ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: Considering the importance of coverage and quality of data in Golestan population-based Cancer Registry [GPCR], northern Iran. This study was conducted to determine the effect of the referral of cancer patients to medical centers outside Golestan province on the coverage of the population-based cancer registry program
Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was performed on all cancer patients registered in the diagnostic centers of Golestan province, northern Iran during 2008-10. Data of patients referred to the centers of the province from the bank of the Golestan province cancer registry program and data of patients referred to the centers outside the province were received from the Ministry of Health Department of Cancer. Data were analyzed using the record linkage method
Results: A total of 6083 new cases of cancer were registered in Golestan province. According to the cancer data, 678 [11%] of them were referred to outside of Golestan province centers. 343 of these 678 patients [50.6%] were found as duplicate records between the two datasets. The most frequent cases were gastric cancers [70.4%], breast [63.5%] and esophagus [62.5%]
Conclusion: This study suggested that referrals of cancer patients to centers outside the Golestan province may result in an underestimation of about 5% in GPCR. This level of underestimation seems to have no considerable effects on completeness and quality of data in the GPCR
ABSTRACT
Objective: MicroRNAs [miRNAs] are a class of non-coding RNAs [ncRNAs] that tran-scriptionally or post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression through degradation of their mRNA targets and/or translational suppression. However, there are a few reports on miRNA-mediated expression regulation of long ncRNAs [lncRNAs]. We have previ-ously reported a significant upregulation of the lncRNA SOX2OT and its intronic coding gene, SOX2, in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma [ESCC] tissue samples. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of induced overexpression of miR-211 on SOX2OT and SOX2 expression in vitro
Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, we performed both bioinformatic and experimental analyses to examine whether these transcripts are regulated by miRNAs. From the list of potential candidate miRNAs, miR-211 was found to have complementary sequences to SOX2OT and SOX2 transcripts. To validate our finding experimentally, we transfected the NT-2 pluripotent cell line [an embryonal carcinoma stem cell] with an expression vector overexpressing miR-211. The expression changes of miR-211, SOX2OT, and SOX2 were then quantified by a real-time polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR] approach
Results: Compared with mock-transfected cells, overexpression of miR-211 caused a significant down-regulation of both genes [P<0.05]. Furthermore, flow-cytometry analysis revealed a significant elevation in sub-G1 cell population following ectopic expression of miR-211 in NT-2 cells
Conclusion: We report here, for the first time, the down-regulation of SOX2OT and SOX2 genes by an miRNA. Considering the vital role of SOX2OT and SOX2 genes in pluripotency and tumorigenesis, our data suggest an important and inhibitory role for miR-211 in the aforementioned processes