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Introduction: Salivary gland tumors are rare tumors that account for 3 to 4% of head and neck neoplasms. These tumors may arise from 6 major and numerous minor salivary glands. This study was designed to investigate the factors affecting the prognosis of salivary gland tumors. Methods: This study is a retrospective descriptive study in which the records of patients with salivary gland tumors referred to the Radiotherapy and Oncology Center of Namazi Hospital from 2005 to 2015 were reviewed. Results: 158 patients were included in this study with a mean age of 55.37 years. 49% of the patients were men. Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma was the most common histological type (30.57%) and Adenocarcinoma with a prevalence of 1.91% had the lowest prevalence rate in this study. 65.19% of salivary gland neoplasms in this study had parotid gland involvement and sublingual gland involvement had the lowest prevalence (3.8%). The results of survival analysis clearly illustrated that surgery, pathology type and stage was statistically significant in survival. Discussion: Clinical, pathological and therapeutic factors in people with malignant salivary gland neoplasms have a significant relationship with their survival. controversies on treatment and outcome continues.

Background. Laryngeal cancer is the second most common cancer in the head and neck. Since laryngeal cancer management is a complex process, there is still no standard strategy to treat this disease in order to increase the survival rate of the patients especially among those with advanced form of the disease. Methods. A cohort study was undertaken to analyze factors predicting survival of the patients in advanced stage laryngeal cancer in the Southern Iran among all patients newly diagnosed with laryngeal cancer between 2000 and 2015. Results. Data of a total number of 415 patients who have had been diagnosed with advanced laryngeal cancer during this period was used for analysis. The patients’ 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates were 81%, 62%, 53%, and 38%, respectively. Multivariable Cox regression analyses indicated a significant relationship between patients’ survival and age at diagnosis (P<0.001), disease stage (P=0.002), tumor grade (P=0.008), positive L. node (P=0.008), and type of treatment (P<0.001). As expected, treatment strategy was identified as the most effective factor in survival of the patients. According to the results, patients who undergone surgical treatment experienced a longer survival than those who received other treatments. Conclusion. This study showed that the survival of patients depends on several factors, among which, treatment strategy is the most important. Combination of total laryngectomy plus chemoradiation provides superior local control and better survival compared to either radiotherapy or chemoradiation in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer.

In recent years, trends of treatment and survival of laryngeal cancer have received heightened attention. Despite the fact that most laryngeal cancers are diagnosed at early stage, a concern of worsening survival in patients with localized cancer has been raised but not consistently observed. This study aimed to determine factors affecting laryngeal cancer survival.This was a cohort study from 2000 to 2015 in which clinical and demographic characteristics of patients at early stage of laryngeal cancer were collected. Medical records and telephone interviews were used to define patient's demographic and clinical status during the study period. Multivariate Cox model was used as the main method for analyzing data.Age at diagnosis, type of treatment, stage, and tumor grade were statistically associated with patient survival. Older patients were more prone to worse prognosis (HR=1.69, 95% CI: 1.03-2.75, p=0.03). The results also suggested that people who had surgery compared with those who received only radiation therapy (RT) survived longer (HR=0.44, 95% CI: 0.20-0.94, p=0.03). Furthermore, for those whose tumor was grade 3 at diagnosis, the risk of death was 2.45-fold higher than those with grade 1 (HR =2.45, 95% CI: 1.19-5.40, p=0.01). Stage II patients experienced worse prognosis than stage I patients (HR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.06-2.93, p=0.02).This study revealed several factors that can influence patient survival rate, among them different therapeutic approaches.

Stage of cancer at diagnosis is one of the most important factors in patient prognosis. By controlling for diagnostic delay, this study aimed to identify factors associated with late-stage breast cancer (BC).From November 2014 to January 2017, required information on 497 patients who were newly diagnosed with BC was obtained from patients' medical records. Logistic regression was used to measure the association between cancer stage and study variables.Only 18.3% of patients were diagnosed at stage I. The rest were diagnosed at stage II (45.5%) or higher (36.2%). Among those with ≤ 3 months' diagnostic delay, age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93-0.99), place of residence (OR urban/rural = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.42-1.93), income (OR high/low = 0.27; 95% CI, 0.10-0.72), performing breast self-examination (OR yes/no = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.0.26 -0.98), smoking (OR yes/no = 2.23; 95% CI, 1.37-3.62), history of chest X-ray (OR yes/no = 1.40; 95% CI, 1.16-1.98), presence of chronic diseases (OR yes/no = 1.73; 95% CI, 1.36-5.48), and, for those with a delay of3 months, marriage age (OR = 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73-0.94), income (OR high/low = 0.07; 95% CI, 0.008-0.63), family history of BC (OR = 3.82; 95% CI, 1.05-5.05), daily exercise (OR 10/10-20 = 0.10; 95% CI, 0.01-0.67), and presence of chronic diseases (OR yes/no = 1.77; 95% CI, 1.73-5.07), were associated with late-stage of cancer.Shortening the diagnostic delay can help patients receive medical treatment at an earlier disease stage, resulting in better prognosis. Smokers, younger women, and those with chronic conditions or a family history of BC should take extra caution, as they may have worse prognosis if diagnosed with cancer.

