On March 11th 2020, the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic by the WHO. One of the groups that is considered high risk in this pandemic are cancer patients as they are treated with a variety of immune system suppressor treatment modalities and this puts them in a great risk for infectious disease (including COVID-19). Therefore, cancer patients require higher level measures for preventing and treating infectious diseases. furthermore, cancer patients may bear additional risk due to the restriction of access to the routine diagnostic and therapeutic services during such epidemic. Since most of the attention of health systems is towards patients affected with COVID-19, the need for structured and unified approaches to COVID-19 prevention and care specific to cancer patients and cancer centers is felt more than ever. This article provides the recommendations and possible actions that should be considered by patients, their caregivers and families, physician, nurses, managers and staff of medical centers involved in cancer diagnosis and treatment. We pursued two major goals in our recommendations: first, limiting the exposure of cancer patients to medical environments and second, modifying the treatment modalities in a manner that reduces the probability of myelosuppression such as delaying elective diagnostic and therapeutic services, shortening the treatment course, or prolonging the interval between treatment courses.

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BackgroundBreast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Based on the latest Iranian national cancer department report, the total number of women registered with breast cancer was 6976 cases during 2007. Five year survival is one of the indicators used for evaluation of the quality for care to different types of malignancies including breast cancer.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to estimate survival rate of breast cancer in 6147 Iranian patients at a national level in different geographic regions.Materials and Methods6147 cases of breast cancer, which had telephone number and were diagnosed between 2001-2006, were called to obtain information about their life status. Survival estimates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and the survival probability was calculated for the overall cohort and in different categories of gender, age and pathologic type of tumor. Hazard ratios (HR) according to demographic and risk variables were calculated by Cox's proportional hazard model.ResultsThe overall 5-year survival rate was 71.0%. The mean survival time was different between men and women, which was statistically significant. The number of men involved with breast cancer was 172 (2.8%) of all cases. The 5-year survival rate for patients in age group 41-50 years was significantly higher than other age groups (P = 0.001). The likelihood of death was higher in patients with 61 years old or more years rather than those below forty years old (HR = 1.31; 95% CI: 1.12-1.55).ConclusionsThe findings of this study might help Iranian health managers: 1) to be more conscious about geographical and regional determinants which will affect overall survival rate. 2) To carry preventive activities such as public education particularly in Iranian men. 3) To think about screening and early detection of breast cancer.

Objective: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women worldwide. Several studies have examined the role of single nutrients and food groups in breast cancer pathogenesis but fewer investigations have addressed the role of dietary patterns. Our main objective was to identify the relationship between major dietary patterns and breast cancer risk among Iranian women. Design: Hospital-based case-control study. Setting: Shohada Teaching Hospital, Tehran, Iran. Subjects: Overall, 100 female patients aged 30-65 years with breast cancer and 174 female hospital controls were included in the present study. Dietary intake was assessed using a valid and reliable semi-quantitative FFQ consisting of 168 food items. Results: Two dietary patterns were identified explaining 24?31 % of dietary variation in the study population. The 'healthy' food pattern was characterized by the consumption of vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy products, legumes, olive and vegetable oils, fish, condiments, organ meat, poultry, pickles, soya and whole grains; while the 'unhealthy' food pattern was characterized by the consumption of soft drinks, sugars, tea and coffee, French fries and potato chips, salt, sweets and desserts, hydrogenated fats, nuts, industrial juice, refined grains, and red and processed meat. Compared with the lowest tertile, women in the highest tertile of the 'healthy' dietary pattern score had 75 % decreased risk of breast cancer (OR 5 0?25, 95 % CI 0?08, 0?78), whereas women in the highest tertile of the 'unhealthy' dietary pattern had a significantly increased breast cancer risk (OR 5 7?78, 95 % CI 2?31, 26?22). Conclusions: A healthy dietary pattern may be negatively associated with breast cancer risk, while an unhealthy dietary pattern is likely to increase the risk among Iranian women.

Ras gene mutation has been observed in more than 30% of cancers, and 90% of pancreatic, lung and colon cancers. Ras proteins (K-Ras, H-Ras, N-Ras) act as molecular switches which are activated by binding to GTP. They play a role in the cascade of cell process control (proliferation and cell division). In the inactive state, transforming GTP to GDP leads to the activation of GTpase in Ras gene. However, the mutation in Ras leads to the loss of internal GTPase activity and permanent activation of the protein. The activated Ras can promote the cell death or stop cell growth, which are facilitated by Ras-association domain family. Various studies have been conducted to determine the importance of losing RASSF proteins in Ras-induced tumors. This paper examines the role of Ras and RASSF proteins. In general, RASSF proteins can be used as a suitable means for targeting a large group of Ras-induced tumors.

The rate of lymphedema in our patients was 17.5%, ranging from 4 to 21% in different study centres. Time post surgery, treatment with radiotherapy and the technique used, and nodal radiation seem to be factors that are related to this large variation.

Hippo Tumor Suppressor Pathway is the main pathway for cell growth that regulates tissue enlargement and organ size by limiting cell growth. This pathway is activated in response to cell cycle arrest signals (cell polarity, transduction, and DNA damage) and limited by growth factors or mitogens associated with EGF and LPA. The major pathway consists of the central kinase of Ste20 MAPK ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ), Hpo ( Drosophila melanogaster ) or MST kinases (mammalian) that activates the mammalian AGC kinase dm Wts or LATS effector (MST and LATS). YAP in the nucleus work as a cofactor for a wide range of transcription factors involved in proliferation (TEA domain family, TEAD1-4), stem cells (Oct4 mononuclear factor and SMAD-related TGFβ effector), differentiation (RUNX1), and Cell cycle/apoptosis control (p53, p63, and p73 family members). This is due to the diverse roles of YAP and may limit tumor progression and establishment. TEAD also coordinates various signal transduction pathways such as Hippo, WNT, TGFβ and EGFR, and effects on lack of regulation of TEAD cancerous genes, such as KRAS, BRAF, LKB1, NF2 and MYC, which play essential roles in tumor progression, metastasis, cancer metabolism, immunity, and drug resistance. However, RAS signaling is a pivotal factor in the inactivation of Hippo, which controls EGFR-RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK-mediated interaction of Hippo signaling. Thus, the loss of the Hippo pathway may have significant consequences on the targets of RAS-RAF mutations in cancer.

This paper focuses on robust optimal adaptive control strategy to deal with tracking problem of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in presence of parametric uncertainties, actuator amplitude constraints, and unknown time-varying external disturbances. First, Lyapunov-based indirect adaptive controller optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) is developed for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear quadrotor to prevent input constraints violation, and then disturbance observer-based control (DOBC) technique is aggregated with the control system to attenuate the effects of disturbance generated by an exogenous system. The performance of synthesis control method is evaluated by a new performance index function in time-domain, and the stability analysis is carried out using Lyapunov theory. Finally, illustrative numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented approach in altitude and attitude tracking under several conditions, including large time-varying uncertainty, exogenous disturbance, and control input constraints.