Background:Cervical cancer is a major cause of cancer mortality in women and more than a quarter of its global burden is contributed by developing countries. In India, in spite of alarmingly high figures, there is no nationwide government-sponsored screening program. This study was conducted to assess the burden of cervical cancer in India and review the performance characteristics of available cervical cancer screening tools, so as to provide evidence-based recommendations for application of most practically suited screening test to be used in resource-poor field settings.Materials and Methods:MEDLINE and Web of Science electronic database were searched from January 1990 to December 2015, using the keywords such as “cervical cancer”, “screening”, “early detection”, “cervical cytology” and “visual inspection”, and their corresponding MeSH terms in combination with Boolean operators “OR, AND.” Two authors independently selected studies that are published in English and conducted in India. A total of 11 studies were found to be relevant and eligible to be included in the present study.Results:In India, cervical cancer contributes to approximately 6–29% of all cancers in women. The age-adjusted incidence rate of cervical cancer varies widely among registries; highest is 23.07/100,000 in Mizoram state and the lowest is 4.91/100,000 in Dibrugarh district. The pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), magnified VIA, visual inspection with Lugol's iodine (VILI), cytology (Pap smear), and human papillomavirus DNA were found to be 67.65% and 84.32%, 65.36% and 85.76%, 78.27% and 87.10%, 62.11% and 93.51%, and 77.81% and 91.54%, respectively.Conclusions:In developing countries because of lack of necessary infrastructure and quality control, high-quality cytology screening may not be feasible for wide-scale implementation. Hence, cervical cancer screening program based on visual screening test such as VIA/VILI should be adopted as an integral part of primary health-care setup in resource-poor countries like India.

Introduction Inflammation seems to play a critical role in the development and progression of numerous cancers. Peripheral blood leukocyte count is an easily assessable parameter of systemic inflammatory response. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether the pretreatment leukocyte counts can predict the prognosis of patients with oral cavity cancer. Methods Medical records of 471 oral cavity cancer patients diagnosed between January 2007 and December 2008 were retrospectively analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Cox proportional hazards analyses were applied to evaluate the associations of leukocyte counts with overall survival. Results The overall five year's survival of the cohort was found to be 49.4%. On univariate analysis, elevated monocyte count (≥500/mm3) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (>2.38) were associated with poor overall survival (OS) (p = 0.001 and 0.000, respectively). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that higher monocyte and NLR levels were significant independent predictors of worse OS (HR = 1.385, 95% CI = 1.049 - 1.829; p < 0.05 and HR = 1.392, 95% CI = 1.045 - 1.855; p < 0.05, respectively). The advanced overall stage and lymph nodal involvement were also independent indicators for poor OS. Conclusions Higher pretreatment monocyte and NLR levels are independent predictors of poor prognosis for patients with oral cavity cancer. Thus, these easily accessed variables can serve as a potent marker to predict the outcomes of oral cancer patients.

No abstract

No abstract

Context:Breast cancer (BC) is one of the major causes of cancer mortality in India. Late-stage diagnosis of BC is associated with poor survival. Identification of factors affecting late presentation of the disease could be an effective step to reduce BC mortality.Aims:To study the association of sociodemographic factors with BC stage at diagnosis.Settings and Design:The study is a retrospective analysis from the case records from a single institution.Subjects and Methods:Data for the year 2008 was collected from the hospital records. A total of 1210 cases were included for the analysis. Sociodemographic factors included were age, place of residence, religion, marital status, level of education, and occupation. Other study variables were family history, presence of comorbidity, and stage at diagnosis.Statistical Analysis:Association between sociodemographic factors by stage at diagnosis was tested using Chi-square statistics, with odds ratios (ORs) estimated through logistic regression modeling.Results:In the study cohort, 46% patients had reported at early stages and 54% at advanced stages. All factors were evaluated for being predictors of disease stage at presentation using univariate and multivariate logistic regression model. Women from urban background were less likely to present with advanced stage disease (OR = 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.49–0.84) as compared to rural women. Similarly, illiterate women were also more likely to present with advanced-stage disease (OR = 1.55; 95% CI: 1.16–2.09).Conclusions:This data clearly indicate that the patients of rural background and of low education status are more likely than their respective counterparts to have an advanced stage of BC diagnosis. Our results may be considered the keys to determining how stage variation may be related to patients and community characteristics and where limited resources need to be invested to ensure early diagnosis of BC.