Saudi Med J
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To determine the histopathological pattern of lung cancers in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. ⋯ This retrospective histopathology-based study was conducted at the Department of Pathology, King Fahad Hospital, Madinah, Saudi Arabia and comprised cases of lung cancers for 11 years between January 2006 and December 2017. The data was obtained from histopathologic reports and evaluated for age, gender, site of tumor, and histopathological patterns with grade. Results: A total of 138 patients with lung cancers were identified, 103 (74.6%) patients were males and 35 (25.4%) patients were females with a male to female ratio of 2.9:1. The ages ranged from 6 to 97 years with a mean age of 60.6 ± 14.7 years. Adenocarcinoma (AC) was the most common pathological type (47.8%), followed by squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (25.3%), neuroendocrine tumor (8.7%) and metastatic carcinoma (8%). Both ACs and SCCs showed a male predominance with a ratio of 2.9:1 (male) and 4.8:1 (female). The majority of ACs (56.5%) and SCCs (65.7%) were moderately differentiated. Conclusion: The study established a baseline of lung cancer pattern on the basis of histopathological experience in a tertiary referral hospital in Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia. The results obtained showed similarities with that in the world literature and Saudi national studies.
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To develop and establish research guidelines of international standards that matches appropriate cross-cultural and religious considerations of the region. ⋯ Research guidelines of international standards were developed with respect to the cultural, traditional, and religious considerations of the Kingdom, providing a valuable framework to guide our institutional researchers to conduct ethically sound inquiry.
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To determine the prevalence of sarcopenia and related factors in individuals aged ≥65 years living in the Bornova district of Izmir, Turkey. Sarcopenia is one of the most serious health problems among elderly individuals. ⋯ The participants' mean age was 72.8±6.2 (range: 65-100) years, and 60.2% were female (n=582). The prevalence of sarcopenia was 5.2% and that of low gait speed was 41.0%, low grip strength was 57.0%, low calf circumference was 6.1% and the combination of low gait speed and low grip strength was 14.3%. Risk factors of sarcopenia included increasing age, physical inactivity, low body mass index and the presence or risk of malnutritionConclusion: The prevalence of sarcopenia was 5.2% in this population and increased with age, physical inactivity, low body mass index and the presence or risk of malnutrition.
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To assess whether the utility of cervical cancer screening could be improved by combining multiple factors in addition to the pap test. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 300 symptomatic women who were suspected to have cervical cancer and referred for biopsy examination at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between February 2017 and December 2017. Results: A high risk of cervical cancer in Saudi women was associated with 4 risk factors: family history (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 4.216; 95% confidence intervals [CI], 1.433-12.400), vaginal bleeding (aOR, 3.959; 95% CI, 1.272-12.318), hypertension (aOR, 4.554; 95% CI, 1.606-12.912), and an abnormal pap smear test (aOR, 13.985; 95% CI, 5.108-38.284). The model yields an adequate utility (area under the curve, 87.5%, 95% CI, 80.9-94.0%) with acceptable goodness-of-fit (p=0.6915). Conclusion: The pap smear test alone is inadequate to assess high risk for cervical cancer in our center. Early detection of cervical cancer may require consideration of a combination of factors including the pap test. This study has shown that using a combination of abnormal family history, vaginal bleeding, hypertension, and the pap smear test improved the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening.
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To use independent transcriptomics data sets of cancer patients with prognostic information from public repositories to validate the relevance of our previously described chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)-related proteins at the level of transcription (mRNA) to the prognosis of CLL. Methods: This is a validation study that was conducted at Majmaah University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January-2017 and July-2018. Two independent data sets of CLL transcriptomics from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) with time-to-first treatment (TTFT) data (GSE39671; 130 patients) and information about overall survival (OS) (GSE22762; 107 patients) were used for the validation analyses. To further investigate the relatedness of a transcript of interest to other neoplasms, 6 independent data sets of cancer transcriptomics with prognostic information (1865 patients) from the cancer genomics atlas (TCGA) were used. ⋯ Of these transcripts, 8 were different types of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (HNRNPs); and 2 (HNRNPUL2 and HIST1C1H) retained prognostic significance in the 2 independent data sets. Furthermore, genes that enriched CLL-related pathways (p≤0.05; false discovery rate [FDR] ≤0.05) were found to correlate with the expression of HNRNPUL2 (Pearson score: ≥0.50; p lessthan 0.00001). Finally, increased expression of HNRNPUL2 was indicative of poor prognosis of various types of cancer other than CLL (p less than 0.05). Conclusion: The cognate transcripts of 14 of our CLL-related proteins significantly predicted CLL prognosis.