BackgroundDespite that hereditary diseases are widespread among the Arab population due to high rates of consanguineous marriages, research regarding community awareness towards premarital carrier screening in some countries such as Oman, is extremely scarce. This study aimed to investigate knowledge and attitude towards premarital carrier screening (PMCS) in Oman.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed to 400 Omani adults aged 20–35 who attended primary healthcare institutions at the South Batinah Governorate in Oman.ResultsThe majority of the participants (84.5%) believed that PMCS was necessary, and about half of them (49.5%) supported the view of making PMCS compulsory. On the contrary, approximately one third (30.5%) of the participants reported that they were not in favor of taking the blood screening test. Overall, unwillingness to perform pre-marital testing was associated with female gender, younger age, being single, less education, and increased income.ConclusionDespite the relatively high level of knowledge, about one third of the participants were still reluctant to carry out premarital testing. Such attitude calls for immediate need for community-based campaigns to encourage the public to do premarital testing.

Multiple myeloma is a rare, largely incurable malignant disease of plasma cells. Patients usually present with hypercalcemia, renal insufficiency, anemia and/or lytic bony lesions along with a monoclonal protein in the serum and/or urine in addition to an increase in the number of clonal plasma cells in the bone marrow. Patients with myeloma live on an average for five to seven years, with their survival dependent on the presence or absence of different prognostic markers. Treatment of younger fit patients is with induction therapy consisting of steroids with one or more novel anti-myeloma agents followed by high dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation, while older and less fit patients are treated with melphalan-based combination chemotherapy. Supportive care is of paramount importance and includes the use of bisphosphonates, prophylactic antibiotics, thrombosis prophylaxis and the use of hematopoietic growth factors along with the treatment of complications of disease and its therapy. As more progress is being made and deeper responses are being attained, the disease might turn into a potentially curable one in the near future.

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Renal side effects related to deferasirox appear to be higher than those reported in published clinical trials. Further larger studies are required to confirm these findings.

Our purpose was to assess efficacy and toxicity of highdose chemotherapy (HDCT) and ASCT in patients with relapsed and refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) aged 60 years and older and compare the results with a group of younger HL patients treated in a similar manner. We identified 15 consecutive patients, with HL aged 60 years and older who underwent HDCT (etoposide 60 mg/kg þ melphalan 160 mg/m 2 ) and ASCT at our institution from May 2001 to March 2008. The results were compared with a cohort of 157 younger HL patients treated in a similar manner from January 1999 to December 2006. After a median follow-up of 2.5 years, PFS at 3 years after ASCT was 73% (95% confidence interval (CI) 37-90) for the older group and 56% (95% CI 46-64) for the younger group (P ¼ 0.45); OS after ASCT was 88% (95% CI 39-98) for the older group and 84% (95% CI 75-90) for the younger group (P ¼ 0.80). No transplantrelated deaths were seen. Our study suggests that ASCT is feasible for selected elderly patients with HL, giving similar results to younger patients in terms of survival and toxicity.