The Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, discussed on Monday, the 9th of October, the Master's thesis in the field of Pathology - Medical Genetics by the student (Dr. Wad Thamer Salman). The thesis was titled "Molecular Detection of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Microsatellite Instability Markers in Patients with Colorectal Cancer and its Clinical and Pathological Correlations."
The thesis was supervised by Dr. Bassam Musa Sadiq, and the examining committee consisted of Dr. Asraa Ali Hussein as the chairperson, and members including Dr. Ikram Abdul Latif Hasan and Dr. Munawar Abdul Ilah Al-Naqash.
The aim of the thesis was to study and determine the frequency and types of microsatellite instability (MSI) in patients with colorectal cancer and to correlate the results with clinical and pathological characteristics.
The retrospective study included 45 Iraqi patients with colorectal cancer who were referred to the Teaching Hospital of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Baghdad Teaching Hospital in the Medical City of Baghdad between September 13, 2021, and April 14, 2022.
The study found that the frequency of MSI-H was 11.1% (5 patients), of whom 3 were under the age of 50. Most of these cases were of the mucinous adenocarcinoma type, with a significant p-value of 0.004.
Therefore, the study concluded that the frequency of MSI-H in cases of colorectal cancer is lower than the global range and is predominantly observed in older males with mucinous glandular cancer.
The researcher was awarded an excellent grade after the public defense of her thesis, taking into consideration the use of scientific references and her defense of the thesis.