Populations in Southern China (Bai-yue) and Borneo (Bidayuh) with high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer(NPC) share similar mitochondrial DNA signatures, supporting the hypothesis that these two populations may share the same genetic predisposition for NPC, which may have first appeared in a common ancestral reference population before the sea levels rose after the last ice age.
Borneo ; epidemiology ; Carcinoma ; China ; epidemiology ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; genetics ; Ethnic Groups ; genetics ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Incidence ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics

INTRODUCTIONHealth-related quality of life is an important aspect of health outcome. The assessment of it must be done by validated instruments. There is no published data on the validity, reliability and sensitiveness to change of the official Chinese translation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (version 4; FACT-G).

MATERIALS AND METHODSA Chinese questionnaire package comprising the FACT-G and Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC, which was translated, modified and validated in Singapore) was filled in by 165 ethnic Chinese patients recruited from the National Cancer Centre, Singapore. Four weeks later, the patients were assessed again by a postal questionnaire survey.

RESULTSThe FACT-G and FLIC total scores were strongly correlated (r = 0.85). The Physical, Social/Family, Emotional and Functional Well-being scales of the FACT-G converged to and diverged from FLIC components as conceptually expected. The FACT-G and its 4 scales also demonstrated known-groups validity in differentiating patients with different performance status (each P <0.001). Their internal consistency ranged from 0.81 to 0.93 and test-retest reliability ranged from 0.74 to 0.85. The FACT-G and its Physical, Emotional and Functional Well-being scales showed trends of change in relation to change in performance status. The Social/Family Well-being scale was sensitive to decline but not improvement in performance status.

CONCLUSIONSThe Chinese version of the FACT-G can be used to assess overall level and some specific aspects of health-related quality of life. However, researchers should be cautious in using this instrument to specifically investigate the social aspect of quality of life.

China ; ethnology ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms ; therapy ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) ; Quality of Life ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Singapore ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant ; Clinical Trials as Topic ; Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; mortality ; radiotherapy ; therapy ; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated ; Research Design ; Singapore

Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Antineoplastic Agents ; therapeutic use ; Carcinoma ; epidemiology ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Humans ; Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; pathology ; radiotherapy ; Hypopharynx ; surgery ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Proportional Hazards Models ; Radiotherapy, Adjuvant ; Radiotherapy, Intensity-Modulated ; Retrospective Studies ; Sex Factors ; Smoking ; epidemiology ; Tumor Burden

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is endemic in Southern China, with Guandong province and Hong Kong reporting some of the highest incidences in the world. The journal Science has called it a "Cantonese cancer". We propose that in fact NPC is a cancer that originated in the Bai Yue ("proto Tai Kadai" or "proto Austronesian" or "proto Zhuang") peoples and was transmitted to the Han Chinese in southern China through intermarriage. However, the work by John Ho raised the profile of NPC, and because of the high incidence of NPC in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, NPC became known as a Cantonese cancer. We searched historical articles, articles cited in PubMed, Google, monographs, books and Internet articles relating to genetics of the peoples with high populations of NPC. The migration history of these various peoples was extensively researched, and where possible, their genetic fingerprint identified to corroborate with historical accounts. Genetic and anthropological evidence suggest there are a lot of similarities between the Bai Yue and the aboriginal peoples of Borneo and Northeast India; between Inuit of Greenland, Austronesian Mayalo Polynesians of Southeast Asia and Polynesians of Oceania, suggesting some common ancestry. Genetic studies also suggest the present Cantonese, Minnans and Hakkas are probably an admixture of northern Han and southern Bai Yue. All these populations have a high incidence of NPC. Very early contact between southern Chinese and peoples of East Africa and Arabia can also account for the intermediate incidence of NPC in these regions.
Asia, Southeastern ; epidemiology ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; history ; Borneo ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Emigration and Immigration ; history ; Ethnic Groups ; genetics ; history ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics ; Genetics, Population ; Greenland ; epidemiology ; History, Ancient ; Hong Kong ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence ; India ; epidemiology ; Inuits ; genetics ; Male ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics ; mortality ; Oceania ; epidemiology

BACKGROUND: The AutoVue Innova (Ortho Clinical Diagnostic, Raritan, NJ, USA) is an automatic instrument for blood bank tests, and it has recently been introduced in Korea for the first time at our hospital. This instrument employs column agglutination technology and it performs blood bank tests automatically. We evaluated this instrument and we report on the results. METHODS: We performed ABO/RhD typing and antibody screening for 250 randomly selected samples, and crossmatching for 261 samples with using the AutoVue Innova in parallel with the conventional manual methods. For a sensitivity test, we added 3 samples of A(2)B(3) and 2 samples of weak-D and serially diluted reagent antisera to the test pool and we measured turnaround time (TAT) for the antibody screening test. RESULTS: The concordance rates between AutoVue Innova and the manual methods for ABO/RhD blood typing, antibody screening and crossmatching tests were 99.6%, 100% and 98.9%, respectively. The overall retest rate was 0.5% and the main cause of the discrepancy was revealed to be hemolysis or an inadequate amount of the samples. The overall sensitivity of AutoVue Innova seems to be same as or better than the manual methods. The TAT for the antibody screening test was significantly shorter for the AutoVue Innova (64+/-43 min, n=512) than for the tube method (89+/-57 min, n=99) (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: The test results of AutoVue Innova were accurate and sensitive for the ABO/RhD typing, crossmatching and antibody screening tests. The TAT for the antibody screening test was remarkably shortened up to five times more samples could be tested without an increase of manpower.
Agglutination ; Blood Banks ; Blood Grouping and Crossmatching ; Hemolysis ; Immune Sera ; Korea ; Mass Screening

