Building a predictive model to assist in the diagnosis of cervical cancer.

Aim: Cervical cancer is still one of the most common gynecologic cancers in the world. Since cervical cancer is a potentially preventive cancer, earlier detection is the most effective technique for decreasing the worldwide incidence of the illness. Materials and methods: This research presents a novel ensemble technique for predicting cervical cancer risk. Specifically, the authors introduce a voting classifier that aggregates prediction probabilities from multiple machine-learning models: logistic regression, K-nearest neighbor, decision tree, XGBoost and multilayer perceptron. Results: The average accuracy, precision, recall and f1-score of the voting classifier were 96.6, 97.4, 95.9 and 96.6, respectively. Furthermore, the voting algorithm gains average high values for all evaluation metrics (accuracy, precision, recall and f1-score). The f1-score of the algorithm is 96%, which demonstrates the robustness of the model. Conclusion: The findings suggest that the probability of having cervical cancer can be accurately predicted utilizing the voting technique.

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Lysine-Specific Demethylase 1 Expression as a Prognostic Biomarker of Cancer Survival and Disease Progression.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies on the prognostic significance of lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) up-regulation in tumors have different outcomes. The inconsistency originated from various studies looking into the association between LSD1 and tumor cells has prompted the decision of this quantitative systematic review to decipher how up-regulated LSD1 and overall survival (OS) or recurrence-free survival (RFS) or disease-free survival (DFS) are linked in tumor patients. METHODS: Articles were searched from online databases such as Embase, Web of Science Core, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The extraction of the hazard ratios (HR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) was attained and survival data of 3151 tumor patients from 17 pieces of related research were used for this meta-analysis. RESULTS: To shed light on the link between LSD1 up-regulation and the prognosis of diverse tumors, the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined. In this meta-analysis, it was observed that LSD1 up-regulation is linked with poor OS (HR = 2.08, 95% CI: 1.66-2.61, P < .01) and RFS (HR = 3.09, 95% CI: 1.81-5.26, P < .01) in tumor patients. However, LSD1 up-regulation was not linked to DFS (HR = 1.49, 95% CI: .83-2.69, P = .18) in tumor patients. The subcategory examination grouped by tumor type and ethnicity showed that LSD1 up-regulation was linked with a poor outcome in the esophageal tumor and hepatocellular carcinoma and Asian patients, respectively. For clinical-pathological factors, up-regulated LSD1 was significantly linked with Lymph node status. CONCLUSION: Despite the shortfall of the present work, this meta-analysis proposes that LSD1 up-regulation may be a prognostic biomarker for patients with tumors including esophageal tumors and hepatocellular carcinoma. We propose that large-scale studies are vital to substantiate these outcomes.

Light irradiation can regulate the growth characteristics and metabolites compositions of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa.

Light is an important factor that can induce the growth of varieties of organisms including fungi and their secondary metabolites. The evolutions of biomass, carotenoids, lipid production, compositions and contents of fatty acid and amino acid in Rhodotorula mucilaginosa were investigated under different light irradiation conditions. The results indicated that irradiation with 1700 lx could promote the growth and glucose assimilation of R. mucilaginosa, compared to the dark control, while the trial with 3500 lx had certain inhibiting effects. The carotenoids concentrations and percentages of unsaturated fatty acid (USFA, C16:1 and C18:1) increased with the improvement of irradiation intensity. Conversely, the proportions of saturated fatty acids (C16:0, C18:0 and C20:0) were decreased. The relative contents of amino acid and total protein were reduced under illumination compared to dark control. Conclusively, irradiation could change the cell growth and metabolites of the pigmented fungus, which implied that there may be a photoinduced mode exists in R. mucilaginosa similar to that of Neurospora crassa, and it also could be applied to regulate the biosynthesis and production of valuable components such as carotenoids and USFA.

Comprehensive effects of lifestyle reform, adherence, and related factors on hypertension control: A review.

