Publications by authors named "Afifa Maaloul"

Several syndromic forms of digestive cancers are known to predispose to early-onset gastric tumors such as Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC) and Lynch Syndrome (LS). LSII is an extracolonic cancer syndrome characterized by a tumor spectrum including gastric cancer (GC). In the current work, our main aim was to identify the mutational spectrum underlying the genetic predisposition to diffuse gastric tumors occurring in a Tunisian family suspected of both HDGC and LS II syndromes.

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Mutational screening of the CDH1 gene is a standard treatment for patients who fulfill Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer (HDGC) testing criteria. In this framework, the classification of variants found in this gene is a crucial step for the clinical management of patients at high risk for HDGC. The aim of our study was to identify CDH1 as well as CTNNA1 mutational profiles predisposing to HDGC in Tunisia.

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Background: Homeobox A5 (HOXA5) is a member of the HOX protein family which is involved in several carcinogenesis pathways, and is dysregulated in many cancer types. However, its expression and function in human colorectal cancer (CRC) is still largely unknown.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate HOXA5 expression in Tunisian patients with CRC in order to define new potential biomarker.

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Background: Lynch syndrome (LS) is a highly penetrant inherited cancer predisposition syndrome, characterized by autosomal dominant inheritance and germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes. Despite several genetic variations that have been identified in various populations, the penetrance is highly variable and the reasons for this have not been fully elucidated. This study investigates whether, besides pathogenic mutations, environment and low penetrance genetic risk factors may result in phenotype modification in a Tunisian LS family.

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Background: Several studies have reported the oncogenic role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) carcinogenesis. Considering that HPV could affect tumor protein 53 (TP53) degradation via E6 oncoprotein, we evaluated the expression of TP53 according to HPV infection and E6 expression.

Methods: Biopsy specimens from 79 NMSCs (28 squamous cell carcinomas, 21 keratoacanthomas and 30 basal cell carcinomas) were enrolled.

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