BackgroundTriple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is more prevalent in African and African American (AA) women compared to European American (EA) women. African and AA women diagnosed with TNBC experience high frequencies of metastases and less favorable outcomes. Emerging evidence indicates that this disparity may in fact be the result of the uniquely aggressive biology of African and AA disease.PurposeTo understand the reasons for TNBC in AA aggressive biology, we designed the present study to examine the proteomic profiles of TNBC and luminal A (LA) breast cancer within and across patients’ racial demographic groups in order to identify proteins or molecular pathways altered in TNBC that offer some explanation for its aggressiveness and potential targets for treatment.Materials and methodsProteomic profiles of TNBC, LA tumors, and their adjacent normal tissues from AA and EA women were obtained using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and bioinformatics, and differentially expressed proteins were validated by Western blot and immunohistochemistry. Our data showed that a number of proteins have significantly altered in expression in LA tumors compared to TNBC, both within and across patients’ racial demographic groups. The differentially overexpressed proteins in TNBC (compared to LA) of AA samples were distinct from those in TNBC (compared to LA) of EA women samples. Among the signaling pathways altered in AA TNBC compared to EA TNBC are innate immune signaling, calpain protease, and pyrimidine de novo synthesis pathways. Furthermore, liver LXR/RXR signaling pathway was altered between LA and TNBC in AA women and may be due to the deficiency of the CYP7B1 enzyme responsible for cholesterol degradation.ConclusionThese findings suggest that TNBC in AA women enriched in signaling pathways that are different from TNBC in EA women. Our study draws a link between LXR/RXR expression, cholesterol, obesity, and the TNBC in AA women.

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among Sudanese men and most patients present at a late stage. Although the incidence of prostate cancer in Sudan is low compared to other African countries, studies on prostate cancer in Sudan are limited. This study addresses the clinical characteristics and outcomes of prostate cancer in Central Sudan and its prognostic factors.

ABSTRACT— The etiological link between hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been suggested on epidemiologic, serologic and molecular grounds. This link has, however, recently been questioned by prospective studies suggesting that HBV infection also causes cirrhosis and that whatever the cause of cirrhosis, the risk of developing HCC could be roughly similar. All male patients first admitted to Hôpital Beaujon with cirrhosis or HCC from 1983 to 1987 were included in a cross‐sectional study. A total of 277 new patients with cirrhosis (but free of HCC) were admitted, of whom 55 were HBsAg positive, and 181 were alcoholic. During the same period, 117 new patients with HCC were admitted, 48 in association with alcoholic cirrhosis, 36 with HBsAg positive cirrhosis. The relative risk (odds ratio) of HCC was 2.5 (95% confidence interval, 1.46–4.37; p=0.0011) in patients with HBsAg positive cirrhosis as compared to patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. HBsAg positive patients were significantly younger than their alcoholic counterparts (48 ± 14 vs 54 ±10 years in the cirrhotic group; 49 ± 12 vs 62 ± 8 years in the HCC group). We conclude that, using the methodology of a cross‐sectional study, the relative risk of HCC was about twice greater in HBV‐associated than alcoholic cirrhosis. The results of longitudinal prospective studies examining this issue might be biased by selecting patients older than the mean age of HCC occurrence or excluding patients with HCC when present at first admission.

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