Publications by authors named "N A Taib"

One of the main challenges in breast cancer management is health system literacy to provide optimal and timely diagnosis and treatments within complex and multidisciplinary health system environments. Digitalised patient navigation programs have been developed and found to be helpful in high- and low-resource settings, but gaps remain in finding cost-effective navigation in the public sector in Malaysia, where resources are scarce and unstable. Hence, we set out to develop a virtual patient navigation application for breast cancer patients to enhance knowledge about cancer diagnosis and treatments and provide a tracking mechanism to ensure quality care.

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The bacterial envelope is one of the oldest and most essential cellular components and has been traditionally divided into Gram-positive (monoderm) and Gram-negative (diderm). Recent landmark studies have challenged a major paradigm in microbiology by inferring that the last bacterial common ancestor had a diderm envelope and that the outer membrane (OM) was lost repeatedly in evolution to give rise to monoderms. Intriguingly, OM losses appear to have occurred exclusively in the Terrabacteria, one of the two major clades of bacteria.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study analyzed data from 7,478 Malaysian women diagnosed with breast cancer over a 15-year period to track trends in age, tumor characteristics, and treatment approaches.
  • - Findings indicated an increase in the number of older patients and a slight rise in early-stage diagnoses, but more importantly, there was a notable improvement in tumor size, differentiation, and treatment effectiveness, especially for HER2-overexpressed tumors.
  • - Despite these advancements in survival rates, the study highlights the need for earlier detection methods and better access to effective treatments for breast cancer patients in Malaysia.
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  • Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are challenging to treat, but some may respond to PARP inhibitors based on their genetic features, even if they don't carry BRCA mutations.
  • Researchers analyzed genomic data from 129 TNBC samples in Malaysia, creating a machine learning tool to identify homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) in these cancers.
  • The classifier showed high accuracy in detecting HRD features, which could help identify TNBC patients who might benefit from specific treatments like PARP inhibitors or platinum-based chemotherapy.
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Background: The understanding that mental health recovery is a personal and subjective experience informs mental health policies in many countries. However, most of the populations in these studies are from the West, limiting their applicability in Asia. Peer support in mental health refers to helping and mentoring people who have overcome similar obstacles.

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