Despite the effectiveness of currently available antihypertensive medications, there is still a need for new treatment strategies that are more effective in certain groups of hypertensive and for additional resources to combat hypertension. However, medication non-adherence was previously recognized as a major problem in the treatment of hypertension. The mechanisms behind the positive impacts of lifestyle changes might occur in different ways. In comparison with other studies, the efficacy and effectiveness of lifestyle modifications and antihypertensive pharmaceutical treatment for the prevention and control of hypertension and concomitant cardiovascular disease have been demonstrated in randomized controlled trials. However, in this review, the attitudinal lifestyle modifications and barriers to blood pressure control were elaborated on. An effective method for reducing blood pressure (BP) and preventing cardiovascular events with antihypertensive medications has been outlined. Maintaining healthy lifestyle factors (body mass index, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, sodium excretion, and sedentary behavior) could lower systolic blood pressure BP by 3.5 mm Hg and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by about 30%, regardless of genetic susceptibility to hypertension. Conducting a lifestyle intervention using health education could improve lifestyle factors, such as reducing salt, sodium, and fat intake, changing eating habits to include more fruits and vegetables, not smoking, consuming less alcohol, exercising regularly, maintaining healthy body weight, and minimizing stressful conditions. Each behavior could affect BP by modulating visceral fat accumulation, insulin resistance, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, vascular endothelial function, oxidative stress, inflammation, and autonomic function. Evidence of the joint effect of antihypertensive medications and lifestyle reforms suggests a pathway to reduce hypertension.

Microbial infections as potential risk factors for lung cancer: Investigating the role of human papillomavirus and chlamydia pneumoniae.

Background: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. Apart from tobacco smoke and dietary factors, microbial infections have been reported as the third leading cause of cancers globally. Deciphering the association between microbiome and lung cancer will provide potential biomarkers and novel insight in lung cancer progression. In this current study, we performed a meta-analysis to decipher the possible association between C. pneumoniae and human papillomavirus (HPV) and the risk of lung cancer. Methods: Literature search was conducted in most English and Chinese databases. Data were analyzed using CMA v.3.0 and RevMan v.5.3 software (Cochrane-Mantel-Haenszel method) by random-effects (DerSimonian and Laird) model. Results: The overall pooled estimates for HPV studies revealed that HPV infections in patients with lung cancer were significantly higher than those in the control group (OR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.57-3.37, p < 0.001). Base on subgroup analysis, HPV infection rate was significantly higher in Asians (OR = 6.38, 95% CI = 2.33-17.46, p < 0.001), in tissues (OR = 5.04, 95% CI = 2.27-11.19, p < 0.001) and blood samples (OR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.02-1.93, p = 0.04) of lung cancer patients but non-significantly lower in males (OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.57-1.22, p =0.35) and among lung cancer patients at clinical stage I-II (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.61-1.49, p = 0.82). The overall pooled estimates from C. pneumoniae studies revealed that C. pneumoniae infection is a risk factor among lung cancer patients who are IgA seropositive (OR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.30-2.70, p < 0.001) and IgG seropositive (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.10-2.04, p = 0.010). All seronegative IgA (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.42-1.16, p = 0.16) and IgG (OR = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.42-105, p = 0.08) titers are not associative risk factors to lung cancer. Conclusions: Immunoglobulin (IgA) and IgG seropositive titers of C. pneumoniae and lungs infected with HPV types 16 and 18 are potential risk factors associated with lung cancer.

Inhibitors Targeting the F-BOX Proteins.

F-box proteins are involved in multiple cellular processes through ubiquitylation and consequent degradation of targeted substrates. Any significant mutation in F-box protein-mediated proteolysis can cause human malformations. The various cellular processes F-box proteins involved include cell proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis. To target F-box proteins and their associated signaling pathways for cancer treatment, researchers have developed thousands of F-box inhibitors. The most advanced inhibitor of FBW7, NVD-BK M120, is a powerful P13 kinase inhibitor that has been proven to bring about apoptosis in cancerous human lung cells by disrupting levels of the protein known as MCL1. Moreover, F-box Inhibitors have demonstrated their efficacy for treating certain cancers through targeting particular mutated proteins. This paper explores the key studies on how F-box proteins act and their contribution to malignancy development, which fabricates an in-depth perception of inhibitors targeting the F-box proteins and their signaling pathways that eventually isolate the most promising approach to anti-cancer treatments.

Epigenetic compounds targeting pharmacological target lysine specific demethylase 1 and its impact on immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy for treatment of tumor recurrence and resistance.

