Objective We compared demographic and clinic-pathological variables related to the number of surgeries for thyroid conditions or for cancer, morbidity, and fine needle aspiration (FNA) practices among Covid19 pandemic phases I, II, III and the same seasonal periods in 2019. Methods The prospective database of the Division of Thyroid Surgery, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China was used for this study. Covid19 emergency levels were stratified according to the World Health Organization: phase I (January 25–February 25, 2020), phase II (February 26–March 19), phase III (March 20–April 20). Results There were fewer outpatient FNAs and surgeries in 2020 than in 2019. There were no thyroid surgeries during phase I. There were also fewer surgeries for cancer with a significant reduction of advanced stage cancer treatments, mainly stage T1b N1a in phase II and T3bN1b in phase III. Operative times and postoperative stays were significantly shorter during the pandemic compared to our institutional baseline. In phase III, vocal cord paralysis (VCP) increased to 4.3% of our baseline numbers ( P = 0.001). There were no cases of Covid19-related complications during the perioperative period. No patients required re-admission to the hospital. Conclusion The Covid19 outbreak reduced thyroid surgery patient volumes. The decrease of Covid19 emergency plans contributed to unexpected outcomes (reduction of early stage cancer treatment, decreased operative times and hospital stays, increased VCP rate). Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s40618-020-01407-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Breast cancer is a serious health problem. Early detection is crucial for optimal treatment and reducing mortality. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate health beliefs concerning performance of breast self-examination (BSE) and mammography in a sample of Iranian female health workers. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed among 441 female health care workers (physicians=88, nurses=163, midwives=38, officers=68, and others=84) in 3 different health centers in Yazd, Iran. Data were collected using a self administered questionnaire which included demographic characteristics and thenPersian version of the Champion's Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS). Results: The mean age of the participants was 34.7±13.7. It was found that 41.9% of the workers performed BSE in the past and 14.9% of them regularly, but only 10.6% of them had undergone a mammogram. Perceived barriers to BSE (F=6.351, P=0.021) and mammography (F=5.214, p=0.022) were significantly higher in officers than physicians, nurses or midwives. Perceived barriers were lower among those who had performed BSE and mammography, but not significant (p=0.34 and p=0.56, respectively). Furthermore, perceived susceptibility and perceived benefits of the workers who had BSE and mammography were significantly higher than who did not (p<0.05). Perceived seriousness was not a significant variable in BSE and mammography (p=0.71 and p=0.43, respectively). Conclusions: The health beliefs of health workers concerning the perceived susceptibility of breast cancer and the perceived benefits BSE and mammography significantly impact their screening practices.

Background Patients with cancer might be at an increased risk of infection with COVID-19 and a more severe disease course. However, different tumor types have differing susceptibility to the infection and COVID-19 phenotypes. Thus, the risk and prevalence of COVID-19 is not uniform across the different tumor types. Here, we performed a meta-analysis to estimate the risk and prevalence of COVID-19 infection in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Methods A comprehensive literature search was performed up to July 25, 2020, thorough PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CNKI, CBM, China Science, Wan Fang, and SciELO databases. The risk of COVID-19 infection in CRC patients was performed based on the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Results A total of six studies with 204 different cancer patients with COVID-19 and 92 CRC infected patients with COVID-19 were selected. Our results showed that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in CRC patients was 45.1% in the global population. The pooled data showed that there is no a significant risk of infection with COVID-19 in CRC patients in the global population (OR = 0.261, 95% CI 0.099-0.533, p = 0.082). However, when subgroup analysis was performed based on country of origin, we found a significant correlation in Chinese CRC patients (OR = 0.221, 95% CI 0.146-0.319, p ≤ 0.001). Conclusions This study results revealed that Chinese CRC patients harbored a higher risk of COVID-19 infection. However, more multicenter, larger sample sizes and high-quality studies are required to verify this meta-analysis result.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:The reconstruction of aneurysm geometry is a main factor affecting the accuracy of hemodynamics simulations in patient-specific aneurysms. We analyzed the effects of the inlet artery length on intra-aneurysmal flow estimations by using 10 ophthalmic aneurysm models.