We report a case of group O losing anti-B selectively. A 25-year-old male donated blood; on the donor test an ABO discrepancy was noted, and a further evaluation study was performed. ABO genotyping with an allele specific polymerase chain reaction assay revealed O/O and DNA sequencing of exons 6 and 7 of the ABO gene showed O01/O02. The serum gammaglobulin level was decreased and only 0.2% CD19 pan-B positive lymphocytes were present in a subset of lymphocytes. In a previous donor study, anti-B of the patient was lost from a third donor study and was still not detected.
Adult ; Agammaglobulinemia ; Alleles ; Exons ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Male ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Tissue Donors

This analytical cross-sectional study examined the nutrient intakes, dietary compliance, dietary supplementation and traditional remedy usage in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients from selected tertiary hospitals in multi-racial Malaysia. We compared the different characteristics of T2DM patients with and without cardiovascular disease (CVD). Socio-demographic status, dietary intakes, dietary supplementation, traditional remedy use, medical history, anthropometric measurements and clinical characteristics were obtained from face-to-face interviews. A total of 313 patients who were treated for T2DM participated in this study, in which 36.1% of them had CVD. The mean age of study subjects was 55.7 +/- 9.2 years; mean diabetes duration was 10.1 +/- 8.1 years; 52.1% were females; and 47.0% were Malays. The mean total energy intake of the subjects was 1674 +/- 694 kcal/day, and patients with CVD consumed higher total calories (p = 0.001). Likewise, the mean carbohydrate, protein and total fat intake of CVD patients were significantly higher than non-CVD patients (p < 0.05), while mean intakes of cholesterol, fibre, minerals and all vitamins were comparable between CVD and non-CVD patients. Regardless of CVD status, a notably high proportion of the subjects did not meet the recommendations of the Medical Nutrition Therapy Guidelines for Type 2 Diabetes for total energy, carbohydrate, protein, total fat, and fibre intakes. Meanwhile, 52.4% used at least one dietary supplement and 12.1% took single traditional remedy or in various combinations. Traditional remedies and supplement intake did not differ between CVD and non-CVD subjects. It is suggested that T2DM patients should be educated based on their personalized dietary intake, dietary supplementation and traditional remedy usage. The recommendations for T2DM patients shall be met to achieve the optimal metabolic goals and minimize the potential diabetic complications.
Cardiovascular Diseases* ; Cholesterol ; Compliance* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diabetes Complications ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; Dietary Supplements* ; Energy Intake ; Female ; Humans ; Malaysia ; Minerals ; Nutrition Therapy ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Vitamins

INTRODUCTIONThis is a retrospective study aimed to analyse the outcomes of oral tongue cancer with emphasis on young people.

MATERIALS AND METHODSPatients treated radically between 1998 and 2006 were included and categorised according to treatment modalities (Group A: Surgery, Group B: Surgery and adjuvant therapy, Group C: Definitive radiotherapy) and age groups (≤ 40 and > 40 years). Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), locoregional relapse-free survival (LRS) and metastasis-free survival (MFS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTSThere were 123 patients with 32%, 53% and 15% in Group A, B and C, respectively. Of these, 17 patients (14%) were ≤40 years with 6 (15%), 8 (12%) and 3 (16%) young oral tongues in Group A, B and C, respectively. Five-year OS and DFS were 69%/72%, 41%/47% and 16%/9.5% for Group A, B and C, respectively. Young patients had similar survival as the older population with 5-year OS of 83%, 75% and 33% in Group A, B and C, as compared to the older patients (66%, 36% and 13%, respectively).

CONCLUSIONYoung oral tongue patients did not have worse outcomes.

Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies ; Tongue Neoplasms ; therapy ; Treatment Outcome ; Young Adult

INTRODUCTIONThe aim of this study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Malaysian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who have cardiovascular disease (CVD), as well as identify the determinants of HRQoL among this cohort of patients.

METHODSThis study was an analytical cross-sectional study involving 313 patients aged 30-78 years (150 men, 163 women; mean age 55.7 ± 9.2 years) who were diagnosed with T2DM (mean duration of T2DM 10.1 ± 8.1 years) at two tertiary Malaysian government hospitals. The patients' sociodemographic, lifestyle, clinical and laboratory data were collected prospectively from medical records and via face-to-face interviews. HRQoL was assessed using the 15D instrument - a generic, 15-dimensional and standardised measure of HRQoL that can be used as both a profile and a single index score measure.

RESULTST2DM patients with CVD were found to have significantly lower 15D HRQoL scores than their nonCVD counterparts (p < 0.001). The HRQoL of T2DM patients with CVD was significantly lower than those without CVD (p < 0.05) in all of the 15 dimensions of the 15D instrument. Multinomial logistic regression analysis using backward stepwise method revealed a significant association between CVD and impaired HRQoL (odds ratio [OR] 11.746, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.898-28.167). Age (OR 1.095, 95% CI 1.054-1.137), duration of T2DM (OR 1.085, 95% CI 1.032-1.140), ethnicity (OR 0.411, 95% CI 0.187-0.903), body mass index (OR 1.074, 95% CI 1.006-1.148), and physical activity level (OR 3.506, 95% CI 1.415-8.689) were also significant predictors of HRQoL.

CONCLUSIONIn T2DM patients, the presence of CVD was significantly associated with a lower HRQoL. Therefore, the importance of tertiary prevention to minimise the potential deterioration of the HRQoL of T2DM patients with CVD should be highly emphasised.

Adult ; Aged ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; complications ; psychology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 ; complications ; psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Malaysia ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Social Class ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Tertiary Care Centers