Pleumjit Boonyaphiphat

Lifestyle habits and genetic susceptibility and the risk of esophageal cancer in the Thai population

The association of lifestyle habits and polymorphism of ADH2 and ALDH2 genes with the risk of esophageal cancer in Thai population was investigated in a hospital-based case-control study: 202 cases and 261 controls. The results of multivariate logistic analysis showed that alcohol consumption >60g/day, smoking >10 cigarettes/day and chewing betel >or=10 quids/day significantly increased risk (odds ratio (OR) 5.84, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.15-10.83; 4.65, 95% CI 1.99-10.84; and 4.68, 95% CI 2.05-10.72, respectively). ADH2*1/*1 also increased the risk significantly (OR 1.56, 95% CI 1.01-2.39) while ALDH2 did not (OR of ALDH2*1/*2 1.57, 95% CI 0.89-2.76). However, the combined at risk genotypes, ADH2*1/*1 and ALDH2*1/*2 increased risk to four-fold. In addition, significant gene-environment interaction was found. Heavy drinkers >60g/d harboring ADH2*1/*1 or ALDH2*1/*2 had about an 11-fold increased risk.

p53 expression related to the aggressive infiltrative histopathological feature of basal cell carcinoma

p53 expression related to the aggressive infiltrative histopathological feature of basal cell carcinoma

p53 mutations in betel-associated oral cancer from Thailand

The p53 mutations in betel-related oral cancer have been studied but the results may be confounded by tobacco and alcohol due to tobacco components in the quid or concomitant habits of smoking and drinking. In this study, p53 mutations in tumors from Thai betel chewers who neither smoke nor drink were studied in comparison to tumors from smokers/drinkers. PCR-SSCP analysis and direct sequencing on exon 5-8 were performed. Mutations were detected in 11.8% (8/68) of betel-related tumors and 7 of 8 mutations were G:C to A:T transitions. By contrast, mutations were found in 22.4% (13/58) of smoking/drinking-related tumors with various base substitutions. The results demonstrated different mutation profiles between the two exposed groups. The type of mutation detected in betel chewers suggested a possible role of areca-specific nitrosamine as a causative carcinogen.

Segmentation of Cancer Cells in Microscopic Images using Neural Network and Mathematical Morphology

This paper presents the segmentation of cancer cells in a microscopic tissue image from breast cancer. We perform color classification using the neural network. Subsequently, morphological operations and cell size considerations are used for eliminating spike noise and separating cancer cells. The excellent segmentation results from the proposed algorithm are demonstrated with microscopic images under both low and high histological noise conditions. These preliminary results of the automated image analysis show a promising solution to the traditional manual analysis

Comparative proteomic analysis of oral squamous cell carcinoma and adjacent non-tumour tissue from Thailand

OBJECTIVE The study was aimed at analysing and identifying the proteins that are differentially expressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) compared to adjacent non-tumour tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two-dimensional (2D) sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis accompanied by mass spectrometry (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time-of-flight mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) was used to analyse and identify the differentially expressed proteins in 10 pairs of tumours and adjacent non-tumour tissues from five cases of early-stage and five cases of late-stage OSCC. The statistical differences of the protein spots were analysed by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A validation study using immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed. RESULTS A total of 68 proteins (63 up-regulated, five down-regulated) were differentially expressed in early-stage disease, and 39 proteins (37 up-regulated, two down-regulated) were significantly altered in late-stage disease. Among these, 14 proteins were altered in both groups. A total of 44 proteins were identified, including heat shock proteins (HSPs: Hsp90, HSPA5 and HSPA8), keratins (K1, K6A and K17), tubulin, cofilin 1, 14-3-3σ and metabolic enzymes. These proteins are involved in various cellular processes essential for cell growth, survival and cell migration. The validation study on α-tubulin and 14-3-3σ using immunohistochemistry and KIAA1199 expression using real-time RT-PCR confirmed the results in proteomics analysis. CONCLUSIONS The study identified many proteins, both known and unknown, for cancer cell processes. At least two proteins, KIAA1199 and Horf6, are novel for oral cancer.

Cell type classifiers for breast cancer microscopic images based on fractal dimension texture analysis of image color layers

Having a classifier of cell types in a breast cancer microscopic image (BCMI), obtained with immunohistochemical staining, is required as part of a computer-aided system that counts the cancer cells in such BCMI. Such quantitation by cell counting is very useful in supporting decisions and planning of the medical treatment of breast cancer. This study proposes and evaluates features based on texture analysis by fractal dimension (FD), for the classification of histological structures in a BCMI into either cancer cells or non-cancer cells. The cancer cells include positive cells (PC) and negative cells (NC), while the normal cells comprise stromal cells (SC) and lymphocyte cells (LC). The FD feature values were calculated with the box-counting method from binarized images, obtained by automatic thresholding with Otsus method of the grayscale images for various color channels. A total of 12 color channels from four color spaces (RGB, CIE-L*a*b*, HSV, and YCbCr) were investigated, and the FD feature values from them were used with decision tree classifiers. The BCMI data consisted of 1,400, 1,200, and 800 images with pixel resolutions 128 × 128, 192 × 192, and 256 × 256, respectively. The best cross-validated classification accuracy was 93.87%, for distinguishing between cancer and non-cancer cells, obtained using the Cr color channel with window size 256. The results indicate that the proposed algorithm, based on fractal dimension features extracted from a color channel, performs well in the automatic classification of the histology in a BCMI. This might support accurate automatic cell counting in a computer-assisted system for breast cancer diagnosis.