In cases for which paraffin-embedded blocks were available, the specimens were evaluated by two independent pathologists blinded to the primary diagnosis. We extrapolated the frequency of malignant lesions in our study to the population of Yazd province, derived from national census data, to generate cancer incidence rates. Results: Final diagnosis of malignancy was made in 117 cases (66.1%), and the remainder (60 lesions, 33.9%) were classified as benign. Adenecarcinoma and neuroendocrine tumors were the two most common histological types of malignancy identified in 88 (75.2%) and 11 (9.4%) specimens, respectively. Crude annual incidence of pancreatic cancer was 0.55 per 100,000 person in 2001 and increased to 1.68 in 2011. Age standardized incidence rates in 2001 and 2011 were 0.75 and 2.68, respectively. A significant increasing trend in cancer incidence was observed during the 11 years of the study period (r=+0.856, p=0.009). Sex-stratified analysis, confirmed the observed trend in men (r=+0.728, p=0.034), but not women (r=+0.635, p=0.083). Conclusions: Over the past decade, incidence of pancreas malignancies has risen steadily in Yazd, Iran. Nevertheless, these figures are still substantially lower than those prevalent in developed nations.

The results of this study showed that the efficacy of Breastlight in detection of breast changes as domestic apparatus was appropriate. However, it is recommended further studies to evaluate the Breastlight efficacy and accuracy in detection of the BLs.

Background: Accurate measurement of breast mass size is fundamental for treatment planning. We evaluated performance of BreastLight apparatus in detection breast of masses with this in mind. Materials and Methods: From July 2011 to September 2013, a total of 500 women referred to mammography unit in Yazd, Iran for screening were recruited to this study. Performance of BreastLight in detection breast masses regard their sizeing, measured with clinical breast examination (CBE), mammography and sonography, was assessed. Sonographic and mammography examinations were performed according to breast density among women in two groups of women younger (n=105) and older (n=395) than 30 years. Size correlations were performed using Spearman rho analysis. Differences between mass size as assessed with the different methods (mammography, sonography, and clinical examination) and the BreastLight detection were analyzed using Χ 2 -trend test. Results: Performance of the BreastLight in detection of lesions smaller than or equal to 1 cm assessed by CBE, mammography and sonography was 4.4%,7.7% and 12.5% and for masses larger than 4 cm was 65%, 100% and 57.1%, respectively. The performance of BreastLight in detection was significantly increased with larger masses (p<0.001). Conclusions: We conclude that clinical measurement of breast cancer size is as accurate as that from mammography or ultrasound. Accuracy can be improved by the use of a simple formula of both clinical and mammographic measurements.

Background:A number of case-control studies were conducted to investigate the association of angiotensin converting enzyme insertion/deletion (ACE I/D) polymorphism with breast cancer. But the results remain controversial. This meta-analysis aims to comprehensively evaluate the association of ACE I/D polymorphism with breast cancer.Method:A comprehensive literature search on PubMed, Google Scholar, SCOPUS and ISI Web of Knowledge databases for studies published up to June 01, 2018 was performed. Summary odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated. Publication bias of literatures was evaluated using funnel plots and Egger’s test.Results:A total of 20 studies including 2846 breast cancer cases 9299 controls meeting the predefined criteria were involved in the meta-analysis. Overall, the ACE I/D polymorphisms was significantly associated with breast cancer under the allele model (I vs. D: OR= 0.803, 95% CI 0.647-0.996, p=0.046), the homozygote model (II vs. DD: OR= 0.662, 95% CI 0.462-0.947, p=0.024), the heterozygote model (ID vs. DD: OR= 0.707, 95% CI 0.528-0.946, p=0.020), the dominant model (II+ID vs. DD: OR= 0.691, 95% CI 0.507-0.941, p=0.019). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, a significant association was found among Asian and Caucasian populations, but not among mixed populations.Conclusions:This meta-analysis suggests that ACE I/D polymorphism may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer, especially among Asian and Caucasians. However, well-designed studies with larger sample size and more ethnic groups are needed to further validate the results.