Revising the criteria for the predictors of variceal haemorrhage outcome.

Background And Study Aims: There are many criteria and definitions used to evaluate the failure to control and prevent variceal bleeding. Baveno criteria were developed in Baveno consensus workshops I-III. Some of these criteria are fairly difficult to apply and do not adequately reflect common situations that are observed in clinical practice.

Differences in K-ras and p53 gene mutations among pancreatic adenocarcinomas associated with regional environmental pollution.

Background: Variations in genetic mutations in pancreatic carcinoma between different geographical regions have not been studied extensively, especially in developing countries where pancreatic cancer is relatively rare.

Methods: We studied the molecular pathology of 54 pancreatic adenocarcinomas from Egyptian patients residing in a heavily polluted region of the eastern Nile River delta and compared the findings with 45 tumors from patients residing in low-pollution regions.

Results: Rates of K-ras mutation in codon 12 and of p53 mutation in exons 5-8 were higher in tumors of patients from the high-pollution region as compared with the low-pollution regions (61.

Knowledge gained after a brief CME module on breast cancer diagnosis.

Background: In developing countries, continuing medical education (CME) is lacking and physicians' knowledge of cancer control may also be lacking.

Method: We evaluated knowledge of 144 primary care physicians in Egypt and 50 in Tunisia regarding breast cancer (BC) and inflammatory BC (IBC) in particular. We invited the physicians to pretesting, presentation of an educational module, and post-testing.