It has been proven that metastatic recurrence and therapeutic resistance are linked. Due to the variability of individuals and tumors, as well as the tumor's versatility in avoiding therapies, therapy resistance is more difficult to treat. Therapy resistance has significantly restricted the clinical feasibility and efficacy of tumor therapy, despite the discovery of novel compounds and therapy combinations with increasing efficacy. In several tumors, lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) has been associated to metastatic recurrence and therapeutic resistance. For researchers to better comprehend how LSD1-mediated tumor therapy resistance occurs and how to overcome it in various tumors, this study focused on the role of LSD1 in tumor recurrence and therapeutic resistance. The importance of therapeutically targeted LSD1 was also discussed. Most gene pathway signatures are related to LSD1 inhibitor sensitivity. However, some gene pathway signatures, especially in AML, negatively correlate with LSD1 inhibitor sensitivity, but targeting LSD1 makes the therapy-resistant tumor sensitive to physiological doses of conventional therapy. We propose that combining LSD1 inhibitor with traditional tumor therapy can help patients attain a complete response and prevent cancer relapse.

Machine learning-assisted prediction of pneumonia based on non-invasive measures.

Background: Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that is characterized by high morbidity and mortality. The use of machine learning systems to detect respiratory diseases via non-invasive measures such as physical and laboratory parameters is gaining momentum and has been proposed to decrease diagnostic uncertainty associated with bacterial pneumonia. Herein, this study conducted several experiments using eight machine learning models to predict pneumonia based on biomarkers, laboratory parameters, and physical features. Methods: We perform machine-learning analysis on 535 different patients, each with 45 features. Data normalization to rescale all real-valued features was performed. Since it is a binary problem, we categorized each patient into one class at a time. We designed three experiments to evaluate the models: (1) feature selection techniques to select appropriate features for the models, (2) experiments on the imbalanced original dataset, and (3) experiments on the SMOTE data. We then compared eight machine learning models to evaluate their effectiveness in predicting pneumonia. Results: Biomarkers such as C-reactive protein and procalcitonin demonstrated the most significant discriminating power. Ensemble machine learning models such as RF (accuracy = 92.0%, precision = 91.3%, recall = 96.0%, f1-Score = 93.6%) and XGBoost (accuracy = 90.8%, precision = 92.6%, recall = 92.3%, f1-score = 92.4%) achieved the highest performance accuracy on the original dataset with AUCs of 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. On the SMOTE dataset, RF and XGBoost achieved the highest prediction results with f1-scores of 92.0 and 91.2%, respectively. Also, AUC of 0.97 was achieved for both RF and XGBoost models. Conclusions: Our models showed that in the diagnosis of pneumonia, individual clinical history, laboratory indicators, and symptoms do not have adequate discriminatory power. We can also conclude that the ensemble ML models performed better in this study.

Cervical cancer survival times in Africa.

Objective: Accessibility to quality healthcare, histopathology of tumor, tumor stage and geographical location influence survival rates. Comprehending the bases of these differences in cervical cancer survival rate, as well as the variables linked to poor prognosis, is critical to improving survival. We aimed to perform the first thorough meta-analysis and systematic review of cervical cancer survival times in Africa based on race, histopathology, geographical location and age. Methods and materials: Major electronic databases were searched for articles published about cervical cancer survival rate in Africa. The eligible studies involved studies which reported 1-year, 3-year or 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and/or locoregional recurrence (LRR) rate of cervical cancer patients living in Africa. Two reviewers independently chose the studies and evaluated the quality of the selected publications, in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA-P). We used random effects analysis to pooled the survival rate across studies and heterogeneity was explored via sub-group and meta-regression analyses. A leave-one-out sensitivity analysis was undertaken, as well as the reporting bias assessment. Our findings were reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA-P). Results: A total of 16,122 women with cervical cancer were covered in the 45 articles (59 studies), with research sample sizes ranging from 22 to 1,059 (median = 187.5). The five-year overall survival (OS) rate was 40.9% (95% CI: 35.5-46.5%). The five-year OS rate ranged from 3.9% (95% CI: 1.9-8.0%) in Malawi to as high as 76.1% (95% CI: 66.3-83.7%) in Ghana. The five-year disease-free survival rate was 66.2% (95% CI: 44.2-82.8%) while the five-year locoregional rate survival was 57.0% (95% CI: 41.4-88.7%). Conclusion: To enhance cervical cancer survival, geographical and racial group health promotion measures, as well as prospective genetic investigations, are critically required.

A comprehensive comparative study on LSD1 in different cancers and tumor specific LSD1 inhibitors.

