No abstract available.
Adult ; Carcinogens/toxicity ; Environmental Exposure ; Genome, Human/radiation effects ; Humans ; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced/epidemiology/etiology/*genetics ; *Nuclear Power Plants ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Thyroid Neoplasms/epidemiology/etiology/*genetics

Oncologists and scientists in the field of head and neck cancer exchanged their research findings and clinical experiences in the Sino-USA Symposium on Head and Neck Cancer, which was held January 6-7, 2012 in Guangzhou, China. The symposium was jointly organized by Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). The Guangdong Provincial Anti-Cancer Association and the Chinese Journal of Cancer also helped in organizing the conference. Speakers were from China (SYSUCC, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, and Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center) and the United States (MDACC). The presentations covered most kinds of head and neck cancers and included both basic and clinical research progress. In particular, NPC was discussed in depth. The symposium explored the reality that cancer is complex and numerous questions remain to be answered, even though there has already been an enormous effort into research. International exchanges of experience and in-depth cooperation are definitely needed to improve our capability of caring for cancer patients. In this article, we provide highlights of the presentations.
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell ; genetics ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Drug Delivery Systems ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; etiology ; genetics ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; genetics ; pathology ; therapy ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; epidemiology

Thyroid tumors display diverse spectrum of histopathological groups with geographic variation in its prevalence. Influence of iodine deficiency (a major causative factor) in its etiology, prevalence, or aggressiveness is debatable which reflects the existence of various genetic events in pathogenesis. The present study was undertaken to study the role of Microsatellite instability (MSI) or LOH (loss of heterozygosity), an indicator of defective mismatch repair system as a genetic change and to explore it as a prognostic marker in thyroid tumors. Tumor tissues from total thyroidectomy surgical specimens and blood (matched control) of 36 patients from iodine deficient areas (10 benign; 26 malignant) were obtained after their consent. Urinary iodine analysis was done by alkali ash method for which 10 ml of urine was collected from 18 patients before surgery. Genomic DNA, isolated from tumor tissue and blood was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using mono and dinucleotide markers - BAT-26, BAT-40, TGF(RII, IGFIIR, hMSH3, BAX, D2S123, D9S283, D9S851 and D18S58. PCR products were analysed on 8% denaturing polyacrylamide gel followed by autoradiography. Of total, 66.6% of tumors [70% (7/10) benign and 65.4% malignant cases (17/26)] showed MSI/LOH. Strong association of MSI/LOH with low iodine (P=0.01) and with AMES risk groups i.e. age (P=0.02), tumor size (P=0.04) and metastases (P=0.002) in thyroid tumors was observed. This may help in predicting the biological behaviour and strengthening the hypothesis that iodine deficiency has influence on MSI in thyroid tumors. Our results further substantiate the risk group classification and help in deciding the treatment modality in particular patient.
Adult ; Aged ; DNA, Neoplasm/*genetics ; Female ; Genomic Instability/*genetics ; Humans ; Iodine/*deficiency/urine ; Loss of Heterozygosity/genetics ; Male ; Microsatellite Repeats/*genetics ; Middle Aged ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Prevalence ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't ; Risk Factors ; Thyroid Neoplasms/epidemiology/etiology/*genetics/pathology/therapy/urine ; Thyroidectomy ; Tumor Markers, Biological/*genetics