Purpose Epidemiologic characteristics of breast cancer in Iran are significantly different from those in the West and even other regional countries, but little is known about the related factors. Patients and Methods A hospital-based case-control study was conducted on 1052 women (526 new cases and 526 controls). Logistic regression was performed to investigate associations of study factors with breast cancer risk. Results This study introduced occupation (odds ratio [OR] employed/household , 1.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-2.69), marital age (OR 24-30 y/ , 2.13; 95% CI, 1.03-4.40), age at first delivery (OR ≥ 30 y/ , 3.53; 95% CI, 1.73-7.18), parity (OR 1-2/Nulliparous or never married , 2.61; 95% CI, 1.13-6.02), birth interval (OR 30-50 mos/ , 2.38; 95% CI, 1.45-3.89), lifetime breastfeeding (OR ≥ 42 mos/ , 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.77), and menarche age (year) (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.79-0.96) as significant associates of breast cancer. In addition, body mass index (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.11) and some health-related behaviors including hair coloring on a regular basis (OR yes/no , 1.93; 95% CI, 1.41-2.62), smoking (OR yes/no , 2.02; 95% CI, 1.22-3.34), oral contraceptive usage (OR ever/never . 1.46; 95% CI, 1.05-2.04), physical inactivity (OR inactive/regular activity , 1.54; 95% CI, 1.39-1.75), past life stress (OR often stressful/often calm , 2.40; 95% CI, 1.62-3.56), and regular bedtime (OR often regular/no , 0.32; 95% CI, 0.19-0.54) were related to a higher risk of breast cancer. Conclusion This study revealed a significant number of factors that seem to contribute to the risk of breast cancer even more than the other previously introduced factors.

Purpose Mucinous adenocarcinomas account for about 10% of all colorectal cancers. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of mucinous histologic subtype on oncologic outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods This retrospective study was performed at two large tertiary university hospitals. We analyzed the characteristics, prognostic factors, and survival of patients with colorectal cancer who were treated and followed up between 2000 and 2013. Results Totally, 144 of 1,268 patients with a colorectal adenocarcinoma (11.4%) had mucinous histologic subtype. Statistically significant results found in this research are as follows: Mucinous histologic subtype tended to present in younger patients and to have larger tumor size, higher histologic grade, higher node stage, larger number of positive nodes, and higher rate of perineural invasion compared to nonmucinous histologic subtype. On the univariate analysis, mucinous subtype was a prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survival. On the multivariate analysis, primary tumor location, node stage and lymphatic-vascular invasion were independent prognostic factors for the local control rate. Rectal tumor location, higher disease stage, tumor grade II, and presence of lymphatic-vascular invasion had negative influences on disease-free survival, as did rectal tumor location, higher disease stage and presence of lymphatic-vascular invasion on overall survival. Conclusion Mucinous histologic subtype was associated with some adverse pathologic features in patients with colorectal cancer; however, it was not an independent prognostic factor for oncologic outcome.

