International journal of cancer. Journal international du cancer
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Reducing out-of-pocket costs is known to improve mammography attendance, but an evidence gap remains concerning Pap smear testing. The Japanese government implemented a politically determined intervention to remove out-of-pocket costs for Pap smear tests and mammography attendance, costing US$148 million, in 2009. It targeted women when they reached the first year of a 5-year age group (i.e., 20, 25, 30 years) with the aim of reducing attendance inequality. ⋯ The intervention increased inequality indicators in Pap smear attendance (more than +100%) but decreased inequality in mammography attendance (ranging from -12.9 to -74.1%) within the intervention group. In conclusion, removing out-of-pocket costs improves female cancer screening uptake in Japan but may not be cost-saving. Although cost removal reduces inequalities in attendance for mammography, it appears to increase inequalities in Pap smear attendance.
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Metadherin (MTDH) is involved in tumourigenesis and cancer progression in multiple human malignancies. However, the MTDH protein has rarely been reported in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). The expression pattern of the MTDH protein in 176 primary archival LSCC and 27 corresponding adjacent noncarcinoma specimens was detected by immunohistochemistry and further correlated with clinicopathological parameters. ⋯ Finally, multivariate analysis demonstrated that MTDH expression was an independent prognostic factor for both DFS and OS rates in patients with LSCC. Strong MTDH expression was negatively correlated with a canonical epithelial-mesenchymal transition molecule E-cadherin (p < 0.001) and positively associated with proangiogenic protein vascular endothelial growth factor (p < 0.001). MTDH overexpression was tightly associated with more aggressive tumour behaviour and a poor prognosis, indicating that MTDH is a valuable molecular biomarker for LSCC progression.
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Musculoskeletal pain has been linked with subsequent cancer. The objective was to investigate associations between pain sites and specific cancers, and investigate the hypothesis that musculoskeletal pain is an early marker, rather than cause, of cancer. This was a cohort study in the General Practice Research Database. ⋯ Previously observed links between pain and cancer reflect specific associations between pain sites and certain cancers. One explanation is liability for bony metastases from primary sites, and that pain represents a potential early marker of cancer. However, older patients with uncomplicated musculoskeletal pain seen in clinical practice have a low absolute excess cancer risk.
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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases are underreported in India. Our study was designed to investigate the etiological profile of HCC cases in India and compare with global incidence. The study included 348 HCC and 375 chronic liver disease cases without HCC as controls. ⋯ However, in comparison to the countries such as China and Taiwan (high Aflatoxin exposure), the aflatoxin level is relatively low in our patients. High HBV-DNA levels and HBV/D increased the risk of HCC. However, neither genotype nor virus loads of HCV affected prognosis of HCC patients in our study.