Ahmad Kaviani

• Professor of Surgery
• Editor at Archives of Breast Cancer

Introduction: Acquisition of technical skills remotely in a decentralized model requires an efficacious way of providing feedback. The primary objective was to test the efficacy of various forms of feedback on the acquisition of surgical skills by medical students. Methods: Forty volunteers were randomized to four experimental groups, differing...

Background The prognostic factors of survival can be accurately identified using data from different health centers, but the structure of multi-center data is heterogeneous due to the treatment of patients in different centers or similar reasons. In survival analysis, the shared frailty model is a common way to analyze multi-center data that assume...

Background: The use of mobile services for health promotion is rapidly increasing. The purpose of this paper is to review studies using cell phone applications as an intervention to improve mental health in breast cancer patients and to provide an overview of their effectiveness. Methods: A systematic search in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Ps...

Introduction Despite the development of breast-conserving surgery in breast cancer treatment, there still remain indications for total mastectomy. Since mastectomy has a significant negative impact on the patients’ quality of life, breast reconstruction is increasingly popular. However, for patients with large ptotic breasts who do not choose tissu...

Oncoplastic breast surgery was introduced over 25 years ago with the integration of plastic surgery and breast cancer surgery. It follows two goals: the first one is the improvement of disease outcomes and local control, and the second one is the improvement of the quality of life. In some situations, oncoplastic breast surgery faces challenges, su...

In survival analysis, data may be correlated or clustered, because of some features such as shared genes and environmental background. A common approach to accommodate clustered data is the Cox frailty model that has proportional hazard assumption and complexity of interpreting hazard ratio lead to the misinterpretation of a direct effect on the ti...

Background: Breast cancer (BC), as the top neoplasm in prevalence and mortality in females, imposes a heavy burden on health systems. Evaluation of quality of care and management of patients with BC and its responsible risk factors was the aim of this study. Methods: We retrieved epidemiologic data of BC from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 1...

Pregnancy‐associated breast cancer (PABC) is a poor prognosis in women, and the mortality rate is higher in this subgroup of patients than in non‐PABC. This study aims to assess clinicopathological and ultrasound features of patients with PABC. Of 75 patients with breast cancer, 31 cases were in lactating, or pregnancy phase and 44 patients had no...

Background: The use of oral corticosteroids to treat idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) has been a point of controversy for a long time. In addition, a wide diversity of combinations with other therapies have been reported so far. This study aims to review the usage of oral corticosteroids and their combinations in the published literature. Me...

Background: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a challenging exclusion diagnosis for breast lesions, manifested as benign, chronic inflammation of the breast tissue. Although some evidence suggests that IGM cases are not uniformly distributed worldwide, few investigations have specifically addressed this topic. This study aims to examine th...

Background A higher risk for breast and ovarian cancer has been reported in BRCA carriers and prophylactic surgeries are proposed to reduce this risk. This retrospective cohort study has evaluated the indication of BRCA1/2 genetic tests in Iranian women and the rate of women's acceptance of prophylactic surgeries recommended by the surgeon. Method...

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are organic compounds that have estrogenic activity and can interfere with the endocrine system. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of these compounds which possess a potential risk for breast cancer. The aim of this research was to evaluate BPA concentration in both the urine and breast adipose tissue samples of breast...

The Cox proportional hazards model is a widely used statistical method for the censored data that model the hazard rate rather than survival time. To overcome complexity of interpreting hazard ratio, quantile regression was introduced for censored data with more straightforward interpretation. Different methods for analyzing censored data using qua...

Background Oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) is becoming an acceptable procedure for the surgical treatment of breast cancer; however, its safety and recurrence rate still need further clarification. This study evaluates the rate of local recurrence and its predictive factors after OBS in a large series of patients. Materials and methods This stud...

Introduction Targeted axillary dissection (TAD) is a novel technique in the field of surgical oncology. During TAD, patients with node-positive breast cancer who clinically responded to neoadjuvant chemotherapy undergo resection of a previously proven metastatic node together with sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND). We aimed to assess the succes...

Background: The study aimed at evaluating steroid biomarker genes (ERα, PGR, ERβ) and determining the expression level of estrogen-regulated genes (SCUB2 and BCL2) and growth factors receptors (HER2 and IGFR1) in cancer tissue samples obtained from Iranian patients with breast cancer. Moreover, relationships with clinicopathologic aspects of tumor...

Background and Objectives Breast-conserving surgery, especially with Oncoplastic Breast Surgery (OBS), is becoming the standard of care in the surgical management of breast cancer. In the present study, we investigate the applied technique of OBS and oncologic outcomes in a large series of patients. Methods This study was conducted between January...

Introduction: Giving gifts is a common way to promote and encourage the use of products of trading companies and increase the patient referrals to diagnostic centers. The present study aimed to assess the practice of physicians of different (sub) specialties/educational levels engaged in breast cancer management in some conflict of interest (COI)...

Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis (IGM) is an uncommon inflammatory disease of the breast, with similar presentations as breast cancer and a relatively high recurrence rate. We reviewed the demographics, clinical presentations, and treatment modalities of a large cohort of patients in Iran. Most of the patients had history of pregnancy and breastfe...

Background: This study aimed to translate and validate the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory (FCRI) questionnaire into Persian and to investigate its psychometric properties. Methods: The FCRI was translated to Persian using a linguistic methodology according to WHO guidelines. A total of 450 breast cancer survivors who had the following inclusi...

Background: Breast cancer, with an incidence of 33.2 per 100,000 in Iranian population, is considered as the most common cancer in Iranian women. Nowadays, with the increasing survival rates, breast reconstruction has been integrated into surgical techniques of breast cancer treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the current status of br...

Background Using data from different health centers can provide more accurate knowledge of the survival prognostic factors and their effect on the patient’s survival. In this multicenter study, we aimed to investigate the role of prognostic factors on breast cancer survival with large data set. Methods This historical cohort study was carried out...

The localization of nonpalpable axillary metastatic lymph nodes has been achieved using several techniques in the past. Amongst these techniques, the use of radioactive iodine seeds is increasingly spread, and was initially reserved to breast-conserving surgery. Many studies have assessed the use of radioactive seed localization for the surgical ma...

Background: Although various Oncoplastic Breast Surgery (OBS) techniques have been introduced for various sizes of the breast and locations of tumors , surgeons are still faced with serious challenges for the tumors which have developed in special anatomic parts of the breast. A good instance of these challenges is with the tumors located far from...

Background: Telling bad news to the patients after a diagnosis of breast cancer is one of the most important duties of a physician. The aim of this study was to explore breast cancer patient's preferences regarding how to receive bad news. Methods: A group of 15 women with breast cancer were purposively recruited to this qualitative study. Semi-st...

Breast surgery was revolutionized with the use of oncoplastic reshaping techniques minimizing breast deformities and esthetic complications. However, the application of the current oncoplastic techniques becomes challenging in some situations such as small-size breasts and when the tumors are located in special locations of the breast, for example,...

The goal of this study is to compare the response rate and the recurrence rate of available therapeutic modalities in the treatment of Idiopathic Granulomatous Mastitis (IGM). 374 patients with pathologically confirmed IGM, were included. They were subdivided into three levels of severity. Close observation had the best response rate with the lowes...

Background: Warfarin induced breast necrosis is a rare complication of oral anticoagulant therapy. Although it can be related to protein C, S, and antithrombin III deficiency; the pathogenesis of necrosis is still unknown. Case presentation: We report a case of a 38-year-old woman with extensive left breast necrosis after receiving warfarin for tr...

Background: Breast cancer is considered a chronic disease owing to the increases in survival rate. Thus, better body image and patient satisfaction with the surgery have become more important factors to be considered when choosing the surgical approach. The aim of this study was to compare body image and patient satisfaction following three differe...

Background: Breast cancer is considered a chronic disease owing to the increases in survival rate. Thus, better body image and patient satisfaction with the surgery have become more important factors to be considered when choosing the surgical approach. The aim of this study was to compare body image and patient satisfaction following three differe...

Background: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) of the breast is a rare type of invasive breast cancer, accounting for less than 1% of all breast cancer cases. It is usually a low-grade tumor that rarely metastasizes to the axillary lymph nodes and distant organs. AdCC of the breast is mostly negative for estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and H...

Background: Despite being a frequent plastic surgery complaint, the causes and predisposing factors for breast ptosis have not been studied profoundly. Studying ptosis causative factors will improve prevention, patient select and education, surgical outcome, and patient education. The present study aims to demonstrate the potential predisposing fac...

Introduction: Proliferation of cancer cells and the potential of metastasis depend on the activity of different biomarkers such as proliferative ones. Proliferative biomarkers including ki-67, cyclin E1, cyclin D1, p27, and p21 were analyzed through immunohistochemistry (IHC) in previous studies. Methods: The current study aimed at investigating th...

Background CD44 encoded by a single gene is a cell surface transmembrane glycoprotein. Exon 2 is one of the important exons to bind CD44 protein to hyaluronan. Experimental evidences show that hyaluronan–CD44 interaction intensifies the proliferation, migration, and invasion of breast cancer cells. Therefore, the current study aimed at investigatin...

Background: Evidence on physicians' attitude toward conflict of interest is scant on a global scale and almost non-existent in a regional/national scale. This investigation is a pioneer to evaluate this issue in the Middle East and Iran. Methods: We invited physicians of different (sub)specialties/educational levels who were engaged in breast canc...

