ABSTRACT
Background: Breast cancer plays major public health in Egyptian women. In upper Egypt, There is an increase in the incidence of breast cancer compared to other Egyptian areas without know the reasons. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of HER-2/neu status as one of the important markers to classify the women suffering from breast cancer in upper Egypt and monitoring the responsiveness to different therapies. Settings and Design: The present study was performed on 67 female breast cancer patients in the South Egypt Cancer Institute to evaluate HER-2/neu gene amplification and expression. Patients and Methods: Tissue samples were used for immunohistological analysis of endocrine receptors, HER-2/neu, and HER-2/neu gene amplification. In addition, the blood samples were also used to determine HER-2/neu gene expression. Statistical Analysis: All statistical analyses were performed using Chi-square test. The statistical difference is considered statistically significant at P < 0.05. Results: There was a statistically significant association between HER-2/neu gene expression and the age of patients. There is decrease in the level of HER-2/neu mRNA expression in group treated with chemotherapy and group treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy compared to each group baseline level of HER-2/neu mRNA expression before treatment. On the contrary, the group treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormonal therapy revealed increase on the level of HER-2/neu mRNA expression when compared with their baseline for the same patients before treatment. Conclusion: We need further studies on the large group of upper Egypt breast cancer patients to confirm that the level of HER-2/neu mRNA expression can be used as a marker for classified them and their response to different treatment
ABSTRACT
Mental retardation is present in about 1-3% of individuals in the general population, but it can be explained in about half of the cases. A descriptive study was carried out to screen for subtle chromosomal rearrangements in a group of Egyptian children with idiopathic mental retardation [IMR] to estimate its frequency if detected. The study enrolled 30 patients with IMR, with the perquisite criteria of being <18 years at referral, their IQ <70, and manifesting at least one of the criteria for selection of patients with subtelomeric abnormalities. Males were 63.3% and females were 36.7%, with a mean age of 7.08 +/- 4.22 years. Full history taking, thorough clinical examination, IQ, visual, and audiological assessment, brain CT scan, plasma aminogram, pelvi-abdominal ultrasonography, echocardiography, and cytogenetic evaluation using routine conventional karyotyping, high resolution banding [HRB], and fluorescent in situ hybridization [FISH] technique with appropriate probes were carried out for all studied patients. All enrolled patients had apparently normal karyotypes within 450 bands resolution, except for one patient who had 46, XY, [del [18] [p11.2]]. HRB and FISH showed subtle chromosomal rearrangement in 10% of cases that have been proven to be subtelomeric in 2 cases, i.e., 6.8%: 46, XY, dup [17] [p13.3], 46, XY, del [2] [q36.1-36.3], and non-subtelomeric in one case, 5.5%, 46, XX, ins [7;?] [q22;?]. To conclude, in children with IMR and clinical phenotype indicative of a suspected chromosomal anomaly, once recognizable syndromes have been excluded, abnormalities that include the ends of chromosomes must be searched for using HRB and subtelomeric FISH even when conventional karyotyping fails to demonstrate any abnormality