Spiritual Therapy in Coping with Cancer as a Complementary Medical Preventive Practice

There are many of methods of treating cancer. However, the concept of curing the cancer is beyond our current knowledge. Some patients who have the cancer may seek an alternative manner of curing their disease. Alternative medicines, such as spiritual and complementary therapy, are able to cure the cancer and, at the least, are safe. Research on the importance of spirituality in cancer care has mainly been performed in geographically heterogeneous populations. The results are limited to these specific religious-cultural contexts and enlightened by contributions from ethnicity and religion. This article focused on the religiousness and spiritual support of cancer patients from diverse and heterogeneous groups around the globe. An electronic search of peer-reviewed articles was systematically performed to obtain the relevant literature with the CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubMed databases. The keywords included religion, cancer, illness, psychotherapy, and spiritual and alternative treatment/therapies. The inclusion criteria for the reviews were that the documents were original quantitative research and published in English. Articles that were not directly relevant to the present objective were excluded. The present outcome of these review resources suggest that it may be helpful for clinicians to address spirituality, particularly with regard to prevention, healing, and survival of cancer patients. This article indicates that it may be useful for clinical oncologists to be informed of the prevalence of the use of spiritual medicine in their specialized field. In addition, patients should routinely be asked about the use of spiritual medicine as part of every cancer patient' evaluation.

Evaluation of sHLA-G levels in serum of patients with prostate cancer identify as a potential of tumor marker / 대한해부학회지

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer type in men and is the second cause of death, due to cancer, in patients over 50, after lung cancer. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a widely used tumor marker for prostate cancer. Recently, PSA is discovered in non-prostatic cancer tissues in men and women raising doubts about its specificity for prostatic tissues. PSA exists in low serum level in healthy men and in higher levels in many prostate disorders, including prostatitis and prostate cancer. Thus, a supplementary tumor marker is needed to accurately diagnose the cancer and to observe the patient after treatment. Recently, soluble human leukocyte antigen-G (sHLA-G) has been introduced as a new tumor marker for different cancer types, including colorectal, breast, lung, and ovary. The present descriptive-experimental study was carried out including patients with malignant prostate tumor, patients with benign prostate tumor, and a group of health men as the control group, as judged by an oncologist as well as a pathologist. After sterile blood sampling, sHLA-G was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in each group. The data was then analyzed using one-way ANOVA. P≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The results showed that the mean of sHLA-G level was high in patients. Also, it was found that there was a significant difference in sHLA serum level between the three groups. The data revealed that sHLA-G can be a novel supplementary tumor marker in addition to PSA to diagnose prostate cancer.

Erratum to: Evaluation of sHLA-G levels in serum of patients with prostate cancer identify as a potential of tumor marker / 대한해부학회지

No abstract available.

Chromosome structural alteration an unusual abnormality characterizing human neoplasia

Background and Aim: Ring chromosomes are rare cytogenetic abnormalities that occur in less than 10% of hematopoietic malignancies. They are rare in blood disorder. The present review has focused on the ring chromosome associated with oncology malignancies

Materials and Methods: By reviewing the web-based search for all English scientific peer review articles published, was initiated using Medline/PubMed, Mitelman database [http:/cgap.nci.nih.gov/Chromosomes/Mitelman], and other pertinent references on websites about ring chromosomes in Oncology. The software program as End Note was used to handle the proper references for instruction to author. Karyotype descriptions were cited according to ISCN

Conclusion: Ring chromosomes are rare chromosomal aberrations, almost many times are of de novo origin, presenting a different phenotype regarding the loss of genetic material. The karyotype represents the main analysis for detection of ring chromosomes, but other molecular technics are necessary for complete characterization. The information of this review article adds to the spectrum of both morphology and genetic rearrangements in the field of oncology malignancies

Expression of glycogen synthase kinase 3-beta [GSK3-beta] gene in azoospermic men

The Wnt/beta- The Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is involved in many developmental processes in both fetal and adult life; its abnormalities can lead to disorders including several types of cancers and malfunction of specific cells and tissues in both animals and humans. Its role in reproductive processes has been proven. This study was designed to evaluate the expression of the key regulator of this signaling pathway GSK3-beta and its presumed role in azoospermia. WNT3[a] protein concentration and GSK3-beta gene expression levels were measured and compared between two groups of infertile men. The test groups consisted of 10 patients with obstructive and 10 non-obstructive azoospermia. The control group was selected among healthy men after vasectomies that were willing to conceive a child using a testicular biopsy technique. Samples were obtained by testicular biopsy and screened for the most common mutations [84, 86 and 255] in the SRY region before analyzing. GSK3-beta gene expression was assessed quantitatively by real time-PCR. The WNT3[a] protein concentration had no significant difference between the two test groups and controls. Expression of GSK3-beta was down-regulated in non-obstructive azoospermia [3.10 +/- 0.19] compared with normal [7.12 +/- 0.39] and obstructive azoospermia [6.32 +/- 0.42] groups [p=0.001]. Down-regulation of GSK-3beta may cause to non-obstructive azoospermia. Regulation and modification of GSK-3beta gene expression by drugs could be used as a therapeutic solution

Mesenchymal stem cells as an alternative for schwann cells in rat spinal cord injury

Spinal cord has a limited capacity to repair; therefore, medical interventions are necessary for treatment of injuries. Transplantation of Schwann cells has shown a great promising result for spinal cord injury [SCI]. However, harvesting Schwann cell has been limited due to donor morbidity and limited expansion capacity. Furthermore, accessible sources such as bone marrow stem cells have drawn attentions to themselves. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of bone marrow-derived Schwann cell on functional recovery in adult rats after injury. Mesenchymal stem cells were cultured from adult rats' bone marrow and induced into Schwann cells in vitro. Differentiation was confirmed by immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR. Next, Schwann cells were seeded into collagen scaffolds and engrafted in 3 mm lateral hemisection defects. For 8 weeks, motor and sensory improvements were assessed by open field locomotor scale, narrow beam, and tail flick tests. Afterwards, lesioned spinal cord was evaluated by conventional histology and immunohistochemistry. In vitro observations showed that differentiated cells had Schwann cell morphology and markers. In this study, we had four groups [n = 10 each]: laminectomy, control, scaffold and scaffold + Schwann cells. Locomotor and sensory scores of cell grafted group were significantly better than control and scaffold groups. In histology, axonal regeneration and remyelination were better than control and scaffold groups. This study demonstrates that bone marrow-derived Schwann cells can be considered as a cell source for Schwann cells in SCI treatment

Increase in concentration of soluble HLA-G in high-quality embryos after intracytoplasmic sperm injection / 대한해부학회지

Non-invasive methods are normally preferred to conventional invasive methods when selecting suitable embryos to improve pregnancy rates after assisted reproduction techniques. One of the most recognized non-invasive methods is to examine the supernatants of embryo culture media. Soluble human leukocyte antigen, class I, G (sHLA-G) antigen is a non-classical class I molecule that has been widely considered as a marker of pregnancy failure or implantation success. In the current study of some Iranian patients, we examined the concentration of sHLA-G at different time points after intracytoplasmic sperm injection and compared the rates to the morphology and quality of the selected embryos. We showed that the concentration of sHLA-G increases over time in high-quality embryos. We conclude that there is a positive relationship between morphology, quality, and sHLA-G concentration. We suggest that this relationship can be used to increase the chance of a successful pregnancy.