In spite of a hundred year long history of scientific research compulsive buying has been a hardly known phenomenon until today. Ambiguous scientific information makes it impossible to classify compulsive buying as a separate mental disorder. Recently many researchers have noticed phenomenological compatibility of compulsive buying with behavioural addictions. Nowadays, there is reasonable grounds that compulsive buying disorder can be defined as an addiction. There are many similarities occurring between a consumer type behaviours in compulsive buyers and a pathologic consumption of psychoactive substances which included the obsessive need to consumer or a compulsion to consume, personal dependence and loss of control over self-behaviour, as well as tendencies to the consumption increase. Compulsive buying disorder differs in its course from the compulsive behaviours. A strong compulsion to make a given activity, often impossible to restrain is associated with overwhelming but acceptable desire to purchase a specific item. Due to the latest information about the described phenomenon, it has been decided to present current knowledge of adequate classifications, epidemiology and therapy of compulsive buyers. In the article authors' own standpoint as regards pathogenesis and potential risk factors was described.
ADAMs are a family of transmembrane proteins described for the first time in the 1990's. ADAMs is an abbreviation of "A Disintegrin and Metallo-proteinases". Their earliest known role was involvement in gamete fusion, and their adhesion properties in intercellular interactions also suggested involvement in tumor biology. Further research emphasized the importance of ADAM proteins in the regulation of neoplastic processes due to their influence on adhesion, cell migration, proteolysis and cell signaling. Variable ADAM expression in cancer and normal tissue was the basis for considering these proteins as diagnostic markers. Recent numerous studies have been published suggesting the prognostic value of this protein family members. The ADAMs transmembrane proteins regulate processes associated with carcinogenesis and neoplastic progression, including immune response evasion, growth induction and metastasis. Proteolysis and shedding of membrane proteins and binding integrins by ADAMs lead to the activation of numerous growth factors, changes in the extracellular matrix, adhesion proteins and angiogenesis. ADAMs potential as prognostic and diagnostic markers in cancer treatment is a particularly interesting issue and has great practical significance. There are many new studies concerning ADAMs' roles in carcinogenesis, but there are no recent reviews of the latest developments in this field. The aim of this systematic review is to analyze the results of studies published on ADAMs in the last 5 years, to present their roles in neoplasm pathogenesis and their potential utility in clinical oncology.
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