OBJECTIVE: To share our experience in bladder preservation in Upper Egypt, Assiut and Sohag Universities, using different treatment protocols. In Sohag study patients with operable muscle invasive bladder cancer were included and underwent transurethral resection followed by radiochemotherapy (5- fluorouracil and Cisplatin) for bladder preservation. In Assiut study after maximum safe resection of bladder tumor, patients received combined chemo-radiotherapy, 60 Gy of fractionated radiotherapy over 6 weeks, with Cisplatin and Gemcitabine. RESULTS: In Sohag study the age of patients ranged from 35-72ys with Median 56 years, 24 patients were male (80%) and 6 patients were female (20%). In Assiut study the mean of age was 57.30 years, median 58.5 years with peak incidence in 7th decade (9 cases) then in 6th decade 7 cases (23.33%). Performance status was represented as following, 23 patients (76.6%) were scale 1 and seven patients (23.3%) were scale 2. In Assiut study, 90% of patients were disease free at the time of cystoscopic reevaluation. Of concern is that within 18 months of follow up in Assiut study, 7 of 27 (74%) complete responding patients have had local recurrence and 66.7% of all cases. The recurrence free survival in Sohag study at the median follow up (17 months) was 84% and at the end of follow up (30 months) was 70%. The overall survival at the median follow up was 95%, and at the end of follow up was 84%. The disease free survival in Assiut study was 66.7% and the overall Survival in Assiut study was 76.7. CONCLUSION: Three significant prognostic factors were detected for overall survival, performance status, tumor size and residual of tumor and two significant prognostic factors were detected for disease free survival, tumor size and residual of tumor in Assiut study. And it was nearly similar to that reported by Sohag study as they found the completeness of TUR and early stage of the tumor had the strongest impact in response to treatment.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a global health threat with Egypt having the highest worldwide prevalence. Evaluation of the efficacy of a preventive HCV vaccine, such as those currently in Phase I/II trials, requires a cohort with a high-risk exposure to HCV. OBJECTIVE: To identify a reliable cohort for evaluating preventive HCV vaccines, we studied HCV incidence among HCW in a hospital where almost 85% of patients are HCV-infected. STUDY DESIGN: Of 717 HCW negative for HCV-antibodies (anti-HCV) at baseline, 651 were followed up and tested for seroconversion twice annually for an average of 504 ± 154 days. Those reporting a needle-stick injury were additionally tested for both HCV antibodies and RNA monthly for a total of four months. RESULTS: Two subjects (0.31%) had anti-HCV and HCV-RNA seroconversion with an overall incidence of 2.04/1000 person-years and a 4.8% incidence among the 21 subjects who reported a needle-stick injury. Two additional subjects had viremia without detectable anti-HCV. Two of the four subjects were among 21 with reported needle-stick injuries (9.5%) and another had surgery. All four were nurses providing direct patient care. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that both transient and persistent viremia were detectable in this high-risk cohort of HCW and suggest that absence of anti-HCV in two of the subjects may be due to low-dose viral exposures. These data indicate that HCV infections acquired from documented injuries during direct patient care are frequent in Egypt and can guide selection of eligible HCW suitable for preventive HCV vaccine trials.

Cancer bladder represents the fourth most common cancer in men and ninth most common cancer in women. It is the second most prevalent cancer in men 60 years of age or older in United States. Radical cystectomy is the most widely used treatment for invasive bladder cancer. Radical cystectomy and urinary diversion has long-term effects on urinary, gastrointestinal and sexual function, and changes the body image of patients who use incontinent urinary diversions. Five-year specific and overall survival rates are 68% and 40 to 60%, and that is probably dependent upon the existence of micrometastases at the time of diagnosis. Clinical trials in the adjuvant setting require large numbers of patients to detect a survival advantage. It has been difficult to demonstrate a survival benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Neo-adjuvant cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy resulted in a significant 14% reduction in the risk of death, which translated into a 5% absolute improvement in five-year OS (from 45 to 50%). In appropriately selected patients, bladder preserving treatment with transurethral resection, radiation therapy and concurrent chemotherapy offers a probability of long term cure and overall survival at 5-years is comparable to cystectomy-based approaches (49 to 63% at 5 years) in patients of similar clinical stage and age. Five-year survival with bladder preservation is 40 to 45%. In addition, these selective bladder-preserving approaches result in approximately 80% of the long-term survivors maintaining a normal functioning bladder.

Cancer bladder represents the fourth most common cancer in men and ninth most common cancer in women. It is the second most prevalent cancer in men 60 years of age or older in United States. Radical cystectomy is the most widely used treatment for invasive bladder cancer. Radical cystectomy and urinary diversion has long-term effects on urinary, gastrointestinal and sexual function, and changes the body image of patients who use incontinent urinary diversions. Five-year specific and overall survival rates are 68% and 40 to 60%, and that is probably dependent upon the existence of micrometastases at the time of diagnosis. Clinical trials in the adjuvant setting require large numbers of patients to detect a survival advantage. It has been difficult to demonstrate a survival benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. Neo-adjuvant cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy resulted in a significant 14% reduction in the risk of death, which translated into a 5% absolute improvement in five-year OS (from 45 to 50%). In appropriately selected patients, bladder preserving treatment with transurethral resection, radiation therapy and concurrent chemotherapy offers a probability of long term cure and overall survival at 5-years is comparable to cystectomy-based approaches (49 to 63% at 5 years) in patients of similar clinical stage and age. Five-year survival with bladder preservation is 40 to 45%. In addition, these selective bladder-preserving approaches result in approximately 80% of the long-term survivors maintaining a normal functioning bladder.