Background Mucinous adenocarcinoma accounts for approximately 5% - 15% of all colorectal cancers. Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with mucinous colorectal adenocarcinoma. Patients and Methods This retrospective study was carried out by reviewing the medical records of 70 mucinous colorectal cancer (MCC) patients who were diagnosed and treated at a tertiary academic hospital between 2005 and 2010. For the comparative analysis, 491 patients with non-mucinous colorectal cancer (NMCC) were included. Results Of 561 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma, 70 patients (12.5%) had the mucinous type. There were 42 (60%) men and 28 (40%) women, with a median age of 55 years old (range 24 - 81 years) included in the study. We did not find any differences regarding the patients’ mean age (P = 0.408) and male/female ratio (P = 0.700) between the MCC and NMCC; however, there was a predilection for the right colon and sigmoid colon in the MCC, when compared to the NMCC (P = 0.012). In addition, the MCC tended to have a larger tumor size (P = 0.004), higher histological grade (P < 0.001), higher node stage (P < 0.001), higher number of dissected nodes (P = 0.013), higher number of positive nodes (P < 0.001), and a higher rate of perineural invasion (P = 0.013) compared to the NMCC. Conclusions This study indicates that most clinicopathological characteristics of MCC are different from those of NMCC. In addition, there was an association between the mucinous subtype and adverse pathological features in the patients with colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world, and the fourth in Iran in both genders. The aim of this study was to find predictive factors for CRC survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medical records of 570 patients referred to the radiotherapy oncology department of Shiraz Namazi hospital from 2005 to 2010 were retrospectively analysed. Data were collected by reviewing medical records, and by telephone interviews with patients. Survival analysis was performed using the Cox's regression model with survival probability estimated with Kaplan-Meier curve. The log-rank test was used to compare survival between strata. Data was analyzed with Stata 12. RESULTS The five-year survival rate and the mean survival time after cancer diagnosis were 58.5% and 67±1.4 months. On multivariate analysis, age of diagnosis, disease stage and primary tumor site, lymphovascular invasion and type of treatment (in colon cancer) were significant factors for survival. CONCLUSIONS Age of diagnosis and type of treatment (adjuvant therapy in patients with colon cancer) were two modifiable factors related to survival of CRC patients. Therefore earlier diagnosis might help increase survival.

Purpose Despite advances in rectal cancer treatment over the last decade, local control and risk of late side effects due to external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) remain as concerns. The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy and the safety of low-dose-rate endorectal brachytherapy (LDRBT) as a boost to neoadjuvant chemoradiation for use in treating locally advanced distal rectal adenocarcinomas. Methods This phase-II clinical trial included 34 patients (as the study arm) with newly diagnosed, locally advanced (clinical T3-T4 and/or N1/N2, M0) lower rectal cancer. For comparative analysis, 102 matched patients (as the historical control arm) with rectal cancer were also selected. All the patients were treated with LDRBT (15 Gy in 3 fractions) and concurrent chemoradiation (45-50.4 Gy). Concurrent chemotherapy consisted of oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1 plus oral capecitabine 825 mg/m2 twice daily during LDRBT and EBRT. Results The study results revealed a significant differences between the study arm and the control arm in terms in the pathologic tumor size (2.1 cm vs. 3.6 cm, P = 0.001), the pathologic tumor stage (35% T3-4 vs. 65% T3-4, P = 0.003), and the pathologic complete response (29.4% vs. 11.7%, P < 0.028). Moreover, a significantly higher dose of EBRT (P = 0.041) was found in the control arm, and a longer time to surgery was observed in the study arm (P < 0.001). The higher rate of treatment-related toxicities, such as mild proctitis and anemia, in the study arm was tolerable and easily manageable. Conclusion A boost of LDRBT can optimize the pathologic complete response, with acceptable toxicities, in patients with distal rectal cancer.

One of the reasons for high mortality of breast cancer is long delay in seeking medical care. This study was designed to measure the association of a wide range of socio-demographic and clinical factors with the diagnostic delay in breast cancer among Iranian patients.This study was conducted on 505 newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer from southern part of Iran. Medical files of the patients who were admitted to the hospital from November 2013 to May 2015 were examined and clinical and demographic information were extracted.According to the results, illiterate patients were diagnosed on average 87.42 days later compared with those with a college degree (95%CI: 29.68-145.16, P = 0.003) and those from rural area were diagnosed on average 72.48 days later (95%CI: 35.94-109.03, P = 0.001) compared with urban residences. Single women were diagnosed 65.99 days later (95%CI: 7.37-124.61, P = 0.02) compared with those married. Lobular or medullary types of cancer were diagnosed 65.19 days later (95%CI: 2.67-127.70, P = 0.04) compared with ductal type. On the other hand, those who were able to perform breast self-exam were diagnosed 49.07 days earlier compared with others (95%CI: 18.69-79.45, P = 0.002). Those felt lump as the initiating symptom were diagnosed 62.01 days earlier, (95%CI: 8.17-115.85, P = 0.02) compared with those with other initial symptoms. The only factor associated with doctors diagnosis delay was the place of residence as rural residences were diagnosed on average 87.42 days later compared with urban residences, (95%CI: 53.82-121.92, P = 0.001).Higher education, living in cities, ductal type of tumor, and noticing lump in breast were the most important demographic and clinical factors associated with shorter breast cancer diagnosis delay. Informing women and doctors, especially general physicians who are practicing in rural areas, of the common symptoms of breast cancer as well as training women to perform breast self-examination are effective measures in reducing breast cancer diagnosis delay. Providing accessible and effective diagnosis services to rural women reduces diagnosis delay in rural patients.