A study of multinucleated giant cells in esophageal cancer

Objectives: To evaluate the occurrence, abundance, distribution, nature and clinical significance of multi-nucleated giant cell (MGC) in esophageal cancer. Materials and methods: MGCs were examined with conventional pathology, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence in 107 esophageal cancer tissues. The findings were correlated to pathological diagnosis and clinical behavior of the cancers. Results: MGCs were identified in 31.7% (34/107) of the cases. MGCs were positive for CD11c, CD11b, CD32, CD16, HLA-DR and MMP9, and negative for CD163, CD206 and CD64 giving a molecular profile of proinflammatory M1 but not immunosuppressive M2. MGCs were significantly related to decreased lymph node metastasis (p = 0.011), low pTNM stage (p = 0.044), favorable survival (p = 0.04), squamous cell cancer type rather than other histopathological subtypes (p = 0.020) and associated to better differentiation (p = 0.063). Conclusions: MGCs belong to M1 macrophage and perform phagocytosis and scavenging of cancer cells that would benefit patients' survival and could serve as a prognostic marker

Post-translational modifications of EMT transcriptional factors in cancer metastasis

Metastasis is an important reason for death of cancer patients which characterized as the formation of secondary cancers at distant sites. Epithelial– mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a dynamic process that appear to facilitate tumor metastasis in various cancers by switching epithelial cells into mesenchymal properties. Although previous investigation suggested a key role of EMT transcriptional factors in suppression of E-cadherin, the association of these factors with other cellular regulators in cancer metastasis need to be fully elucidated. Post-translational modifications (PTMs), such as acetylation and phosphorylation, have emerged as an important mechanism to modulate biological behavior of substrate proteins. In this review, we summarized protein modification and subsequent function changes of Snail, Twist and ZEB, as well as their influence on tumor progression. Acetylation of EMT transcriptional factors usually cause nuclear localization and/or protein stabilization thus contribute to E-cadherin repression. Besides, Twist and ZEB were phosphorylated by diverse kinases to promote metastasis in many cancers, while Snail was negatively regulated by phosphorylation to degradation. Then, the potential of therapy for metastasis by targeting PTMs-involved regulation of EMT transcriptional factors were discussed

A Meta-analysis of Association between MGMT Gene Promoter Methylation and Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Backgroud and objective DNA promoter methylation of the tumor suppressor genes was one of the key mechanism for gene silence. The aim of this study is to investigate the difference of MGMT gene promoter methylation rate in tumor tissue and autologous controls (serum, normal lung tissue and bronchial lavage fluid) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The databases of Medline, EMBSE, CNKI and Wanfang were searched for selection of published articles of MGMT gene promoter methylation and non-small cell lung carcinoma risk. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and percentage of MGMT for lung cancer tissue of NSCLC patients compared with normal lung tissue, plasma and the bronchial lavage fluid were pooled. Results 15 articles of association between MGMT gene promoter methylation and non small cell lung carcinoma risk were included in this meta-analysis. The combined results demonstrated the methylation rate of MGMT in NSCLC cancer tissue was 38% (95%CI: 23%-53%). For normal lung tissue, plasma and the bronchial lavage fluid were 16% (95%CI: 5%-27%), 23% (95%CI: 10%-34%) and 39% (95%CI: 23%-55%) respectively. The OR in cancer tissue was much higher than that in normal lung tissue and plasma odds ratio (OR) 3.98 (95%CI: 2.71-5.84, P0.05). Conclusions Mehtylation rate in MGMT gene promoter of cancer tissue in NSCLC patients was much higher than that in normal lung tissue and plasma, which showed a close association between NSCLC cancer and MGMT gene promoter methylation

Lapatinib, trastuzumab or the combination added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab versus the combination of trastuzumab and lapatinib added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER2 positive breast cancer. PubMed, MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science and nearly 5 years of the important international conference on oncology records were searched for randomized clinical trials that compared lapatinib plus trastuzumab and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with trastuzumab in combination with NAC and that included pathologic complete response rate as the primary outcome. Finally, 6 clinical randomized controlled trials were included. Meta-analysis shows that pathological complete response rate was significantly increased in trastu-zumab plus lapatinib group than single use trastuzumab group (53.4%, 40.4%, RR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.38 ~ 2.23, p<0.001). In conclusion, the combination of trastuzumab and lapatinib added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HER2 positive breast cancer is more effective.

Defective Expression of TGFBR3 Gene and Its Molecular Mechanisms in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Cell Lines

Background and objective It has been reported that defective expression of TGFBR3 was found in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate expression of TGFBR3 in NSCLC cell lines and normal human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEpiC), and to explore potential molecular mechanisms underlying inactivation of TGFBR3 gene. Methods Western blot was performed to determine the expression of TGFBR3 in HBEpiC and NSCLC cell lines. Automatic image analysis was carried out to estimate relative expression of TGFBR3 protein. We screened for mutation of the promoter region of TGFBR3 gene using DNA direct sequencing. Bisulfite-sodium modification sequencing was used to detect the methylation status of TGFBR3 promoter. Results TGFBR3 protein level was abnormally reduced in NSCLC cell lines as compared with HBEpiC. There was significant difference in TGFBR3 expression between the highly metastatic cell line 95D and non-metastatic cell lines, including LTEP-α-2, A549 and NCI-H460. No mutation and methylation was found in upstream sites -165 to -75 of the proximal promoter of TGFBR3 in HBEpiC and NSCLC cell lines. Hypermethylation was shown in upstream sites -314 to -199 of the distal promoter of TGFBR3 in HBEpiC and NSCLC cell lines. Conclusion Reduced expression of TGFBR3 was observed in NSCLC cell lines, especially in 95D, suggesting that TGFBR3 might play an important role in development and progression of NSCLC and correlate with NSCLC invasion and migration. The methylation event occurring at TGFBR3 promoter is not a major cause for reduction of TGFBR3 expression