LSD1 was significantly over-expressed in several cancer types, and its aberrant overexpression was revealed to play a crucial role in the initiation and progression of cancer. Several LSD1 inhibitors that were discovered and developed so far were found to be effective in attenuating tumor growth in both in vivo and in vitro studies. However, the major challenge associated with the development of cancer therapies is personalized treatment. Therefore, it is essential to look in detail at how LSD1 plays its part in carcinogenesis and whether there are any different expression levels of LSD1 in different tumors. Here in this review, fresh insight into a list of function correlated LSD1 binding proteins are provided, and we tried to figure out the role of LSD1 in different cancer types, including hematological malignancies and solid tumors. A critical description of mutation preference for LSD1 in different tumors was also discussed. Recent research findings clearly showed that the abrogation of LSD1 demethylase activity via LSD1 inhibitors markedly reduced the growth of cancer cells. But there are still many ambiguities regarding the role of LSD1 in different cancers. Therefore, targeting LSD1 for treating different cancers is still reductionist, and many challenges need to be met to improve the therapeutic outcomes of LSD1 inhibitors.

LSD1 as a Biomarker and the Outcome of Its Inhibitors in the Clinical Trial: The Therapy Opportunity in Tumor.

Tumors are the foremost cause of death worldwide. As a result of that, there has been a significant enhancement in the investigation, treatment methods, and good maintenance practices on cancer. However, the sensitivity and specificity of a lot of tumor biomarkers are not adequate. Hence, it is of inordinate significance to ascertain novel biomarkers to forecast the prognosis and therapy targets for tumors. This review characterized LSD1 as a biomarker in different tumors. LSD1 inhibitors in clinical trials were also discussed. The recent pattern advocates that LSD1 is engaged at sauce chromatin zones linking with complexes of multi-protein having an exact DNA-binding transcription factor, establishing LSD1 as a favorable epigenetic target, and also gives a large selection of therapeutic targets to treat different tumors. This review sturdily backing the oncogenic probable of LSD1 in different tumors indicated that LSD1 levels can be used to monitor and identify different tumors and can be a useful biomarker of progression and fair diagnosis in tumor patients. The clinical trials showed that inhibitors of LSD1 have growing evidence of clinical efficacy which is very encouraging and promising. However, for some of the inhibitors such as GSK2879552, though selective, potent, and effective, its disease control was poor as the rate of adverse events (AEs) was high in tumor patients causing clinical trial termination, and continuation could not be supported by the risk-benefit profile. Therefore, we propose that, to attain excellent clinical results of inhibitors of LSD1, much attention is required in designing appropriate dosing regimens, developing in-depth in vitro/in vivo mechanistic works of LSD1 inhibitors, and developing inhibitors of LSD1 that are reversible, safe, potent, and selective which may offer safer profiles.

The Impact of Video-Based Educational Interventions on Cervical Cancer, Pap Smear and HPV Vaccines.

Background: Video-based interventions have the potential to contribute to long-lasting improvements in health-seeking behaviours. Ghana's upsurge rate of information and communication technology usage presents an opportunity to improve the awareness of HPV vaccination and screening rates of cervical cancer among women in Ghana. This research aimed to assess the impact of video-based educational intervention centred on the Health Belief and Transtheoretical Models of behavioural changes in promoting HPV vaccination, cervical carcinoma awareness and willingness to have Pap smear test (PST) among women in Ghana. Methods: To achieve the intended sample size, convenient, purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used. SPSS v. 23.0 was used in the data analysis. Percentages and frequencies were used to represent participants' demographic characteristics, knowledge of (1) cervical carcinoma, (2) human papillomavirus vaccine, and (3) Pap smear test. The chi-square test by McNemar was employed to evaluate variations in the post- and pre-intervention responses. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The level of significance was adjusted owing to multiple comparisons by using the Bonferroni's correction. Results: Before the intervention, 84.2% of the participant had some knowledge or information about cervical cancer, but after the intervention, 100% of the participant became aware of cervical cancer which represents 15.8% increment at a P < .001. The willingness to have a pap smear test increased from 35.8% to 94.2% (df = 58.4%, P < .001) after the educational intervention. The willingness to be vaccinated increased from 47.5% to 81.7% (df = 34.2%, P < .001) after the educational intervention. Six months after the intervention, participants were followed-up. 253 (42.2%) participants had gone for cervical cancer screening (Pap smear test) while 347 (57.8%) participants had not been screened. In terms of HPV vaccination, 192 participants (32.0%) had begun their HPV vaccination cycle. Conclusion: The study results show that health education, using videos, may be influential in perception changing, self-efficacy improvement and the understanding of cervical carcinoma screening and HPV vaccination.

