Background: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common side effects of chemotherapy. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of venlafaxine and duloxetine in improving chronic neurotoxicity induced by chemotherapy in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: The study was performed on cancer patients undergoing outpatient chemotherapy or hospitalization in Rasoul Akram hospital. The admitted patients were blindly divided into two groups. The first group was treated with venlafaxine, and the second group was treated with duloxetine. The treatment lasted up until the patients’ full recovery up to 10 weeks. Different intensities of the patients’ neuropathy were measured on all days of treatment based on NCI Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) v 3.0 criteria. At the end of the treatment, the side effects of venlafaxine and duloxetine were identified. Results: A total of 30 patients in two groups (n=15 for each group) were treated with venlafaxine and duloxetine. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age and gender. The severity of neuropathy was significantly reduced in the venlafaxine compared to the duloxetine group from 7 to 10 weeks. The results indicated that 75% and 85.7% fall asleep in the venlafaxine group and the duloxetine group, respectively. Further, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of drug side effects. Conclusion: This study showed that venlafaxine is a suitable drug for the treatment of chronic neurotoxicity in patients with relatively fewer side effects compared to other used drugs. Although these results require further prospective studies due to the small sample size, future drug regimens may preferably contain venlafaxine.

Context: The incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the past three decades in Iran has made it as a major public health burden. Aims: The aim of this study is to report the prevalence of KRAS and NRAS mutations in Iran and the correlation between KRAS mutation status with clinicopathological factors and survival. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 144 patients were entered into the study based on the criteria. Age, sex, tumor site, grade, metastasis location, familial history, KRAS/NRAS status, and survival were checked for all patients, and the patients were followed for 1 year. DNA was extracted with FFPE QIAGEN kit and then polymerase chain reaction for amplification of gene segments of KRAS and NRAS genes. Results: The mean age at diagnosis was 52.9 years (range: 27–72 years) that 39.6% patients had age <50 years and 54.2% were men. KRAS mutation was significantly more in the patients with age ≥50 compared with KRAS wild type. Furthermore, the 6-month overall survival rate in KRAS mutation patients was significantly more than KRAS wild-type patients. Liver metastasis (72.9%) had the highest prevalence of metastasis in the patients, and Grade II with 64.6% had the most prevalence. Conclusions: The metastatic CRC was more prevalent in men than women, and the mean age varied around 50–60 years. The results showed that the present study had the highest prevalence of KRAS mutation in the Middle East and Pakistan with the lowest prevalence in CRC patients.

A subset of specialized endothelial cells, called tip cells, which guide expanding capillaries toward gradients of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), are responsible for growing of capillaries during angiogenesis. Certain evidence has suggested the involvement of angiogenesis in the pathophysiology of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Nevertheless, the direct effect of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) plasma on tip cell formation is yet to be fully determined. We aimed to evaluate whether the endothelial cells are able to form tip cells in the presence of CLL plasma. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were treated with CLL patient's plasmas. The expression of CD34 and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2) levels were detected by flow cytometry, qPCR, and immunocytochemical staining techniques. We found that CD34-and VEGFR2positive cells were increased following direct exposure to CLL plasma. Nevertheless, the presence of a higher absolute lymphocyte count and/or Janus kinase (JAK2) mutation could amplify both CD34 and VEGFR2 expression in cell culture. Our findings may suggest CLL plasma as a potential source of growth factors, which might be responsible for tip cell development. Nevertheless, the JAK2 mutation may potentiate this effect.