The last ten years have seen remarkable progress in cancer research. However, despite significant breakthroughs in the understanding, prevention, and treatment of cancer, the disease continues to affect millions of people worldwide. Cancer’s complexity compounded with ifnancial, policy and regulatory roadblocks has slowed the rate of progress being made against cancer. In this paper, we review a few of the most recent breakthroughs that are fueling medical advances and bringing new hope for patients affected by this devastating disease. We also address the challenges facing us and the opportunities to accelerate future progress against cancer. The efforts of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to address the cancer burden already extend beyond the borders of the United States of America. hTe AACR is committed to increasing its efforts to stem the tide of cancer worldwide by promoting innovative programs, strategies, and initiatives for cancer researchers and all those engaged in cancer-related biomedical sciences around the world.

This case?controlled study was designed to evaluate the association between various baseline parental factors and the risk of hypospadias in China. Patients were selected from tertiary referral hospitals in Anhui, a province in mid?eastern China. Aquestionnaire was given to the parents of each patient. The ifnal database included 193cases and 835 controls. The incidence of additional coexistent anomalies was 13.0%, primarily cryptorchidism(9.8%). Ten patients(5.1%) were from families with genital anomaly, including ifve families(2.6%) with hypospadias. The risks of hypospadias was higher for children of mothers>35 (odds ratio[OR] =1.47) and<18(OR=2.95) years of age, and in mothers who had consumed alcohol(OR=2.67), used drugs(OR=1.53) and had an infection(OR=1.87) during pregnancy. The risk of hypospadias was also higher when mothers(OR=1.68) and fathers(OR=1.74) were engaged in agriculture. Other factors assessed were not associated with the risk of hypospadias.

Diabetes-Role of epigenetics, genetics,and physiological factors

Cells of organ systems are endowed with a relatively similar genome while epigenome niches keep varying chronologically and defined explicitly in the respective tissues. The genome of an individual is always influenced by parental, embryonic, tissue-specific, and environmental epigenomes and the same must have been the possible reason for invariable inquiries relating to familial, environmental and life style patterns in the preliminary investigations of diabetic complications. Unprecedented methylation of lysine residues of histones and cytosines of CpG islands of promoter DNA impede the transcription of genes and homocysteine is the metabolic key player of methyl groups. Gck and COX7A1 are the 2 examples in the present review to elucidate the epigenetic influence on the onset of diabetes. miRNAs are additional promising cellular components influencing both at transcriptional and translational levels and promoting either in favour or against (i.e., feed back) TFs, signaling factors and proteins through their pliotropic effects and thus are reported to regulate cellular physiology. miR-124a and miR-9 are primarily endemic to nervous tissue and they are now being exploited in islets for their function in executing exocytosis of insulin, which of course is one of the fundamental canons of diabetes. miR-375 persuades beta cells for glucose-induced insulin gene expression. The current approach to evaluate the constellation of genes and their products involved in diabetes in huge number of samples through GWA studies may unravel intricacies involved in the management of diabetes and its associated consequences.

The role of functional polymorphisms of HTT-LPR and COMT in the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome amongst children

Is nasopharyngeal cancer really a "Cantonese cancer"?

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is endemic in Southern China, with Guandong province and Hong Kong reporting some of the highest incidences in the world. The journal Science has called it a "Cantonese cancer". We propose that in fact NPC is a cancer that originated in the Bai-Yue ("proto-Tai-Kadai" or "proto-Austronesian" or "proto-Zhuang") peoples and was transmitted to the Han Chinese in southern China through intermarriage. However, the work by John Ho raised the profile of NPC, and because of the high incidence of NPC in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, NPC became known as a Cantonese cancer. We searched historical articles, articles cited in PubMed, Google, monographs, books and Internet articles relating to genetics of the peoples with high populations of NPC. The migration history of these various peoples was extensively researched, and where possible, their genetic fingerprint identified to corroborate with historical accounts. Genetic and anthropological evidence suggest there are a lot of similarities between the Bai-Yue and the aboriginal peoples of Borneo and Northeast India; between Inuit of Greenland, Austronesian Mayalo-Polynesians of Southeast Asia and Polynesians of Oceania, suggesting some common ancestry. Genetic studies also suggest the present Cantonese, Minnans and Hakkas are probably an admixture of northern Han and southern Bai-Yue. All these populations have a high incidence of NPC. Very early contact between southern Chinese and peoples of East Africa and Arabia can also account for the intermediate incidence of NPC in these regions.

Genetics of Otitis Media (OM): OM is affected by multiple factors including eustachian tube (ET) structure and function, immune status, innate mucosal defense, genetic susceptibility, and pathogens.