Breast cancer can be classified into molecular sub-types that have distinct survival patterns. We evaluated the prognostic significance of breast cancer sub-types in a cohort of women taking part in the NEAT and BR9601 clinical trials comparing cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and fluorouracil (CMF) with ECMF (epirubicin and CMF). Furthermore, we evaluated whether the sub-types were predictive of the added benefit of epirubicin in these trials. Tumour tissue microarrays were stained and scored for ER, PR, HER2, EGFR and CK5/6. These were used to classify the tumours into six intrinsic sub-types. We used Cox regression to compare overall survival (OS), breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in the different sub-groups. We also compared the effect of ECMF with CMF by sub-group. Immunohistochemistry data were available for 1,725 cases of whom 805 were luminal 1-basal negative. Median follow-up time was 7 years. The luminal 1-basal negative tumours were associated with the best prognosis in five years after surgery and the HER2-like tumours were associated with the poorest prognosis. There was little evidence for significant heterogeneity of this effect by tumour sub-type (OS p = 0.40, BCSS p = 0.53 RFS p = 0.50) - the largest additional benefit of epirubicin was in women with tumours of the 5-negative phenotype (OS HR = 0.39 95% CI: 0.21-0.73) and the smallest was in Luminal 1-basal negative tumours (OS HR = 0.86 95% CI: 0.64-1.16). We confirmed that breast cancer sub-types show distinct behaviour with differences in short- and long-term survival. The benefit of ECMF over CMF was statistically similar in all disease sub-types.

CONTEXT: Solid and cystic papillary neoplasm of the pancreas is an extremely rare neoplasm that mostly affects young females in the mean age of 25 years and accounts for about 0.2-2.7% of all pancreatic tumors. CASE REPORT: A 18-year-old female presented with progressively increasing mass in the left hypochondrium and epigastric regions and vague abdominal pain. There was no history of jaundice and vomiting. The mean diameter of the tumors was 17x24 cm. Preoperative core needle revealed solid and cystic papillary neoplasm. Distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy were performed. The patient did not receive adjuvant therapy and no tumor recurrence was detected in follow up. CONCLUSION: Solid and cystic papillary neoplasm may reach large dimensions with a benign behavior and is curable by surgical excision. Differential diagnosis from other tumors with aggressive behavior is therefore important.

BACKGROUND: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal disease, characterized by a reciprocal t(9, 22) that results in a chimeric BCR/ABL fusion gene. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) constitute the main cell population that enables cancer cells to evade immune surveillance. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to investigate the level of Tregs in newly diagnosed CML patients and to correlate it with the patients' clinical, laboratory and molecular data. We also aimed to assess the effect of treatment using tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) on Treg levels. METHODS: Tregs were characterized and quantified by flow cytometry in 63 newly diagnosed CML patients and 40 healthy controls. TKI was used in 45 patients with chronic phase CML, and the response to therapy was correlated with baseline Treg levels. RESULTS: The percentages of Tregs were significantly increased in CML patients compared to the controls. Treg numbers were significantly lower in patients with chronic phase CML versus the accelerated and blast phases, and were significantly lower in patients with complete molecular remission (CMR) compared to those patients without CMR. CONCLUSION: Tregs may play a role in the maintenance of CML. Moreover, the decrease of their levels in patients with CMR suggests that Tregs might have a clinical value in evaluating the effects of therapy

BACKGROUND: Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal disease, characterized by a reciprocal t(9, 22) that results in a chimeric BCR/ABL fusion gene. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) constitute the main cell population that enables cancer cells to evade immune surveillance. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study was to investigate the level of Tregs in newly diagnosed CML patients and to correlate it with the patients' clinical, laboratory and molecular data. We also aimed to assess the effect of treatment using tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) on Treg levels. METHODS: Tregs were characterized and quantified by flow cytometry in 63 newly diagnosed CML patients and 40 healthy controls. TKI was used in 45 patients with chronic phase CML, and the response to therapy was correlated with baseline Treg levels. RESULTS: The percentages of Tregs were significantly increased in CML patients compared to the controls. Treg numbers were significantly lower in patients with chronic phase CML versus the accelerated and blast phases, and were significantly lower in patients with complete molecular remission (CMR) compared to those patients without CMR. CONCLUSION: Tregs may play a role in the maintenance of CML. Moreover, the decrease of their levels in patients with CMR suggests that Tregs might have a clinical value in evaluating the effects of therapy

Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PV) is considered a minimally invasive procedure, yet cement leakage into the circulation may result in serious complications. Here, we are reporting a case of pulmonary embolism following PV for treatment of osteoporotic compression vertebral fracture.