Moderators of the Effects of mySmartSkin, a Web-Based Intervention to Promote Skin Self-examination and Sun Protection Among Individuals Diagnosed With Melanoma

Background Identifying the characteristics of persons who benefit more from behavioral interventions can help health care providers decide which individuals should be offered particular interventions because this is the subgroup of persons who are more likely to derive greater benefit from the intervention and refine the underlying constructs of the model guiding the intervention. Purpose This study evaluated possible demographic, medical, knowledge and attitudinal, and psychosocial variables that may moderate the impact of an online intervention, called mySmartSkin (MSS), on engagement in skin self-examination (SSE) and sun protection behaviors among melanoma survivors. Methods Participants completed a baseline survey and were then randomized to the MSS condition or usual care. Follow-up surveys were completed by participants at 8-, 24-, and 48-week postrandomization. Results A greater impact of MSS on SSE was illustrated among participants with more phenotypic skin cancer risk factors and participants reporting lower baseline self-efficacy in conducting SSE. A more favorable response of MSS on sun protection behaviors was shown when initial knowledge about abnormal lesions and sun protection barriers were high. Greater use of MSS and more favorable evaluations of it were also associated with higher intervention response. Conclusions Future studies seeking to improve SSE and sun protection among melanoma survivors might benefit from focusing on survivors who report more skin cancer risk factors, lower self-efficacy in conducting SSE, less knowledge about what abnormal skin lesions look like, more perceived barriers to sun protection behaviors, and less worry about recurrence and cancer-related distress.

The Other Side of the Coin: May Androgens Have a Role in Breast Cancer Risk?

Breast cancer prevention is a major challenge worldwide. During the last few years, efforts have been made to identify molecular breast tissue factors that could be linked to an increased risk of developing the disease in healthy women. In this concern, steroid hormones and their receptors are key players since they are deeply involved in the growth, development and lifetime changes of the mammary gland and play a crucial role in breast cancer development and progression. In particular, androgens, by binding their own receptor, seem to exert a dichotomous effect, as they reduce cell proliferation in estrogen receptor α positive (ERα+) breast cancers while promoting tumour growth in the ERα negative ones. Despite this intricate role in cancer, very little is known about the impact of androgen receptor (AR)-mediated signalling on normal breast tissue and its correlation to breast cancer risk factors. Through an accurate collection of experimental and epidemiological studies, this review aims to elucidate whether androgens might influence the susceptibility for breast cancer. Moreover, the possibility to exploit the AR as a useful marker to predict the disease will be also evaluated.

Influence of breast cancer risk factors on proliferation and DNA damage in human breast glandular tissues: role of intracellular estrogen levels, oxidative stress and estrogen biotransformation

Breast cancer etiology is associated with both proliferation and DNA damage induced by estrogens. Breast cancer risk factors (BCRF) such as body mass index (BMI), smoking, and intake of estrogen-active drugs were recently shown to influence intratissue estrogen levels. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of BCRF on estrogen-induced proliferation and DNA damage in 41 well-characterized breast glandular tissues derived from women without breast cancer. Influence of intramammary estrogen levels and BCRF on estrogen receptor (ESR) activation, ESR-related proliferation (indicated by levels of marker transcripts), oxidative stress (indicated by levels of GCLC transcript and oxidative derivatives of cholesterol), and levels of transcripts encoding enzymes involved in estrogen biotransformation was identified by multiple linear regression models. Metabolic fluxes to adducts of estrogens with DNA (E-DNA) were assessed by a metabolic network model (MNM) which was validated by comparison of calculated fluxes with data on methoxylated and glucuronidated estrogens determined by GC– and UHPLC–MS/MS. Intratissue estrogen levels significantly influenced ESR activation and fluxes to E-DNA within the MNM. Likewise, all BCRF directly and/or indirectly influenced ESR activation, proliferation, and key flux constraints influencing E-DNA (i.e., levels of estrogens, CYP1B1, SULT1A1, SULT1A2, and GSTP1). However, no unambiguous total effect of BCRF on proliferation became apparent. Furthermore, BMI was the only BCRF to indeed influence fluxes to E-DNA (via congruent adverse influence on levels of estrogens, CYP1B1 and SULT1A2).

