Date: 7/9/2011
TUMSPR News: TUMS Digestive Diseases Research Center (DDRC) hosted some distinguished professors from University of Cambridge from the United Kingdom, and National Cancer Institute (NCI) from the United States when it applied sponge biopsy for the diagnosis of esophageal cancer for the first time in Iran in early July 2011.
Based on the news by the Public Relations of the Digestive Diseases Research Center, affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), the Center hosted some distinguished professors from University of Cambridge from the United Kingdom, and National Cancer Institute (NCI) from the United States when it applied sponge biopsy for the diagnosis of esophageal cancer for the first time in Iran in early July 2011.
A group of researchers, including Dr. Reza Malekzadeh, the head of DDRC, accompanied by the researchers from the aforesaid institutions and the executive board of the Center, travelled to Ardabil and Golestan provinces in order to assess an alternative method for the diagnosis of esophageal cancers in comparison with endoscopy for the first time in Iran.
Dr. Malekzadeh, Dr. Sanford Martin Dawsey, Dr. Christian Abnet and Dr. Paolo Boffetta from NCI worked out a plan which started on June 25th 2011 in Ardabil. This plan, which consisted of two ongoing research projects in DDRC, was described by Dr. Emad Ahmadi and Dr. Masoud Babaei at the beginning of the visit. In this meeting, the process of executing the research project on esophageal cancer and the cancer registry in Ardabil were reported. Subsequently, the guests visited Aras Clinic in Ardabil and closely observed the implementation of the research projects.
After the visit, a meeting was held in the conference hall of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ardabil, which Dr. Pourfarzi, the head of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences (ARUMS) and a group of the University faculty members participated as well. Dr. Malekzadeh presented the history of research projects within the past 10 years and fully explained the two aforementioned ongoing research projects in Ardabil. In this meeting, Dr. Boffetta thoroughly described the details of the development of Ardabil cohort. The cohort has been jointly supported by DDRC, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the World Health Organization (WHO). The cohort is focused on gastro-intestinal cancers and metabolic diseases. The authorities of ARUMS appreciated the projects. The meeting was continued with a lecture given by Dr. Dawsey on carcinogenicity of PAH and a lecture by Dr. Abnet on the role of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) in cancer prevention. On Sunday June 26th 2011, another meeting was held as well with the attendance of Dr. Pourfarzi (the head of ARUMS) in which ideas were discussed and exchanged on how to execute the joint projects.
The next agenda comprised the pilot study on the prevention of esophageal cancer in Golestan province. The foreign guests and 15 researchers affiliated to Tehran and Golestan Universities of Medical Sciences were involved in this project. In this study 140 subjects randomly selected from the whole cohort were examined, first by Capsule Sponge Cytology and, thereafter by endoscopy with Lugol staining. In the implementation phase of this project, 140 endoscopies were done within 3 days. In Capsule Sponge Cytology the patient swallows a capsule. A thread is fastened to the capsule, which will be taken out when the thread is pulled. Using this technique, a cytology sample of the subject's esophagus will be obtained. This procedure has the following superiorities over the conventional endoscopy: rapidity (it takes about 5 minutes), easiness (there is no need for injection of sedatives), practicability, independence from specialists (it can be easily done by a health assistant), and cost-effectiveness (it is quite less costly than conventional endoscopy). In this project, Dr. Sotoudeh (a pathologist in DDRC) carried out the cytology phase of the study. He will ultimately be responsible for studying the samples and reporting the future results. In this phase, Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald will collaborate as well.
Photo gallery.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/gallery/detail.asp?galleryID=3563
Video presentation.
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/UserFiles/File/SD%20(non-picture)/2011/July/TUMS-DDRC-sponge%20biopsy-July%202011.flv
http://publicrelations.tums.ac.ir/english/news/detail.asp?newsID=25778
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