The blue-green microalgae Spirulina, used in daily diets of natives in Africa and America, have been found to be a rich natural source of proteins, carotenoids, and other micronutrients. Experimental studies in animal models have demonstrated an inhibitory effect of Spirulina algae on oral carcinogenesis. Studies among preschool children in India have demonstrated Spirulina fusiformis (SF) to be an effective source of dietary vitamin A. We evaluated the chemopreventive activity of SF (1 g/day for 12 mos) in reversing oral leukoplakia in pan tobacco chewers in Kerala, India. Complete regression of lesions was observed in 20 of 44 (45%) evaluable subjects supplemented with SF, as opposed to 3 of 43 (7%) in the placebo arm (p < 0.0001). When stratified by type of leukoplakia, the response was more pronounced in homogeneous lesions: complete regression was seen in 16 of 28 (57%) subjects with homogeneous leukoplakia, 2 of 8 with erythroplakia, 2 of 4 with verrucous leukoplakia, and 0 of 4 with ulcerated and nodular lesions. Within one year of discontinuing supplements, 9 of 20 (45%) complete responders with SF developed recurrent lesions. Supplementation with SF did not result in increased serum concentration of retinol or beta-carotene, nor was it associated with toxicity. This is the first human study evaluating the chemopreventive potential of SF. More studies in different settings and different populations are needed for further evaluation.

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Summary Visual inspection of the uterine cervix by paramedical personnel has been proposed for the early detection of cervical cancer, as an alternative to routine cytology screening in developing countries. We evaluated the performance of this procedure in detecting precursor lesions and cancer in a study involving 2843 married women in Kerala, India. Two thresholds were used to define a positive test. In the lower one, any abnormality was considered as positive. The cut-off point for the high threshold was one or more of the high-risk findings: bleeding on touch, suspicious growth/ulcer and hard, irregular, oedematous cervix. A Pap smear was performed on all subjects, and a biopsy was done for those with moderate dysplasia and above. A combination of cytology and histology findings was used as the 'gold standard'. Using the low threshold, 1279 (45%) women were positive on visual inspection, and with the higher threshold 179 (6.3%) were positive. There were six moderate dysplasias, nine severe dysplasias, ten carcinomas in situ and 13 invasive carcinomas. With the lower threshold, sensitivity and specificity to detect moderate dysplasia and above were 65.8% and 55.3% respectively; the values for severe dysplasia and above were 71.9% and 55.3% respectively and for invasive cancer were 92.3% and 55.2% respectively. With the higher threshold, the sensitivity decreased considerably (28.9% to detect moderate dysplasia lesions, 31.3% for severe dysplasia and 53.8% for clinical cancer) and the specificity increased to approximately 94%. At a lower threshold, the sensitivity was not satisfactory, and the test was highly non-specific; at a higher threshold sensitivity was even lower. Thus, the test characteristics of visual inspection are not very promising either as a preselection procedure for cytology or as a low-technology measure for cervical cancer screening in developing countries.Keywords: cervical cancer; screening; visual inspection; developing countriesThe success of screening for cancer depends on the performance of the screening test (test validity), the programme validity and the adequacy of health services. The purpose of the screening test is to distinguish subjects who probably have a disease from those who probably do not. The screening test itself is not expected to be diagnostic; the positive findings need to be evaluated by further diagnostic procedures (Wilson and Jungner, 1968). Before using a screening test in an intervention trial or a programme, adequate information on its validity is necessary.Visual inspection of the uterine cervix by nurses and other paramedical health workers has been proposed for the early detection of cervical cancer, as an alternative to routine Pap smear screening, in the context of approaches to cervical cancer control in developing countries (Miller, 1992). This active attempt to detect disease in an early stage is based on the assumption that organized cervical cytology screening programmes are not feasible in many developing countries because of labour and resource ...

Epidemiological and clinicopathological features of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated gastric carcinoma was compared in India and Japan, two countries differing markedly in gastric cancer incidence. Using in situ hybridization assay, the presence of EBV-encoded small RNA (EBER) was examined in 215, and 2,011 gastric cancer cases in Kerala, India, and Japan, respectively. Ten cases (5%), all males, in the Indian series were EBER-positive. This frequency was similar to that in the Japanese series (6.2%). As was the case with Japanese series, the EBV-associated gastric carcinoma in the Indian series was observed most frequently in the middle part of the stomach (1 in antrum, 4 in middle part, 2 in cardia, and 3 unknown), and, histologically, the diffuse type Lauren's classification (8 cases) was more common than the intestinal type (2 cases). Virus subtyping by PCR-RFLP revealed that all of the 10 EBV strains isolated from the EBER-positive Indian cases were subtype A, and wild-type F for Bam HI F region. In Bam HI I region, 8 cases were type C and the remaining 2 cases were type D. In either series, there was no significant difference in the frequency of tumors with p53 overexpression between EBER-positive and -negative cases. However, the proportion of cells with p53 overexpression in EBER-negative tumors was significantly higher than that in EBER-positive tumors regardless of histological type in both series. In conclusion, the frequency and major clinicopathological features of EBV-associated gastric carcinoma in south India were similar to those observed in Japanese series although gastric cancer incidence in these two countries differs markedly.