E-Cigarette Markets and Policy Responses in Southeast Asia: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: The global e-cigarette market has proliferated and is increasingly dominated by transnational tobacco companies. While Southeast Asian countries have received relatively little attention in e-cigarette research, the region represents an area of potentially untapped growth for the industry. We review the e-cigarette situation in Southeast Asia in terms of the e-cigarette markets, advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes, reported health impacts of e-cigarette use, and policy responses in the region. METHODS: We examined e-cigarette market data from the Euromonitor Global Market Information Database (GMID) Passport database, searched in the academic literature, grey literature and news archives for any reports or studies of e-cigarette related diseases or injuries, e-cigarette marketing, and e-cigarette policy responses in Southeast Asian countries, and browsed the websites of online e-cigarette retailers catering to the region's active e-cigarette markets. RESULTS: In 2019, e-cigarettes were sold in six Southeast Asian markets with a total market value of $595 million, projected to grow to $766 million by 2023. E-commerce is a significant and growing sales channel in the region, with most of the popular or featured brands in online shops originating from China. Southeast Asian youth are targeted with a wide variety of flavours, trendy designs and point of sale promotions, and several e-cigarette related injuries and diseases have been reported in the region. Policy responses vary considerably between countries, ranging from strict bans to no or partial regulations. CONCLUSION: Although Southeast Asia's e-cigarette market is relatively nascent, this is likely to change if transnationals invest more heavily in the region. Populous countries with weak e-cigarette regulations, notably Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines, are desirable targets for the transnationals. Regulatory action is needed to prevent e-cigarette use from becoming entrenched into these societies, especially among young people.

[Association between expressions of HSP70, HSP90 and efficacy of chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients with unresectable liver metastasis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between expressions of HSP70, HSP90 and efficacy of chemotherapy in colorectal cancer patients with unresectable liver metastasis. METHODS: Data of 52 colorectal cancer cases, whose primary colorectal focuses were resected but hepatic metastatic tumors were unresectable, were reviewed retrospectively. All the patients underwent FOLFOX4 regimen well. Immunohistochemistry assay was applied to determine the expressions of HSP70 and HSP90 in primary focus tissues. The number and size of hepatic metastatic tumors pre- and post-chemotherapy were compared by CT scanning. RESULTS: Partial remission(PR) rate was 33.3% in cases with up-regulated expression of HSP70, while 64.5% in cases with down-regulated expression of HSP70, whose difference was significant. PR rate was 50% in cases with up-regulated expression of HSP90, and 53.1% in the others with down-regulated expression of HSP90, whose difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: FOLFOX4 regimen has advantages in cases with lower HSP70 expression over those with higher HSP70 expression. HSP90 expression level is not associated with the efficacy of FOLFOX4 regimen.

[A Novel Method for Increasing the Number of Metaphase Cells Cultured in vitro.].

To increase the number of metaphase cells cultured in vitro, two bovine fibroblast cell lines (YFF and CNF) were frozen at 4 degrees for different length of time prior to colchicine treatment , and then chromosomal specimen were prepared. The percentage of metaphase cells was examined under conditions above. Using this method, the variation rate of karyotype of YFF and CNF subcultured up to passage 20 were also analyzed. It was found that the percentage of YFF and CNF metaphase cells in treatment group were significantly higher than that in control group (p0.05), and the number of YFF and CNF metaphase cells obtained in 20 h treatment group were increased more than 6 fold as many as that in control group (p0.01), 31.7% and 40.2% vs 4.7% and 6.4% ,respectively. These data suggest that the method of freezing at 4 degrees could be used for increasing the number of metaphase cells in vitro conveniently, and analyzing the variation rate of karyotype of cultured cells efficiently.