Distant metastasis remains the major failure of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this study, the roles of chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2), and its receptor chemokine C-C motif receptor type 2 (CCR2) on NPC metastasis were investigated. Serum CCL2 and CCL2/CCR2 expression level were remarkably increased in NPC patients compared to non-tumor patients by ELISA and IHC analyses. High expressi...

BACKGROUND Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignancy of the head and neck that is prevalent in Southeast Asia and southern China. Recent studies in epigenetics suggest that DNA methylation plays a pivotal role in the onset and progression of cancer. Combining the methyl-DNA binding domain capture technique and cDNA microarray analysis, we identified a unique hypermethylated gene, RERG (Ras...

Background: Value of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is still controversial in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC). Based on competing risk analysis model, we aim at evaluating the efficacy of NACT in decreasing cancer-specific mortality for LA-NPC (except T3-4N0) treated by intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Methods: Data on 957 patients with LA-NPC were retrospecti...

Background: Epstein-barr virus nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) plays a crucial role in Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), the most common cancer of head and neck cancer in Asian countries with high incidents. Sequence variations are of high frequency within the functionally important domains of EBNA-1, which have been classified into five subtypes: Phenotype (P)-ala, P-thr, V-val, V-leu and V-pro and ar...

BACKGROUND Language barriers hinder health care delivery in settings with culturally diverse populations. Interventions to accommodate non-English-speaking patients have been shown to shorten length of stay and reduce non-urgent visits. AIMS Our aim was to design and do a pilot study on an instrument to facilitate history taking with Portuguese-speaking patients in the emergency department (E...

BACKGROUND PhotoExam is a mobile app that incorporates digital photographs into the electronic health record (EHR) using iPhone operating system (iOS, Apple Inc)-based mobile devices. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to describe usage patterns of PhotoExam in primary care and to assess clinician-level factors that influence the use of the PhotoExam app for teledermatology (TD) purposes. ...

This study set out to assess the effect of non-pharmacological conservative (NPC) interventions as alternatives to antiepileptic pharmacotherapy. A prospective follow-up cohort study was conducted in an outpatient seizure clinic of a referral center for epilepsy. Twenty-five patients (nine males, 16 females) aged 16-45, with at least two well-described epileptic seizures, were included who had ...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) carries a high potential for metastasis and immune escape, with a great risk of relapse after primary treatment. Through analysis of whole genome expression profiling data in NPC samples, we found that the expression of a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), actin filament-associated protein 1 antisense RNA 1 (AFAP1-AS1), is significantly correlated with the immune escap...

The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of FHIT and WWOX in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and correlations with clinical pathologic features. mRNA expression of the FHIT and WWOX was assessed by real-time fluorescent relatively quantitative PCR in 61 NPC tissues and 45 non-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues. As a result, mRNA expression levels of both FHIT and WWOX were signif...