Background: Lower rate of mammography in Iranian women was reported compared to the rates reported from developed countries. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the rate of mammography in female academics of Tehran University of medical sciences (TUMS) and its influential factors according to Champion health belief model questionnaire. Methods: In thi...

Background: Self-efficacy is a psychological source for helping patients adjust with breast cancer. The aim of the present review was to synthesize the studies on self-efficacy of women with breast cancer, to determine important factors affecting the perception of self-efficacy in breast cancer as well as to describe the role of self-efficacy in th...

We investigated the role of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in compensating trastuzumab (TZMB)-induced apoptosis in HER2⁺ breast cancer (BC) cells using xenograft tumors. We generated BC xenografts in nude mice using samples from three patients selected based on their HER2 status and response to TZMB therapy. TZMB treatment resul...

Despite many advances in the treatment of breast cancer, it is still the second most common cause of death in women in the United States. It has been shown that inflammation plays a major role in the treatment of these cancers and inflammatory factors enhance tumor growth, invasion, metastasis, and vascularization. In this study, we would like to a...

Background: Idiopathic granulomatous mastitis (IGM) is a rare benign breast disease, which can mimic breast cancer. As the managements of IGM and breast cancer are entirely different and the initial clinical manifestations are similar in several cases, it is very important to differentiate them. Case presentation: We reported a 48-year-old female p...

Background: The AJCC pN-staging system is the current risk stratification strategy for axillary nodal staging in most cancer centers. Recently, another staging system named "Lymph Node Ratio" or LNR has been developed and also postulated to have prognostic value. Precise prognostication of breast cancer by these two systems has multiple methodologi...

Background: Breast cancer is the most prevalent site-specific cancer and one of the most frequent causes of cancer death in women worldwide. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, along with surgical treatment—breast conserving surgery (BCS) or mastectomy—is an important part of treatment for locally advanced breast cancer. As BCS is preferred to mastectomy in...

Background: Breast cancer arising in young patients (≤ 40 years) is being considered as a distinct clinical entity with more aggressive tumor features and poorer survival. Our aim was to assess the impact of age on survival among a large group of Iranian women diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, demographic and clini...

Background: Modified radical mastectomy (), as a surgical treatment in MRM breast cancer patients, may lead to important complications with significant morbidities including seroma formation. In this study, we used topical phenytoin to evaluate its impact on breast and axillary wound drainage and seroma formation after. MRM Methods: In a double-bli...

Depression is a well-known complication of breast cancer, which is known to adversely affect quality of life, prognosis, and survival in breast cancer patients. Celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, which acts via the selective inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2, has been shown to have antidepressive effects. Here, we aimed to compar...

Breast cancer is the leading type of malignancy and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. The screening programs and advances in the treatment of patients with breast cancer have led to an increase in overall survival. Cancer registry systems play an important role in providing basic data for research and the monitoring of...

Introduction: The gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) receptor is over expressed in a variety of common human tumors. Radiolabeled bombesin analogues have exhibited high binding affinity for these receptors. The aim of this study was to assess the value of a new 99mTc-bombesin analog in the differentiation of malignant from benign breast tumors. Method...

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess Iranian surgeons' perceptions toward mastectomy and breast conserving therapy (BCT) and determine the contributing factors.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a structured questionnaire was devised and hosted on survey.tums.ac.ir and a link to the questionnaire was emailed to surgeons register...

Background: Quality of life () is becoming an important indicator of QOL treatment efficacy in patients with breast cancer. Most previous studies have compared patients' following breast conserving surgery () and QOL BCS mastectomy with or without reconstruction. Our aim was to assess the impact of BCS OBS versus oncoplastic breast surgery (). Meth...

Breast conservative surgery (BCS) followed by radiotherapy is the standard approach in management of stage I-II breast cancer. Several factors can affect cosmetic outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cosmetic results of BCS and influencing factors in the Iranian Breast Cancer Research Center. Patients who had undergone BCS were inclu...

Oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS) has gained widespread acceptance during the last two decades as an integral component of breast cancer surgery. OBS combines oncological principles of breast cancer surgery with plastic surgery techniques to provide the best cosmetic results without compromising oncological outcome of breast cancer treatment and it...

Oncoplastic breast surgery ( ) has gained widespread acceptance during OBS the last two decades as an integral component of breast cancer surgery. OBS combines oncological principles of breast cancer surgery with plastic surgery techniques to provide the best cosmetic results without compromising oncological outcome of breast cancer treatment and i...

Background The oncologic efficacy of breast-conserving therapies has been established in recent decades. Oncoplastic Breast Surgery (OBS), as a leap forward in breast conservation offers concomitant techniques of oncologic and plastic surgeries that grant better esthetic results. The outcomes of our oncoplastic surgeries from 2007 to 2012 are repor...