Anticancer and Cancer Prevention Effects of Piperine-Free Piper nigrum Extract on N-nitrosomethylurea-Induced Mammary Tumorigenesis in Rats

Piper nigrum (P. nigrum) is commonly used in traditional medicine. This current study aimed to investigate the anticancer and cancer preventive activity of a piperine-free P. nigrum extract (PFPE) against breast cancer cells and N-nitrosomethylurea (NMU)–induced mammary tumorigenesis in rats. The cytotoxic effects and the mechanism of action were investigated in breast cancer cells using the MTT assay and Western blot analysis, respectively. An acute toxicity study was conducted according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development guideline. Female Sprague-Dawley rats with NMU-induced mammary tumors were used in preventive and anticancer studies. The results showed that PFPE inhibited the growth of luminal-like breast cancer cells more so than the basal-like ones by induction of apoptosis. In addition, PFPE exhibited greater selectivity against breast cancer cells than colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and neuroblastoma cells. In an acute toxicity study, a single oral administration of PFPE at a dose of 5,000 mg/kg body weight resulted in no mortality and morbidity during a 14-day observation period. For the cancer preventive study, the incidence of tumor-bearing rats was 10% to 20% in rats treated with PFPE. For the anticancer activity study, the growth rate of tumors in the presence of PFPE-treated groups was much slower when compared with the control and vehicle groups. The extract itself caused no changes to the biochemical and hematologic parameters when compared with the control and vehicle groups. In conclusion, PFPE had a low toxicity and a potent antitumor effect on mammary tumorigenesis in rats. Cancer Prev Res; 9(1); 74–82. ©2015 AACR.

An Automatic Cell Counting Method for a Microscopic Tissue Image from Breast Cancer

This paper presents an automatic cell counting method for a microscopic tissue image from breast cancer. We perform color space changing from RGB to CIELab and anisotropic diffusion filtering for noise removal in the preprocessing stage. Subsequently, the segmentation algorithm based on local adaptive thresholding, morphological operations, and cell size considerations is performed. In order to obtain the more correct counting number of cancer cells, we further process the image containing attached cancer cells with marker-controlled watershed segmentation. Results from our automatic counting approach show a promising solution to the traditional manual analysis. That is, the counting number of cancer cells from the automatic approach is comparable to that from a specialist.

Ethnic disparity in breast cancer survival in southern Thai women

BACKGROUND Breast cancer has the highest incidence in women of all cancers and its burden is expected to continue to increase worldwide, especially in middle-income countries such as Thailand. The southern region of Thailand is unique in that it is comprised of 30% Muslims, whereas the rest of Thailand is 95% Buddhist. Breast cancer incidence and survival differ between these religious groups, but the association between clinical subtype of breast cancer and survival has not yet been assessed. METHODS Here we characterized differences in breast cancer survival with consideration to clinical subtype by religious group (Muslim Thai and Buddhist Thai women). We compared distributions of age, stage and clinical subtype and assessed overall survival by religion. RESULTS Our findings show that Muslim Thai women with breast cancer are diagnosed at a younger age, at later stages and have shorter overall survival times compared to Buddhist Thai women with breast cancer. We also observe a higher proportion of triple negative tumors characterized in Muslim Thai women. CONCLUSIONS Our findings confirm previous studies that have shown lower survival rates in Muslim Thai women compared to Buddhist women with breast cancer and offer novel information on subtype distribution. To date, this is the first study assessing clinical subtypes in southern Thailand by religious status. IMPACT Our findings are critical in providing information on the role of clinical subtype in cancer disparities and provide evidence from the Southeast Asian region for global studies on breast cancer survival.

Computer Aided System for Nuclear Stained Breast Cancer Cell Counting

1.1 Image characteristics Immunohistochemistry is a technique used for detecting in situ a tissue antigen by a specific antibody. An antigen-antibody reaction is visualized by the color development of specific dye and can be seen by light microscope. The tissue antigen is presented at any part of the cell, i.e., cell membrane, cytoplasm or nucleus. Therefore, it is a useful technique to demonstrate the protein markers including cancer cell. Estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) are prognostic markers for breast cancer detected by this method. Evaluation of ER and PR positive cells are useful for hormonal therapy.