Letter to the editor: Clothes Do Not Make the Man: Well-favored Figures are Game-changers in the Biomedical Publication

No abstract available.

Goiter Frequency Is More Strongly Associated with Gastric Adenocarcinoma than Urine Iodine Level

PURPOSE: We designed our study to evaluate the hypothesis that gastric cancer is correlated with iodine deficiency or thyroid dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We investigated the total body iodine reserve, thyroid function status and autoimmune disorder in 40 recently diagnosed gastric adenocarcinoma cases versus 80 healthy controls. The participants came from a region with high gastric cancer rate but sufficient iodine supply due to salt iodination. The investigation included urine iodine level, thyroid gland clinical and ultrasonographic examination, and thyroid function tests. RESULTS: Goiter was detected more frequently in the case group (P=0.001); such a finding, however, was not true for lower than normal urine iodine levels. The free T3 mean level was significantly lower in the case group compared to the control group (P=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: The higher prevalence of goiter rather than low levels of urinary iodine in gastric adenocarcinoma cases suggests that goiter, perhaps due to protracted but currently adjusted iodine deficiency, is more likely to be associated with gastric adenocarcinoma compared to the existing iodine deficiency itself.

relationship between survivin expression in thyroid follicular adenoma and carcinoma

Survivin is one of the eight members of the human inhibitors of apoptosis [IAP], which appears to be differentially expressed in cancer cells. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical usefulness of survivin immunostaining to distinguish between follicular adenoma and carcinoma of thyroid. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical research. The study population was tissue samples from surgery patients at Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran. All samples were studied through immunohistochemical staining for survivin. Survivin expression was significantly [p<0.005] higher in patients with follicular carcinoma diagnosis than those with adenoma. Odds ratio of follicular carcinoma for survivin expression was reported to be 21.375 [95% CI: 3.283-139.177]. The study indicated that survivin can play an effective role in distinguishing follicular thyroid adenoma from follicular thyroid carcinoma

Primary thyroid malignancies in Tehran, Iran

The aim of this study was to present a descriptive epidemiology of primary thyroid cancer in Tehran, Iran, using cancer registry data. All cases of thyroid cancer registered from 1998 to 2001 in Tehran Metropolitan Area Population-Based Cancer Registry were used for this study. The incidence of thyroid cancer was estimated for the area covered by the cancer registry. Survival of patients was ascertained by telephone call to the patients or the patient's family and/ or linkage of registry data to mortality data from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Patient's survival was based on sex, age and morphological type of tumour. Four hundred and twenty-nine cases of primary thyroid cancer were registered in the Tehran Metropolitan Area Cancer Registry. The incidence of thyroid cancer was 3.5 and 1.0 per 100,000 population per year for females and males, respectively. Seventy percent of tumours were papillary, 11% follicular, 6.2% medullary, and the restwere other subtypes. The papillary and follicular variants occurred in younger age: 43 +/- 16 and 46 +/- 13 years, respectively; the medullary and anaplastic variants occurred in older age: over 50 years. A 5-year survival rate was 82.2%, with median survival of 66 months and 95% confidence interval of 63 and 69 months. Men and women had a similar survival experience. While the incidence of thyroid cancer was slightly high, the descriptive epidemiology of thyroid cancer in Tehran did not manifest a unique feature. Tehran patients experienced a high rate of survival, and the survival time for males and females was similar