Neutrophil-Dependent Immunity During Pulmonary Infections and Inflammations.

Rapid recruitment of neutrophils to an inflamed site is one of the hallmarks of an effective host defense mechanism. The main pathway through which this happens is by the innate immune response. Neutrophils, which play an important part in innate immune defense, migrate into lungs through the modulation actions of chemokines to execute a variety of pro-inflammatory functions. Despite the importance of chemokines in host immunity, little has been discussed on their roles in host immunity. A holistic understanding of neutrophil recruitment, pattern recognition pathways, the roles of chemokines and the pathophysiological roles of neutrophils in host immunity may allow for new approaches in the treatment of infectious and inflammatory disease of the lung. Herein, this review aims at highlighting some of the developments in lung neutrophil-immunity by focusing on the functions and roles of CXC/CC chemokines and pattern recognition receptors in neutrophil immunity during pulmonary inflammations. The pathophysiological roles of neutrophils in COVID-19 and thromboembolism have also been summarized. We finally summarized various neutrophil biomarkers that can be utilized as prognostic molecules in pulmonary inflammations and discussed various neutrophil-targeted therapies for neutrophil-driven pulmonary inflammatory diseases.

Evaluation of the Therapeutic Outcomes of Antibiotic Regimen Against Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Carbapenemase-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (CpKP) has been implicated as an increasing threat to public health. CpKP is a ubiquitous, opportunistic pathogen that causes both hospital and community acquired infections. This organism hydrolyzes carbapenems and other ß-lactams and thus, leading to multiple resistance to these antibiotics. Despite the difficult to treat nature of infections caused by CpKP, little has been discussed on the mortality, clinical response and microbiological success rates associated with various antibiotic regimen against CpKP. This meta-analysis was designed to fill the paucity of information on the clinical impact of various antibiotic therapeutic regimens among patients infected with CpKP. Materials and Methods: Literature in most English databases such as Medline through PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and EMBASE, were searched for most studies published between the years 2015-2020. Data were analyzed using the R studio 2.15.2 statistical software program (metaphor and meta Package, Version 2) by random-effects (DerSimonian and Laird) model. Results: Twenty-one (21) studies including 2841 patients who had been infected with CpKP were analysed. The overall mortality rate was 32.2% (95%CI = 26.23-38.87; I 2 = 89%; p-value ≤ 0.01, Number of patients = 2716). Pooled clinical and microbiological success rates were 67.6% (95%CI = 58.35-75.64, I 2 = 22%, p-value = 0.25, Number of patients = 171) and 74.9% (95%CI = 59.02-86.09, I 2 = 53%, p-value = 0.05, Number of patients = 121), respectively. CpKP infected patients treated with combination therapy are less likely to die as compared to those treated with monotherapy (OR = 0.55, 95%CI = 0.35-0.87, p-value = 0.01, Number of patients = 1,475). No significant difference existed between the mortality rate among 60years and above patients vs below 60years (OR = 0.84, 95%CI = 0.28-2.57, p-value = 0.76, 6 studies, Number of patients = 1,688), and among patients treated with triple therapy vs. double therapy (OR = 0.50, 95%CI = 0.21-1.22, p-value = 0.13, 2 studies, Number of patients = 102). When compared with aminoglycoside-sparing therapies, aminoglycoside-containing therapies had positive significant outcomes on both mortality and microbiological success rates. Conclusion: New effective therapies are urgently needed to help fight infections caused by this organism. The effective use of various therapeutic options and the strict implementation of infection control measures are of utmost importance in order to prevent infections caused by CpKP. Strict national or international implementation of infection control measures and treatment guidelines will help improve healthcare, and equip governments and communities to respond to and prevent the spread of infectious diseases caused by CpKP.

A population-base survey on knowledge, attitude and awareness of the general public on antibiotic use and resistance.

