No abstract

Gastric cancer is the fourth most common cancer and most patients with gastric cancer are being diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease so they do not gain any survival chance from conventional surgical, chemotherapeutic or radiotherapeutic methods. These are relatively high cost procedures in terms of both time and money. This study considers the introduction of a novel minimally invasive diagnostic technique which shows the relationship between histopathology and the electrical impedance spectrum in the human stomach. In this study, 4 electrode technique was used to differentiate tissues from each other using Tabriz Mark 1 electrical impedance system (30 different frequencies in the range of 2 kHz to 1 MHz). A total of 97 points from 45 patients were studied in terms of their biopsy reports matching to the electrical impedance measurements (in vivo). After impedance measurements and applying calibration factors, a non-parametric statistical technique, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the difference among the groups. According to the calculation of respective data using this spectroscopy system, the resistivity of the normal group was higher than that of the benign group, and the resistivity of these groups were higher than that of the malignant group at frequencies between 470 kHz and 1 MHz (P< 0.05). In these frequencies, the impedivity of the dysplastic tissue was significantly lower than that of the other groups (P < 0.05). Also, Cole equation fitting procedure was used to generate a scatter plot of the malignant and benign points: it shows in general, benign points had higher values of R than the malignant points. Therefore, electrical impedance spectroscopy can be a useful technique to characterize the stomach tissue.

Abstract. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies, and the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Timely detection of CRC in patients with earlier stages provides the highest rate of survival. Epigenetic alterations are important in the occurrence and progression of CRC, and represent the primary modifications of cancer cells. Therefore, detection of these alterations in CRC cases are thought to hold great promise as diagnostic biomarkers. It has been shown that the SEPT9 and NTRK3 genes are aberrantly methylated and their detection can be used as biomarkers for early diagnosis of CRC. The present study analyzed promoter methylation status of these genes in CRC patients. Genomic DNA was extracted from 45 CRC and paired adjacent healthy tissues and undergone bisulfite conversion, and the methylation status of NTRK3 and SEPT9 were defined using the MS-HRM assay. Our results showed that there are statistically significant differences in methylation status of NTRK3 and specially SEPT9 between CRC and adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001). High sensitivity and specificity for a specific location in SEPT9 gene promoter as a diagnostic biomarker was observed. SEPT9 promoter hypermethylation may serve as a promising biomarker for the detection of CRC development. However, to validate the biomarker potential of NTRK3 there is a requirement for further investigation.

Simultaneous occurrence of papillary and follicular thyroid cancer, known as differentiated thyroid cancer, has been reported with various presentations, but presence of an anaplastic cancer, as an undifferentiated cancer, in addition to differentiated thyroid cancer is rarely reported. We here report a 40-year-old man with papillary thyroid cancer on his right thyroid lobe and metastasized to the right posterior triangle of the neck. Survey on the mass in the right posterior triangle revealed presence of simultaneous papillary, follicular, and anaplastic thyroid cancer. The patient underwent right thyroid lobectomy and he received adjuvant radiotherapy in combination with chemotherapy.