ABSTRACT
Background: In recent years, high-throughput omics technologies have been widely used globally to identify potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets in various cancers. However, apart from large consortiums such as The Cancer Genome Atlas, limited attempts have been made to mine existing datasets pertaining to cancers. Methods and Results: In the current study, we used an omics data analysis approach wherein publicly available protein expression data were integrated to identify functionally important proteins that revealed consistent dysregulated expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Our analysis revealed members of the integrin family of proteins to be consistently altered in expression across disparate datasets. Additionally, through association evidence and network analysis, we also identified members of the laminin family to be significantly altered in head and neck cancers. Members of both integrin and laminin families are known to be involved in cell-extracellular matrix adhesion and have been implicated in tumor metastatic processes in several cancers. To this end, we carried out immunohistochemical analyses to validate the findings in a cohort (n = 50) of oral cancer cases. Laminin-111 expression (composed of LAMA1, LAMB1, and LAMC1) was found to correlate with cell differentiation in oral cancer, showing a gradual decrease from well differentiated to poorly differentiated cases. Conclusion: This study serves as a proof-of-principle for the mining of multiple omics datasets coupled with selection of functionally important group of molecules to provide novel insights into tumorigenesis and cancer progression.
ABSTRACT
Chest trauma in childhood is relatively uncommon in clinical practice, and has been the subject of few reports in the literature. This study was undertaken to examine our experience in dealing with chest trauma in children. Patients and This was a retrospective study of 74 children who sustained chest trauma, and were referred to King Fahad Hospital in Medina over a two-year period. The age, cause of injury, severity of injury, associated extrathoracic injuries, treatment and outcome were analyzed. The median age of the patients was nine years. Fifty-nine of them [80%] sustained blunt trauma, and 15 [20%] were victims of penetrating injuries. Road traffic accident was the cause of chest trauma in 62% of the children, gun shot wounds were seen in five, and stab wounds in 10 children. Head injury was the most common injury associated with thoracic trauma, and was seen in 14 patients [19%], and associated intraabdominal injuries were seen in nine patients. Chest x-ray of the blunt trauma patients revealed fractured ribs in 24 children, pneumothorax in six, hemothorax in four, hemopneumothorax in three, and pulmonary contusions in 22 patients. Fifty-one% of children were managed conservatively, 37% required tube thoracostomy, 8% were mechanically ventilated, and 4% underwent thoracotomy. The prevalence of chest trauma in children due to road traffic accidents is high in Saudi Arabia. Head injury is thought to be the most common associated extrathoracic injuries, however, most of these patients can be managed conservatively