Genomic Profiling of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia: Basic and Clinical Approach

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a hematological stem cell cancer driven by BCR-ABL1 fusion protein. We review the previous and recent evidence on the significance of CML in diagnostic and clinic management. The technical monitoring of BCR-ABL1 with quantitative real time-PCR has been used in assessing patient outcome. The cytogenetic mark of CML is Philadelphia chromosome, that is formed by reciprocal chromosomal translocations between human chromosome 9 and 22, t(9:22) (q³⁴:q¹¹). It makes a BCR-ABL1 fusion protein with an anomaly tyrosine kinase activity that promotes the characteristic proliferation of progenitor cells in CML and acute lymphoblastic lymphoma. The targeting of BCR-ABL1 fusion kinase is the first novel paradigm of molecularly targeted curing.

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.

Consequences of delayed diagnosis in treatment of retinoblastoma

One of the primary factors in managing patients with retinoblastoma is early diagnosis. The main idea of this study was to recognize the consequences of delay in diagnosis on therapy of the disease. A retrospective review of all children with proven retinoblastoma, who had presented to MAHAK hospital in Tehran, from April 2007 to Dec 2011, was performed. Grouping of intraocular tumors was applied as A to E according to International Classification of Retinoblastoma. There were 157 [91 boys] children eligible for study. The mean age was 1.21 +/- 0.11 years with average delay in diagnosis of 3.4 +/- 0.53 months. Classification of D group in both unilateral [93 patients] and bilateral tumors was the largest category. A significant relation [P=0.05] between delayed diagnosis time and tumor grouping was evident. The most frequent symptoms were leukocoria and strabismus. Age was significantly lower in the subgroup of bilateral tumors than in unilateral retinoblastomas [0.6 +/- 0.12 year vs 1.6 +/- 0.15 years]. The diagnosis was delayed in subgroup of extra ocular retinoblastoma more than in intraocular tumors [8.7 +/- 2.9 months vs 2.9 +/- 0.52 months]. The authors recommend early referring of suspected cases to ophthalmologists and pediatric oncologists and to organize educational programs to publisize signs and symptoms of the disease such as leukocoria, strabismus and ocular inflammatory disorders through national media. In conclusion, early diagnosis of retinoblastoma can be the primary factor in managing the patients as the delay in diagnosis accounts for highly advanced disease and poor prognosis