The current study was designed to investigate the changes in the circulating Epstein–Barr virus DNA load (EBV DNA) at various time points before and after treatment and its clinical significance in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A total of 142 patients with NPC were prospectively enrolled in this study. The plasma EBV DNA concentration was measured before and after treatment using qPCR. The prognostic values of the EBV DNA load were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression tests. Following multivariate analysis, our data showed that high pre-EBV DNA loads were associated with significantly poorer distant metastasis free survival (DMFS) and progression free survival (PFS); detectable end-EBV DNA loads were associated with significantly worse loco-regional recurrence free survival (LRRFS) and PFS, and the detecTable 6 months-post-EBV DNA loads were associated with significantly poorer overall survival (OS), DMFS and PFS (p < 0.05). Additionally, combining the pre-EBV DNA load and the stage of the disease, our results showed that patients at stage III-IVA with a low pre-EBV DNA load had similar survival rates as patients at stage II with a low or high pre-EBV DNA load, but had better survival rates than those at stage III-IVA with a high pre-EBV DNA load. Taken together, we showed that the change of the EBV DNA load measured at several time points was more valuable than at any single time point for predicting patients’ survival for NPC. Furthermore, combining the pre-EBV DNA load and the TNM classification could help to formulate an improved prognostic model for this cancer.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide, accounting for 24.5% of total new cancer cases and 15.5% of total cancer deaths. Similarly, BC is the most common cancer among Moroccan women, comprising a noteworthy percentage of 40% of all cancers in women. Globally, 15% of cancers are attributable to infections; among them, viruses play a significant role. The present study aimed to explore the presence of a wide range of viral DNA in samples recovered from 76 Moroccan patients with BC and 12 controls using Luminex technology. The explored viruses were as follows: 10 polyomaviruses (PyVs): BKV, KIV, JCV, MCV, WUV, TSV, HPyV6, HPyV7, HPyV9, and SV40; and 5 Herpesviruses (HHVs): CMV, EBV1, EBV2, HSV1, and HSV2. Our results revealed the presence of PyVs DNA in both control (16.7%) and BC tissues (18.4%). Nonetheless, HHV DNA was detected exclusively in BC tissues (23.7%), with a predominance of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) (21%). In conclusion, our study highlights the presence of EBV in human BC tissues, which may play an important role in its development and/or progression. Further investigations are needed to confirm the presence/co-presence of these viruses in BC.

In the last few decades, North African countries have faced the nutrition transition, leading to an increase in obesity, exacerbated by an extremely low rate of physical activity (PA). Particular attention must be paid to abdominal obesity (one of the metabolic syndrome criteria), which has been linked to several health problems. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of overweight/obesity, particularly abdominal obesity, in a sample of urban Moroccan women and to analyze the anthropometric indicators of metabolic syndrome risk among subsamples with different PA and socio-demographic characteristics. Urban Moroccan women living in Casablanca (n = 304; mean age 37.4 ± 15.6 years) were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Data concerning socio-demographic variables, PA behavior, and anthropometric measures (height, weight, waist, and hip circumferences) were directly collected. Body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and relative fat mass were computed. Comparisons between women with different socio-demographic characteristics were performed through ANCOVA adjusted for age. The results reveal that 39.4% of the women did not practice any PA. The percentage of women above the cutoffs of risk for general and central obesity was more than half for all the indexes, except for waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and 19.6% were at a very high risk of health issues. Moreover, being female unmarried, childless, graduates, and students were found to be protective against obesity. In conclusion, Moroccan women have a high level of obesity, especially abdominal, and preventive interventions are needed to reduce the health impact of obesity in this population.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype of breast cancer characterized by the absence of hormone receptors and HER2 expression, resulting in limited treatment options and poorer prognoses. This study investigates the genetic landscape of TNBC in Moroccan patients through high-throughput whole-exome sequencing (WES) to identify genetic alterations that could enhance diagnostic accuracy and inform targeted therapies. Case Presentation: This study included 10 unrelated Moroccan female patients diagnosed with TNBC, recruited from the National Institute of Oncology in Rabat, Morocco. Clinical data, including tumor location, Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) grade, histological type, lymph node involvement, and Ki-67 index, were collected. Tumor grades varied from SBR grade II to IV, with some cases demonstrating metastasis to distant organs. The Ki-67 index ranged from 10% to 80%, indicating a range of tumor proliferative activity across the cohort. Conclusion: This study provides insights into the genetic landscape of TNBC in Moroccan patients. It highlights novel genetic variants in CTBP2, IGSF3, ZNF334, TPRG1, and NMNAT1, suggesting their potential as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for TNBC. These findings emphasize the importance of investigating genetic alterations in underrepresented populations, which could help refine treatment strategies and predict treatment responses.

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is one of the most common head and neck cancers. NPC differs significantly from other cancers in its etiology, epidemiology, clinical behavior, and treatment. Being highly radiosensitive, the standard treatment for NPC is radiotherapy. However, radioresistance hampers the success of treatment and may cause local recurrence and distant metastases in NPC patients. In this review, we discuss the updated protocols for NPC diagnosis and treatment based on recent literature with an emphasis on the mechanisms of radioresistance at the molecular level with a special focus on genetic and epigenetic events, affecting genes involved in xenobiotic detoxification and DNA repair. We also highlight the importance of some cellular and Epstein Barr viral miRNAs targeting specific DNA repair factors and consequently promoting NPC radioresistance. These molecular markers may serve as promising tools for diagnosis, prognosis, and radioresistance prediction to guide theranostics of patients with NPC in the future.

Purpose: While nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) management in Morocco is still based on conventional work-ups: a head and neck computed tomography (HN-CT), thoracic and abdominal CT and bone scan, the combination of HN magnetic resonance imaging (HN-MRI) and 2-Deoxy-2-[¹⁸F] fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT) is now widely used in the diagnostic and follow-up of this malignancy.Methods: In this prospective study, [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT and HN-MRI outcomes of 117 NPC patients diagnosed between January 2017 and December 2018 were investigated in order to assess their usefulness in routine management of Moroccan patients with NPC. The concordance between HN-MRI and [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT in Tumor (T) and Nodal (N) classification was assessed and the association between [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters (Tumor- maximum standardized uptake value (T-SUV max), Nodal (N-SUV max), node-to-tumor SUV ratio (NTR) and distant metastasis (M-SUV max), TNM staging system, NPC stages and patient’s survival outcomes was evaluated. Results: Our results showed a moderate concordance between T-TEP and T-MRI categories with a Cohen kappa coefficient (k) at 0.45, and a mediocre concordance between N-TEP and N-MRI (k=0.3). Metabolic parameters of the [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT were assessed; N-SUV max values were significantly higher in patients with advanced nodal involvement, with a mean of 7.4, 9.7 and 11.0 for patients with N1, N2 and N3 nodal categories, respectively (p<0.05). overall, N-SUV max, NTR were independent prognostic markers for overall survival and progression free survival in Moroccan NPC patients (p<0.05).Conclusion: Our findings provide additional evidence into the complementary roles of HN-MRI and [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT in TNM and overall staging of NPC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Moroccan study to highlight N-SUV max and NTR derived from [¹⁸F] FDG-PET/CT as promising metabolic biomarkers for NPC prognosis.