Human papillomavirus in cervical cancers of Malaysians.

Aim: With cervical carcinoma remaining the second leading cancer among Malaysian women, it is imperative to clarify the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in this respect, considering the dearth of local information.

Material And Methods: Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FP) tissues of 29 invasive cervical carcinoma cases, diagnosed between 1 January 1991 and 31 December 1992, fresh, frozen (FF) and paired FP tissues of 43 cases diagnosed between 1 January 1995 and 31 December 2000, and 21 FF normal control cervices were subjected to polymerase chain amplification (PCR) for HPV following successful amplification of a 268 bp β-globin fragment using primers specific for HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 and consensus L1 ORF (MY09/11).

Results: HPV was detected in 69.

Third S. S. Ratnam memorial lecture 2007. Ovarian cancer: Is there hope for women?

Ovarian cancer is today the most lethal female cancer with an overall survival of only 49.9%. The currently available screening modalities are disappointing in detecting highly curable early stage ovarian cancer.

Clinical usefulness of tumour markers.

Tumour markers are substances related to the presence or progress of a tumour. An ideal tumour marker is (1) detectable only when malignancy is present, (2) specific for the type and site of malignancy, (3) correlates with the amount of malignant tissue present and (4) responds rapidly to a change in tumour size. At present, no tumour marker fulfills all of the above criteria.

Management of gestational trophoblastic disease in developing countries.

In Malaysia, the incidence of molar pregnancy and gestational trophoblastic neoplasia is 2.8 and 1.59 per 1000 deliveries, respectively; the disease is more common among the Chinese compared to the Malays and Indians.

Telomerase activation and human papillomavirus infection in invasive uterine cervical carcinoma in a set of Malaysian patients.

Aim: Telomerase activity was studied in invasive uterine cervical carcinoma to assess whether it was activated during cervical malignant transformation and to look for a possible association with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in a set of Malaysian patients.

Methods: Histologically confirmed invasive cervical carcinoma and benign cervices were assayed for telomerase activity using a commercial telomerase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kit. The same cases were subjected to PCR detection of HPV using type specific (HPV types 6b, 11, 16, and 18) followed by L1 open reading frame (ORF) consensus primers.