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has replaced axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in early breast cancer patients as the first line surgical approach to axillary nodes. Further dissection is performed only when SLN is involved by tumor cells. However, in a significant proportion of patients, non-sentinel nodes are still not involved...

Background: Seroma formation is a common complication after breast cancer surgery. Several techniques such as tube drainage, fibrin sealant and suturing have been employed to prevent or reduce seroma formation. Capitonnage, a suturing method widely used following hydatid cyst removal, has been used after breast surgery in limited studies. Our aim w...

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy has shown to be a good alternative procedure for axillary lymph node dissection and to lead to lower frequency of morbidity, though this technique has its own side effects. It needs especial equipment and may not be available in some medical centers, especially in developing countries. This study aimed to iden...

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine religious, cultural, and social beliefs of healthy women about breast cancer in rural settings in Iran.Methods: In the present study, 16 in-depth interviews with health care leaders, social and religious experts and 11 focus group discussions were conducted with 79 women in the rural areas near t...

Background: Breast feeding is considered to be mutually beneficial for both mothers and infants, though the effect of lactation problems on development of breast lesions (whether benign or malignant) is not clear. Objectives: This study was conducted to identify possible relations between lactation problems and benign and malignant breast diseas...

Background: As data on the relation between obesity and lymph node ratio are missing in the literature, we here aimed to assess the impact of obesity on this parameter and other clinicopathological features of breast cancer cases and patient survival. Materials and methods: Medical data of 646 patients, all referred to two centers in Tehran, Ira...

Surgical management of breast cancer has evolved considerably over the last two decades. There has been a major shift toward less-invasive local treatments, from radical mastectomy to breast-conserving therapy (BCT) and oncoplastic breast surgery (OBS). In order to investigate the efficacy of each of the three abovementioned methods, a literature r...

Background: Sentinel node biopsy (SLNB) is the standard of care for breast cancer treatment and it is getting wide acceptance in Iran. The radiation safety of the procedure has been investigated under controlled conditions, but the standard dose of radiotracer and techniques are not always observed in the community setting. The aim of this study wa...

The ataxia telangiectasia mutated gene (ATM), candidate for breast cancer susceptibility gene, encode a 350-kDa protein belongs to the core components of DNA-damage response machinery. Female AT carriers have at least 5-fold increase risk for breast cancer. Reduction in ATM expression is shown in multiple studies in breast tissues. We aimed to perf...

This study aims to evaluate the attending surgeons' and residents' attitudes towards error disclosure and factors that can potentially affect these tendencies in major academic hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). In a cross-sectional study, self-administered questionnaires were delivered to all attending surgeons...

The information gained from the Human Genome Project has facilitated molecular as well as cellular studies not only to find the origins of Breast Cancer (BC), but also to create novel, and effective treatments. In order to provide an infrastructure for local and international research in this area, Iranian Center for Breast Cancer (ICBC) has establ...

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) has been shown to promote chronic wound healing in conditions of reduced microcirculation. In this preliminary study, we report the results of using LLLT to heal foot ulcers in patients with diabetes mellitus. Twenty-three patients with a diabetic foot wound for at least 3 months were included in this double-blind ran...

Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC As Wnt and K-ras are two most important signaling pathways activated in colon cancer, exploiting them for colon cancer specific gene therapy seems an attractive biological approach for therapy of colon cancer. Our aim was inserting specific promoters downstream to these...

Considering that breast cancer is one of the most burdensome diseases our societies are facing, and given our lack of knowledge in the research field of the important disease, it is essential that we strategize research policies by identifying defects in research systems in each country. The goal of this study was to explore the published articles...

Background: The oncoplastic surgery has been revolutionized breast conservative surgery. The aim of our study was to represent the cosmetic outcome of oncoplastic breast surgery in Iran and to evaluate its determinants. Methods: Fifty eight patients with unilateral breast neoplasm operated with single surgeon in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran...

Background: Many literatures have documented that psychosocial care can improve health outcomes and reduce morbidity in women with breast cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the opinion of the breast cancer professional team members on integration of psychosocial care in regular management of breast cancer. Methods: A cross sectional samp...

Objective: A descriptive study was carried out to examine patient satisfaction among women attending the Iranian Centre for Breast Cancer. Methods: A specially designed patient satisfaction questionnaire was distributed to all attendees and they were asked to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items on satisfaction with care or...

This study tries to demonstrate that attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) microspectroscopy in combination with chemometric methods can reliably distinguish malignant colon tissues from healthy ones. It is important to explore a noninvasive and rapid method for detection of colon cancer biopsies. Initially, principal c...

Breast pain is a common symptom in patients attending breast clinics. Although most patients experience mastalgia of mild to moderate severity, approximately 15% of patients suffer from severe pain that causes significant distress and some disturbance in their daily life that lead them to seek treatment. Despite a considerable number of drugs sugge...