chemotherapy. However, it is unclear whether first-generation EGFR-TKIs improve OS in patients with del19 in the first-line treatment.

The genetic variants of the ATP-binding cassette, subfamily G, member 2 (ABCG2) are known to be involved in developing cancer risk and interindividual differences in chemotherapeutic response. The polymorphisms in ABCG2 gene were genotyped by using PCR-RFLP assays. We found that ABCG2 G34A GA/AA genotype, C421A AA genotype, and haplotypes 34A-421C and 34G-421A were significantly associated with increased risk for developing breast carcinoma. Furthermore, ABCG2 C421A AA homozygote had a significant enhanced therapeutic response in patients with neoadjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Moreover, ABCG2 G34A AA genotype carriers displayed a longer OS in ER positive patients or PR positive patients after postoperative anthracycline-based chemotherapy. These results suggested that the ABCG2 polymorphisms might be a candidate pharmacogenomic factor to assess susceptibility and prognosis for breast carcinoma patients.

Radiation therapy prior to surgery has increasingly become the standard of care for locally advanced prostate cancer, however tumor radioresistance remains a major clinical problem. While restoration of microRNA-145 (miR-145) expression reduces chemoradioresistance in glioblastoma and suppress prostate cancer proliferation, migration and invasion, the role of miR-145 in response to radiation therapy for prostate cancer is still unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-145 in determining the tumor response to radiation treatment in prostate cancer. Human prostate cancer cells LNCAP and PC3 were transfected with miR-145 mimic. Clonogenic assay was used to determine whether overexpression of miR-145 could alter radiation response in vitro. Immunofluorescence of γ-H2AX and flow cytometric analysis of phosphorylated histone H3 were performed to investigate the potential mechanisms contributing to the enhanced radiation-induced cell killing induced by miR-145. In addition, a qPCR-based array was used to detect the possible miR-145-mediated regulated genes involved. Tumor growth delay assays and survival curves were then analyzed in an animal model to investigate whether miR-145 induced radiosensitivity in vivo. Furthermore, miR-145 expression was assessed in 30 prostate tumor tissue biopsies taken prior to neoadjuvant radiotherapy using miRNA arrays. Our current study suggested that ectopic expression of miR-145 significantly sensitized prostate cancer cells to radiation and we used γ-H2AX phosphorylation as a surrogate marker of radiotherapy response versus miR-145 expression levels. We observed significantly more foci per cell in the group treated with miR-145 and radiation. In addition, mitotic catastrophe was significantly increased in cells receiving miR-145 and radiation. The above results suggest that miR-145 appears to reduced the efficiency of the repair of radiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks in cells. A detailed examination of the involvement of the DNA repair pathway showed that miR-145 reduced the expression of 10 genes involved in DNA repair according to a qPCR-based array data. Irradiation of subcutaneous PC3 tumors in mice treated with R11-miR-145 (a cellular permeable peptide, previously reported) resulted in an increase in radiation-induced tumor growth delay and lived the longest after combination treatment. Moreover, miR-145 expression was significantly increased in patients demonstrating good response (PSA < 2.0 ng/ml/year) to neoadjuvant radiotherapy, while expression of the miR-145-regulated DNA repair genes was significantly decreased. In conclusion, these data suggest a possible mechanism for miR-145 radiosensitivity, potentially through down regulating of DNA repair. This novel study shows a role for miR-145 in modulating radiosensitivity in vivo and highlights the need for further study investigating the potential role of miR-145 as both a predictive marker of response and a novel therapeutic agent with which to enhance the efficacy of radiation therapy.

Changes in tumor DNA mutation status during chemotherapy can provide insights into tumor biology and drug resistance. The purpose of this study is to analyse the presence or absence of mutations in cancer-related genes using baseline breast tumor samples and those obtained after exposure to one cycle of chemotherapy to determine if any differences exist, and to correlate these differences with clinical and pathological features.