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Abstract: Purpose: Bone marrow metastasis of cancer is a sign of extensively hematogenous spreading of cancer and may be a terminal event of those patients. With the improvement of systemic chemotherapy for malignant disease, some patients may have longer survival. We plan to find out the clinical hematologic presentation and prognostic factors in cancer patients with bone marrow metastasis. Materials & Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed the results of 162 bone marrow examination carried out in adult malignancy patients (colon, lung, gastric, breast and prostate cancers) between January 2002 and December 2012 in Changhua Christian Hospital. The indication for bone marrow study for those patients with hematologic disorders included: leukoerythroblastosis, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, unknown etiology of anemia, thrombocytopenia, bicytopenia and pancytopenia. Statistics analysis used SPSS 18.0 and overall survival was analyzed with the use of Kaplan–Meier curves and the log-rank test. Results: Thirty-four patients (20.9%) had evidence of involvement of the bone marrow by a solid tumor, most common cancers were prostate and lung. At the time of diagnosis, the most common hematologic disorders were leukoerythroblastosis and microangiopathic hemolytic anemia. Median survival after the diagnosis of bone marrow metastasis with supportive care only compared with definite treatments was 0.3 months and 20.6 months (p<0.0001). Patients with visceral organ metastasis (0.4 months vs 6.4 months, respectively; p <0.002) and anemia (2.1 months vs 6.4 months, p=0.031) had inferior survival. Patents without any cytopenia had better survival (12.5 months vs 4.1 months, p=0.029). Initial level of thrombocyte and neutrophil, bone marrow infiltration type (focal or diffuse) and disease status were not significant prognostic factor. Conclusions: Visceral metastasis and anemia are most poor prognostic factors in solid cancers with bone marrow metastasis. Since the improvement of the diagnosis and treatment for cancers during the recent decades, a portion of patients can be had better disease control after definite treatment especially in breast and prostate cancers with bone marrow metastasis. Keywords: Bone marrow metastasis, leukoerythroblastosis, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, bone marrow involvement, adenocarcinoma.Download Full Article |
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Abstract: Polymer recycling has been the most suitable alternative for management of plastics waste that are responsible by serious environmental damages. However, the recycling of some polymer materials, such as vulcanized elastomers, is not a trivial process. The recycling of elastomers is a process more complex than the recycling of thermoplastic polymers because the elastomers cannot be remolded by simple heating after vulcanization. Methods for rubber devulcanization has been developed as an interesting alternative for recover flow properties of elastomers, allowing other molding cycle. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the presence of carbon black on devulcanization of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) by microwaves and analyze properties of recycled material. The devulcanization by microwaves showed efficiency for rubber compositions with higher content of carbon black incorporated as well as the properties of recycled material showed satisfactory performance for reuse in other products. Microwaves devulcanization of SBR is an important alternative for reuse of rubber waste and decrease of the environmental problem generated with discard of these materials. Keywords: Devulcanization, microwaves, rubber recycling.Download Full Article |
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Abstract: Mixed medullary papillary carcinoma (MMPC) is a rare variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma, according to the WHO classification and it presents as a single lesion histologically composed of two distinct and intermingled neoplastic cell patterns. The histogenesis is still debatable. The lymph node metastases are usually present at the time of the diagnosis and distal metastases may appear late during follow-up. At least 13 similar lesions have been reported in the literature. We describe the case of a 61-year-old woman with a mixed medullary papillary carcinoma found in a hyperfunctioning thyroid nodule and negative pre-surgical serum calcitonin. After surgery, the patient started suppressive L-thyroxine therapy and underwent radioiodine ablation. The follow-up for both papillary and medullary components has shown no signs of persistence or recurrence of disease five years after surgery. However, the rarity of the MMPCs makes the management and the prognosis of these tumors still unclear. Keywords: Mixed medullary papillary carcinoma, calcitonin, hyperfunctioning thyroid nodule, thyroid ultrasound, fine needle aspiration, thyroidectomy.Download Full Article |
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Abstract: Background: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are short non-coding RNA that act as negative regulators of gene expression. Altered levels of miR-708-5p have recently been described in many tumors, although its contribution in colorectal cancer (CRC) pathophysiology remains unclear. Methods/Patients: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was employed to evaluate the expression of miR-708-5p in 50 CRC and 20 paired adjacent noncancerous tissues. The relationship between miRNA levels and clinicopathological features was estimated using the Mann-Whitney test, and survival curves calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Additionally, in vitro assays were performed to investigate the possible role of miR-708-5p on CRC cell survival. Results: The expression level of miR-708-5p was significantly decreased in CRC tissues (3.79 fold-change, p=0.0112) when compared with non-neoplastic colon samples. Paired analysis in 20 CRC samples with their corresponding adjacent non-neoplastic tissue showed miR-708 downregulation in 60% of them. The same pattern was seen in DLD1 and HT-29 cell lines (~50-fold decrease). Interestingly, higher expression is observed in patients with poor prognosis such as stage III/IV, relapse/metastasis and death, and shorter 5-year event free survival. Exogenous expression of miR-708 exerted a significant influence on clonogenicity in vitro. Conclusion: These results suggest that reduced miR-708-5p expression may contribute to the first stages of colorectal carcinogenesis. A shift in the regulation of miR-708-5p might operate in more severe stages of the disease. It seems that lower levels of miR-708 expression might connote less advanced disease and better prognosis. Further studies are needed to corroborate our results and better elucidate the role of miR-708 in CRC. Keywords: microRNA, colorectal tumor, DLD1, HT-29, cell lines.Download Full Article |
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Abstract: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and associated lower urinary tract symptoms commonly affect older men. Men with BPH in Podgorica in almost half (47.5%) cases have positive urine culture, out of which 14.2% have polyinfection. Urinary tract infections are most common in the age group 71 to 80 years. Although both groups of men (with and without BPH) are more prone to gram-negative bacterial infections of the urinary tract, K. pneumoniae is significantly more common in men with BPH compared with men without BPH. The results indicate that treatment of men with BPH is much more complex than in men without BPH due to the fact that in the treatment, a number of strains are resistant to levofloxacin (resistance of gram-negative bacteria to levofloxacin at the level of 80.4%, with 89.7% of resistant strains of K. pneumoniae and 73.3% of E. coli strains, as well as resistance of gram-positive bacteria at level of 24.8%, with resistant strains of enterococci in 64.7% of the strains) and β-lactam antibiotics (53.4% of isolated gram-negative bacteria synthesize ESBL enzymes out of which K. pneumoniae in up to 89.7% of the strains). Also, men with BPH have multi drug resistant strains in 53.1% of gram-positive bacteria and 79.7% of gram-negative bacteria. Carbapenems still represent a reserve group of drugs that have a good therapeutic effect in 93.2% of urinary tract infections in men with BPH. Download Full Article |