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. Drokow et al. Human Papillomavirus and Its Vaccine 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.

The aim of the present study was to compare intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in irradiation of lung cancer. Plans of 14 patients were compared. The results demonstrated that in peripheral lung cancer, V5 (%) of the lung in partial-arc (PA)-VMAT was decreased compared with IMRT, single-arc (SA)-, and double partial-arc (2PA)-VMAT. V30 (%) of the lung in IMRT was decreased compared with SA-, PA- and 2PA-VMAT. In the case of planning target volume (PTV) not encompassing the mediastinum in central lung cancer, the conformality index (CI) and heterogeneity index (HI) of SA-VMAT was improved compared with IMRT, PA-, and 2PA-VMAT. The received dose of heart in SA-VMAT was higher compared with IMRT, PA- and 2PA-VMAT. V30 (%) and V5 (%) of the lung in IMRT was higher compared with SA-, PA- and 2PA-VMAT; V10 (%) of the lung in 2PA was decreased compared with IMRT, SA- and PA. In the case of PTV encompassing the mediastinum in central lung cancer, the HI and CI of 2PA was improved compared with IMRT, SA- and PA-VMAT. The received dose of heart in 2PA was higher compared with IMRT, SA- and PA-VMAT. V30 (%) and V5 (%) of the lung in 2PA-VMAT was higher compared with IMRT, SA- and PA-VMAT. V20 (%) of the lung in 2PA was decreased compared with IMRT, SA- and PA-VMAT. In conclusion, it may be necessary to classify the radiotherapy plans of lung cancer into three categories including peripheral lung cancer, PTV not encompassing the mediastinum of central lung cancer, and PTV encompassing the mediastinum of central lung cancer. Each of IMRT, SA-VMAT, PA-VMAT, 2PA-VMAT strategy had individual advantages, and therefore it may be crucial to employ different planning techniques for different disease classifications and OAR requirements.

BackgroundHypomethylating agents (HMAs), such as decitabine (DAC), are currently used as first-line therapy for patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) not eligible for standard chemotherapies. Exacerbation of thrombocytopenia is one of the prevalent complications after HMA treatment. Eltrombopag (EP), an oral thrombopoietin receptor agonist, can efficiently stimulate megakaryopoiesis and elevate platelet counts in MDS/AML patients. However, the significance of combining EP with HMAs in patients with high-risk MDS/AML has not been determined.PurposeTo explore the impacts and mechanisms of EP and/or DAC on leukemia cell growth and to explore whether EP exhibits antileukemic effects in the context of DAC treatment in human myeloid leukemia cell lines.MethodsIn our study, we assessed the anti-leukemic effect of EP in the context of DAC treatment by measuring cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell-cycle distribution, and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels.ResultsOur results showed that the combination of EP and DAC had a more obvious antiproliferative effect than that of DAC as a single agent. EP mainly induced S or G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest, and DAC arrested the cell cycle in the S or G2/M phase. The combination of EP and DAC had a synergistic effect on cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, single-agent treatment with EP or DAC induced a change in intracellular ROS levels, and the combination of EP and DAC had a synergistic effect on ROS levels, exacerbating leukemia cell death.ConclusionOur study provides in vitro evidence of the synergistic antileukemic effect and potential mechanisms of the combination of DAC and EP on myeloid leukemia cells.

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.

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 &lt; 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 &lt; .001. The willingness to have a pap smear test increased from 35.8% to 94.2% (df = 58.4%, P &lt; .001) after the educational intervention. The willingness to be vaccinated increased from 47.5% to 81.7% (df = 34.2%, P &lt; .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.

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.

Purpose: Chimeric Antigen Receptor T(CAR-T) cell therapy is an immunotherapy approach used in treating cancer which has seen rapid development over the decades. It becomes the preferred treatment choice after patients have failed conventional chemotherapy. Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis in 320 patients from 14 studies to estimate the survival outcome, response rate and toxicity of autologous CD19 CAR-T cell therapy and predict other factors associated with a better prognosis. Results: The overall response rate was 71.88% (95% CI: 61.34–80.46%, p <0.01) and CRS toxicity was 60.15% (95% CI: 42.87–75.22%, p <0.01). Patients who received lymphodepletion was associated with a better response rate (77%, 95%CI: 67–83%; p -value =0.001) in comparison to the other patients who did not (66%, 95%CI: 41–83%). Conclusion: Lymphodepletion regimen may play a crucial role in predicting the prognosis of patients with hematological malignancies. Lymphodepletion patients had better progression-free survival than those who did not.

Purpose: Recent studies have validated microRNAs (miRNAs) as a diagnostic biomarker for haematological cancers. This study aimed to estimate the overall diagnostic accuracy of circulating miRNAs in haematological malignancies. Materials and Methods: Multiple databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library,) were searched until 19 th August 2017. Results: The meta-analysis included 50 studies from 20 publications. The diagnostic accuracy was assessed by pooled specificity, sensitivity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the curve area (AUC) by random effect model. We used QUADAS (Quality Assessment for diagnostic accuracy studies) to evaluate the quality of the included studies. To perform the meta-analysis, we used Meta-Disk 1.4, Revman 5.3 and Stata 12.0 software. High diagnostic accuracy was demonstrated, with a sensitivity of 0.81, a specificity of 0.85, a PLR of 5.28, an NLR of 0.22, a DOR of 30.39, and an AUC of 0.91. Subgroup analyses showed better outcomes for the African population, combined miRNAs and leukaemia patients compared with other subgroups. Conclusion: Our results indicated that circulating miRNAs especially combined miRNA can be used as a diagnostic marker in haematological cancers.