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to assess the awareness and knowledge of antibiotic usage and antibiotic resistance among the general public in the Cape Coast metropolis of Ghana. It also tries to decipher whether the level of education and the professional status of an individual has a positive association with the level of knowledge on antibiotic resistance. METHODS: A population-base survey involving members of the public was conducted from August to November 2019. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data from 632 respondents. Data were analyzed through SPSS v.21 using Chi square statistics and multivariate regression. Differences in knowledge were evaluated using ANOVA and the assumption of equal variance was tested with Levene statistics. RESULTS: The response rate was 74.3%. Lower educational status group had a greater knowledge level (39.7%) on antibiotic resistance. Despite the high score, the lowest educational status group, (M = 1.82, SD = 0.769), middle educational status group (M = 1.98, SD = 0.748), and the high educational status group (M = 1.88, SD = 0.773) were not significantly different from each other with regard to their general knowledge level on antibiotic resistance (P < 0.05). The study revealed that, working in the healthcare sector is a major contributor to the level of knowledge on antibiotic resistance. CONCLUSION: Given the scale of the issue on antibiotic resistance and the fact that attempts to resolve it will involve efforts on the part of all, it is important that the public is aware of the importance of the issue of antibiotic resistance, its implications and what they can do to address it. The level of knowledge among respondents with lower educational status should be enough evidence to introduce more educational campaigns on antibiotic resistance.

Awareness of Cervical Cancer and Attitude Toward Human Papillomavirus and Its Vaccine Among Ghanaians.

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Ghana is a low-middle- income country with annual diagnosed cases of 3,151 and 2,119 deaths. The high prevalence rate of cervical cancer in Ghana is mainly due to ineffective preventive measures and insufficient knowledge about the disease. Therefore, our objective was to evaluate the level of knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer and attitude toward human papillomavirus and its vaccine among Ghanaians. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional survey on the awareness of cervical cancer and attitude toward human papillomavirus and its vaccine was carried out from March 2019 to February 2020. SPSS v. 23.0 was used in the data analysis. The participants' demographic characteristics, knowledge of cervical carcinoma, human papillomavirus vaccine and HPV, and the likelihood to be vaccinated were represented as percentages and frequencies. The difference between males and females was assessed using the chi-square test. The logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship of possible related indicators with the willingness to receive the HPV vaccine. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 1,376 participants were involved in the final analysis. Among the 1,376 participants involved in this survey, 1,240 participants (90.1%) representing 456 males (33.1%) and 784 females (57.0%) were aware of the terminology "cervical cancer" with a significant p = 0.001. When stratified by gender, women had significantly greater knowledge, compared to men in terms of "cervical cancer being common in middle age (35-50) females" (75.5 vs. 67.5%, respectively, p ≤ 0.001). When stratified by gender, women had significantly greater knowledge of human papillomavirus (54.5 vs. 43.6%, respectively, p < 0.001) and the human papillomavirus vaccine (39.3 vs. 33.1%, respectively, p = 0.019) compared to men. Conclusion: Majority of the respondents had poor knowledge regarding cervical cancer risk factors, symptoms, HPV, and its vaccine. Hence, this indicates a wakeup call for government to increase the awareness and knowledge level via the media and health professionals.

Polymorphism in the Androgen Biosynthesis Gene (CYP17), a Risk for Prostate Cancer: A Meta-Analysis.

Gene polymorphism is one of the few factors that increases the risk of prostate cancer. T to C substitution in the 5' promoter region of the CYP17 gene is hypothesized to increase the rate of gene transcription, increase androgen production, and thereby increase the risk of prostate cancer. Nevertheless, the inconsistencies originating from studies on CYP17 polymorphism and prostate cancer prompted this meta-analysis, to decipher the association between CYP17 polymorphism and prostate cancer. Most case-control studies addressing CYP17 polymorphism and prostate cancer were exhaustively searched from Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PubMed. The various genotype distributions as well as the minor allele distributions were retrieved. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% CI and estimates of the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium were calculated. Analyses were performed using the RevMan v.5.3 software and SPSS v.21. There was high-pooled heterogeneity (I2 = 87.0%, OR = .42, CI [.39, .45], and p < .001) among the A2 versus A1 allele. With the per-allele model (A2 versus A1), ethnicity was a major risk factor to prostate cancer, with Asians recording the highest risk (OR = 12.61, 95% CI [8.77, 18.12]). From the genotype models, A1/A1 versus A2/A2 (OR = 3.02, 95% CI [2.65, 3.44]) and A1/A2 versus A2/A2 (OR = 4.39, 95% CI [3.86, 5.00]) were all significantly associated with prostate cancer. Although some genotype models were associated with the risk of prostate cancer, we should be mindful when interpreting the results of this study because of the limited number of studies and the small sample size used.