Abstract: Oral cancer accounts for the majority of the cancer in South East Asian region and especially in the Indian subcontinent. If diagnosed at an early stage the disease is reported to have a better prognosis. Recently studies have been conducted to determine the levels of serum antioxidants for risk assessment of oral cancer. The aim of this study was to estimate the levels of glutathione in serum of patients with oral cancer, oral leukoplakia and healthy controls. Three study groups comprising of, 25 oral cancer patients, 25 oral leukoplakia patients and 25 healthy controls were involved in the study. Serum sample collected from the patients by venipuncture were evaluated by Beutler’s method. The data obtained were analyzed using the one way ANOVA test. There was a significant difference between the levels of serum glutathione in between oral cancer, oral leukoplakia groups when compared to healthy controls. The levels of serum glutathione were lower in oral cancer when compared to oral leukoplakia but the difference was not statistically significant. The results suggest that serum glutathione level estimation could be used to determine the risk of oral cancer.

Abstract: False positive results are among the most common adverse outcomes of cancer screening tests. Up to 75% of men with an elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) have had a negative prostate biopsy. Adverse emotional effects of false positive prostate cancer screening have been documented using surveys, but there is nothing in this literature describing the lived experience of having a false positive PSA. In a qualitative interview study of sixteen men who had false positive PSAs, we found that all subjects experienced transient anxiety while waiting for the results of their prostate biopsies. In addition there were three persistent emotional responses: (1) increased fear of cancer; (2) relief with increased vigilance; (3) relief with less worry about elevated PSA. The attitude and recommendations of urologists influenced the emotional responses. Some men expressed frustration with the PSA as a screening test. Many men had multiple negative prostate biopsies. These data suggest that there should be more effort to develop guidelines for subsequent prostate biopsies after an initial negative biopsy, and more effort to encourage primary care clinicians and urologists to discuss emotional risks of PSA testing with their patients.

Abstract: Cancer is the second cause of premature deaths globally. In Malaysia, a total of 18,219 new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2007. Cancer is preventable and potentially avoidable disease, mainly by tackling modifiable risk factors, increasing participation in cancer screening tests and early detection of cancer through the recognition of early cancer signs. Cancer awareness was assessed using a validated and reliable self-administered questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient > 0.77) containing 63 items which included awareness (cancer early signs and symptoms, and cancer screening tests); cancer risk factors knowledge; attitude towards cancer prevention; and barriers in seeking cancer and health information. A total of 965 students (36.0% males and 64.0% females) participated with informed consent. Majority of the students were from private universities (73.1%) while 26.9% were from public universities. Majority of the students had low awareness (94.4%) and knowledge (64.9%) scores but have high attitude scores (76.9%). Awareness, knowledge and attitude scores were significantly higher among female students and science faculty students. Only knowledge score was significantly higher among students from Chinese ethnicity. Emotional and practical barriers were determined as the main barrier in seeking medical advice among the participants. This study provides a valuable basis of information toward the formulation of relevant cancer prevention strategies, especially within the scope of health education among the undergraduate students.

Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of death and fifth most common malignancy worldwide. Objective: Present study focused on the abnormal tumor cell glucose metabolism, considering the pathways of hexose monophosphate (HMP) shunt enzymes. The key regulatory enzymes of HMP include hexokinase (HK), glyeraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). Their perturbations sought to be helpful in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC in addition to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Materials and methods: Diethyl nitrosamine (DENA) plus carbon tetra chloride (CCl4) chemically-induced HCC model was used. Sixteen male albino rats were equally divided into 2 groups. Group I: served as a normal control received single intraperitonial (I.P) injection of saline, 2 weeks later, received subcutaneous (S.C) injection of saline, in equal volumes given for group II animals. Group II animals received single I.P injection of DENA (200mg/kg), 2 weeks later, received S.C injection of CCl4 (3ml/Kg/week) for 6 weeks. Then animals were sacrificed, blood and liver samples were obtained. Results: In HCC group, relative liver weights, serum AFP and HK, GAPDH and G6PD activities in both serum and liver homogenate were significantly increased; subsequent decrease in body weight was also evident. The histopathological examination of liver biopsies revealed the presence of few dysplastic nodules. Such nodules were 1mm or more in diameter on macroscopic examination, indicating carcinogenic features, nuclear and cytoplasmic alterations with clustering of population cells, structurally abnormal portal tracts, supporting serum enzyme and tumor marker assays. Conclusion: Glycolytic alterations can be used for diagnosis and prognosis of carcinogenesis in liver. These biomarkers may be beneficial tools to improve diagnostic performance of conventional tumor markers as AFP.

Abstract: The objectives of this study were to detect and determine the different genotypes of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) found in high-grade squamous preinvasive lesions of the uterine cervix of Cameroonian women. HPV genotyping was conducted on 37 endocervical secretions of women with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. HPV was found in 31 of the 37 women (83.8%); 9 different HPV genotypes were identified. The genotypes with high oncogenic potential were found in decreasing order of frequency as follows: 16, 18, 45, 33, 35 and 68. The frequency of strains found per patient ranged from 1 to 3. Genotypes 16 and 18 were single in 17 out of 31 patients. They were associated with other HPV genotypes in 4 out of 31 patients. In this study genotypes 16 and 18 are the most frequent genotypes encountered in high grade squamous preinvasive cervical lesions in Yaounde. This finding, if confirmed on a larger sample, portrays the potential effectiveness of HPV vaccines in the Cameroonian population as a preventive measure against cervical cancer. However, the position of genotype 45 is not negligible and should be confirmed on a large sample.