Lung cancer in Basrah, Iraq during 2005-2012. Incidence and time trend

Automated Lung Cancer Segmentation in Tissue Micro Array Analysis Histopathological Images Using a Prototype of Computer-Assisted Diagnosis

Background: Lung cancer is a fatal disease that kills approximately 85% of those diagnosed with it. In recent years, advances in medical imaging have greatly improved the acquisition, storage, and visualization of various pathologies, making it a necessary component in medicine today. Objective: Develop a computer-aided diagnostic system to detect lung cancer early by segmenting tumor and non-tumor tissue on Tissue Micro Array Analysis (TMA) histopathological images. Method: The prototype computer-aided diagnostic system was developed to segment tumor areas, non-tumor areas, and fundus on TMA histopathological images. Results: The system achieved an average accuracy of 83.4% and an F-measurement of 84.4% in segmenting tumor and non-tumor tissue. Conclusion: The computer-aided diagnostic system provides a second diagnostic opinion to specialists, allowing for more precise diagnoses and more appropriate treatments for lung cancer.

Time series models show comparable projection performance with joinpoint regression: A comparison using historical cancer data from World Health Organization

Background

Cancer is one of the major causes of death and the projection of cancer incidences is essential for future healthcare resources planning. Joinpoint regression and average annual percentage change (AAPC) are common approaches for cancer projection, while time series models, traditional ways of trend analysis in statistics, were considered less popular. This study aims to compare these projection methods on seven types of cancers in 31 geographical jurisdictions.

Methods

Using data from 66 cancer registries in the World Health Organization, projection models by joinpoint regression, AAPC, and autoregressive integrated moving average with exogenous variables (ARIMAX) were constructed based on 20 years of cancer incidences. The rest of the data upon 20-years of record were used to validate the primary outcomes, namely, 3, 5, and 10-year projections. Weighted averages of mean-square-errors and of percentage errors on predictions were used to quantify the accuracy of the projection results.

Results

Among 66 jurisdictions and seven selected cancers, ARIMAX gave the best 5 and 10-year projections for most of the scenarios. When the ten-year projection was concerned, ARIMAX resulted in a mean-square-error (or percentage error) of 2.7% (or 7.2%), compared with 3.3% (or 15.2%) by joinpoint regression and 7.8% (or 15.0%) by AAPC. All the three methods were unable to give reasonable projections for prostate cancer incidence in the US.

Conclusion

ARIMAX outperformed the joinpoint regression and AAPC approaches by showing promising accuracy and robustness in projecting cancer incidence rates. In the future, developments in projection models and better applications could promise to improve our ability to understand the trend of disease development, design the intervention strategies, and build proactive public health system.

Immunohistochemical and Electron Microscopy Evolution in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in Iraq

Lung cancer is considered the most commonly diagnosed cancer that kills over 1.76 million people yearly around the world. This study aimed to investigate how electron microscopy (EM) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) worked together. In the current study, a total of 50 tissue blocks were used which were embedded in paraffin wax from 20 healthy controls and 30 lung cancer patients (19 males and 11 females) to conduct a histopathological examination, which included hematoxylin and eosin stain, IHC detection regarding the protein expression in P53, and EM for lung cancer diagnosis. The findings indicated that the mean age of the patients was 51.84±15.70 years, and there was no correlation between the age of patients and the disease stage. P53 expression was measured using an immunohistochemical technique, while the positive rate showed a highly significant difference between healthy controls and patients (PP≤0.05). The association of P53 expression with age and gender was not significant, although it showed a significant correlation with stage and grade. Furthermore, a correlation was found between P53 IHC and EM (P≤0.05). In conclusion, the detection of an immunohistochemical method of lung cancer patients has been (gold standard) useful in detecting the subsets of patients in addition to a good method of EM in the diagnosis of lung cancer patients.

Perception of Cancer Risk and Its Associated Risk Factors among Young Iraqis living in Baghdad

Cancer is responsible for substantial burden on communities and more specifically on less developed countries. The incidence of cancer is on the rise due to population growth and aging, also due to increment of the risk factors such as smoking, increasing weight, low physical activity associated with adoption of western lifestyle. Around 14 million cases of new cancer and 8 million deaths from cancer is estimated to occur by 2012. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Baghdad from June 2016 to October 2016. Participants were selected according to our inclusion criteria, namely aged between 18 to 40 years and not being diagnosed with any chronic diseases. Those who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were 700 participants who completed the questionnaire. Results showed that most of our participants had low perceived susceptibility to cancer risk (62.4%), low perceived severity (59.8%), but good perceived benefits of screening (56.6%). Hierarchal linear regression analysis showed that sociodemographic factors of gender, marital status, and education level were statistically significant. Moreover, factors of health behaviour such as practice towards health and preventive behaviour were associated with the outcome. Finally, treatment control and emotional factors were mostly predicting the outcome. Perceived susceptibility to cancer along with its psychological factors and behaviour were important contributors to self-perceived health in this study. Hence there is association between perception and future morbidity and mortality, thus it is crucial for public health policy. Comprehensive health programs that include health promotion campaigns and proper health care services that deals with secondary prevention.

Tobacco Smoking, Lung Cancer, and Therapy in Iraq: Current Perspective

Tobacco smoking is a research topic of high interest to the public health in Iraq. Although Iraq is a country with a high percentage of smokers, we noticed the dearth of adequate studies and programs to deal with this problem. The percentage of smokers exceed 30% of the population and smoking problem becomes a permanent habit in adults and young people. The problems associated with tobacco smoking behavior related to individuals' post-traumatic stress disorder following post-war conflicts, and the social and cultural environment. The health consequences of tobacco smoking can harm almost every organ in the body, and there are reports confirmed the tobacco smoking is a high-risk factor for lung cancer and other diseases. The relative risk of lung cancer increases with increasing duration and intensity of smoking. Also, smoking associated with bladder, prostate, and head and neck cancers, in addition to respiratory diseases. Intervention efforts should focus on reducing the prevalence of cigarette smoking, introduce effective treatments for cancer and quit smoking. In this perspective article, we present our viewpoint and three scenarios to deal with the problem of tobacco smoking in Iraq. We recommend introducing educational, health and legislative policies for quitting smoking and using effective treatments for cancer.