The use of digital technologies in the diagnosis of tumor diseases at the pre-medical stage

Aim. To improve the effectiveness of tumors and risk factors detection in reducing time costs at the pre-medical stage using a robotic complex. Methods. To achieve this goal, the previously created robotic complex with a program for self-questioning, taking into account gender, has been improved. A portable USB microscope was built into the complexs housing to transmit images of pathological changes of visible localizations to the touch screen. The survey and examinations were conducted by clinical residents and students of the case-control type in 1638 patients at the Novgorod Regional Clinical Oncological Dispensary (in 20192021) as part of the Doors Open Days. The average age of patients was 54.68.9 years, including 703 men and 935 women. Descriptive statistics methods of Statistica 6.0 software were used. Qualitative characteristics showed as absolute number and the relative value in percentage (%). The differences were considered statistically significant at p 0.05. Results. The use of the complex allowed us to suspect cancer risk factors in 9.031.3% patients, of which 31.081.8%, or 2.82.1% (p=0.017) of the total patients with the further examination was able to confirm oncology-related findings. Patients complained of discomfort in the stomach (59 people) underwent a breath test built into the program of the complex, according to the results of which helicobacteriosis was detected in 29 patients. In 17 patients with fibrogastroscopy, intestinal metaplasia was subsequently established, in 4 gastric ulcers, 3 of which had malignancy. Conclusion. The use of a robotic complex-2 saves the time of a doctor of a lean polyclinic and improves the effectiveness of identifying cancer risk factors and early-stage cancer.

Development and validation of polygenic risk scores for prediction of breast cancer and breast cancer subtypes in Chinese women

Background Studies investigating breast cancer polygenic risk score (PRS) in Chinese women are scarce. The objectives of this study were to develop and validate PRSs that could be used to stratify risk for overall and subtype-specific breast cancer in Chinese women, and to evaluate the performance of a newly proposed Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based approach for PRS construction. Methods The PRSs were constructed using the a GWAS dataset and validated in an independent case-control study. Three approaches, including repeated logistic regression (RLR), logistic ridge regression (LRR) and ANN based approach, were used to build the PRSs for overall and subtype-specific breast cancer based on 24 selected single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Predictive performance and calibration of the PRSs were evaluated unadjusted and adjusted for Gail-2 model 5-year risk or classical breast cancer risk factors. Results The primary PRSANN and PRSLRR both showed good predictive ability for overall breast cancer (IQ-OR 1.76 vs 1.58; AUC 0.601 vs 0.598) and remained to be predictive after adjustment. Although estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast cancer was poorly predicted by the primary PRSs, the ER- PRSs trained solely on ER- breast cancer cases saw a substantial improvement in predictions of ER- breast cancer. Conclusions The SNP-24 based PRSs can provide additional risk information to help breast cancer risk stratification in the general population of China. The newly proposed ANN approach for PRS construction has potential to replace the traditional approaches, but more studies are needed to validate and investigate its performance.

Role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in diagnosing Pancreatic lesions in a tertiary care institution

OBJECTIVE- FNAC is an accurate and rapid technique for diagnosing pancreatic masses. Pancreatic carcinoma represents the seventh leading cause of cancer death in the world, responsible for more than 300,000 deaths per year.[1] Worldwide, both the incidence and death rates of pancreatic cancer are increasing. The aim of this study was early diagnosis of these lesions and to evaluate its burden and study the global, regional, and national patterns. These would further aid in policy making , better resource allocation for controlling pancreatic cancer risk factors and formulating more effective treatments.[2] METHODS- This was a retrospective observational study performed at a tertiary care hospital over a period of one and a half year. A total of 86 patients with pancreatic lesions were subjected to image guided FNA . 35 of these patients underwent diagnostic histopathology in addition to FNA. RESULTS- The 86 cases analyzed were in the age group of 61-70 years with mean age distribution of 57.34 years. Male predominance was seen with M:F ratio of 2.18:1. Head was the most common area to be aspirated followed by tail and least number of lesions were in body of pancreas. Maximum cases were found to be malignant (55) in etiology. Only 2 were non diagnostic because one of them had insufficient cellularity and other had necrosis mainly on histopathology. Adenocarcinoma was the most common malignancy found followed by one case each of lymphoma and solid pseudo papillary neoplasm of pancreas. Histo pathological correlation was obtained in 91.42% cases proving that FNA is a very useful tool in early diagnosing pancreatic lesions.