Metformin and risk of hematological cancers in patients with diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

FUNDING: No external funding.

T2* Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Pancreatic Iron Overload and its Relation With the Diabetic State in Thalassemic Patients.

The present study was performed to evaluate pancreatic hemosiderosis by means of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T2* and its relation to the diabetic state in thalassemic patients. One hundred thirty transfusion-dependent thalassemic patients from Zafar adult thalassemia clinic, Tehran, Iran, were enrolled in the study. Data such as age, type of thalassemia, age at diagnosis, transfusion duration, ferritin level, and fasting blood sugar results were gathered. Pancreatic MRI T2* was performed for all patients. One hundred four thalassemic patients with no sign of diabetes mellitus and 26 thalassemic patients with diabetes mellitus entered the study. Out of a total of 130 patients, 102 had pancreatic hemosiderosis. Among them, 23 of 26 diabetic patients (88.5%) and 79 of 104 nondiabetic patients (76%) showed pancreatic hemosiderosis, indicating no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups. The mean pancreatic MRI T2* relaxation time for all patients was 13.99±12.43 ms. The mean relaxation was 13.62±8.38 and 14.08±13.28 ms for diabetic and nondiabetic patients, respectively, showing no statistical difference (P=0.202). In conclusion, we did not find a significant difference between diabetic and nondiabetic thalassemic patients regarding the MRI T2* relaxation time readings or the rate of pancreatic hemosiderosis. We recommend performing studies with a higher sample size and including patients from different age groups to further evaluate the role of T2* MRI of pancreatic iron overload and its relation with the diabetic state in thalassemic patients.

Analysis of CYP17, CYP19 and CYP1A1 Gene Polymorphisms in Iranian Women with Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer and the second cause of mortality in women all around the world. It is caused by several factors including genetic determinants, so that both genetic susceptibility factors and environmental factors are involved in the etiology. Significance of genes functioning in steroid hormone synthesis and metabolism are well established in breast cancer susceptibility. In this study, 134 women with BC and 135 normal controls were analyzed for their genotypes for the polymorphisms, rs743572, rs10046 and rs4646903, resided in CYP17, CYP19 and CYP1A1 genes, respectively. Significant differences in distributions of allele and genotype frequencies were found for the rs10046 polymorphism in CYP19 (p-value=0.01, OR (CI 95%) =1.59 (1.1-2.3), p-value=0.04, OR (CI 95%) =1.7 (1.1-2.5) respectively). For rs743,572 and rs 4646903 polymorphisms, no significant associations were observed. A significant association was observed between the rs10046 polymorphism of the CYP19gene and breast cancer in Iranian patients. Due to inconsistent previous results, more studies in different populations with larger sample sizes are indicated.

Comparison of crude and age-specific incidence rates of breast, ovary, endometrium and cervix cancers in Iran, 2005.

BACKGROUND: Cancer accounts for 12.6% of total deaths in the world (just after heart disease). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Frequency and age-specific incidence rates of breast and gynecologic cancers in Iran are calculated based on the dataset of the National Cancer Registry of Iran in 2005. RESULTS: Gynecologic and breast cancer accounted for 7.6% and 25.6% of total cancer cases, respectively. Ovarian cancer was the most frequent gynecologic cancer followed by endometrium. Endometrial cancer revealed the highest age specific incidence rate followed by ovary (after 59 years). CONCLUSIONS: Regarding disease burden, breast and gynecologic cases account for 33.4% of total cancer patients. The age specific incidence rate is a useful guide in epidemiologic and future plans.

Comparison of Age- Standard Incidence Rate Trends of Gynecologic and Breast Cancer in Iran and Other Countries.

BACKGROUND: Female cancer, especially breast and gynecologic cancers are considered multistage disease, highly influenced by risk and protective factors and/or screening preventive modalities. Consequences of all these factors result in the trend of change over time. METHODS: In this comparative study, based on data of national cancer registry of Iran 2004 published by Iranian Ministry of Health, age - standard incidence rate (ASR) according to the world population was calculated in all reported gynecologic and breast cancers. Source of all subjects are pathologic based. In the next step, the calculated ASR of Iran and those of the other countries in 2004 were compared to GLOBOCAN ASR reports of 2008. RESULTS: In Iran ASR of breast cancer 2004 (24.93) changed to 18.4 in 2008. Ovarian cancer ASR of 2004, 3.07 was 3.1 in 2008. Endometrial cancer ASR in 2004 (2.29) was 1.7 in 2008. Cervical cancer ASR of 1.71 in 2004 was 2.2 in 2008. CONCLUSIONS: In Iran incidence trend of breast and endometrium are decreasing in the same direction of USA and Australia. Increasing trend of ovary and cervix ASR in Iran is in the inverse direction of USA and Australia which are decreasing. Future studies to find out the same trend or any changes, might develop these findings and improve consequent practical decisions based on results of this study and complementary future studies.

Age - specific incidence rate change at breast Cancer and its different histopathologic subtypes in Iran and Western countries.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to determine the frequency and age-specific incidence rate of different histopathologic subtypes of breast cancer in Iran, and compare it to neighboring and Western countries and to discuss the probable effective main factors. METHODS: National data from cancer registry for 6265 female breast cancer patients were studied in 10 histopathologic groups. RESULTS: The most common tumor was ductal carcinoma (89%). The peak age - specific incidence rate of breast cancer in total, and for epithelial, non-epithelial and ductal carcinomas were all 50-59 years, and it decreased in older age. It is in contrast to US SEER report which shows the incidence increases in higher age. CONCLUSION: Three main factors including younger age of Iranian patients, probable more ERN tumors and different histopathological profile of breast cancer in Iran might be considered and studied to explain different slope of breast cancer after menopause compared to other countries.