Hepatic angiosarcoma arising in an adult mesenchymal hamartoma

The histogenesis of the hepatic sarcoma and its association with hamartoma is not well understood. We hereby present a Chinese patient with hepatic angiosarcoma arising from an adult mesenchymal hamartoma of liver. A 33-yr-old woman was diagnosed hepatic hamartoma eight years ago and presented with epigastric distention recently. Now she was admitted to our hospital with some unusual features: (a) this patient was diagnosed in mid-twenties, (b) the tumor occupied the whole liver and most importantly (c) the hepatic angiosarcoma appeared 8 years after the diagnosis of hamartoma. Based on this case and some reports, hepatic hamartoma may develop to hepatic angiosarcoma

Apolipoprotein E Overexpression Is Associated With Tumor Progression and Poor Survival in Colorectal Cancer

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) plays a key role in tumorigenesis and progression, such as cell proliferation, angiogenesis and metastasis. ApoE overexpression was associated with aggressive biological behaviors and poor prognosis in a variety of tumor according to previous studies. This study aimed to assess the prognostic value and explore the potential relationship with tumor progression in colorectal cancer (CRC). We collected the expression profiling microarray data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), investigated the ApoE expression pattern between the primary CRC and liver metastasis of CRC, and then explored the gene with prognostic significance based on the TCGA database. ApoE high expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS, p = 0.015) and progression-free survival (PFS, p = 0.004) based on the public databases. Next, ApoE expression was evaluated in two CRC cohorts by immunohistochemistry, of whom 306 cases were stage II and 201 cases were metastatic liver CRC. In the cohort of the liver metastasis, the ApoE expression was increasing in normal mucosa tissue, primary colorectal cancer (PC), and colorectal liver metastases (CLM) in order. Meanwhile, the level of ApoE expression in stage II tumor sample which had no progression evidence in 5 years was lower than that in PC of synchronous liver metastases. The high ApoE expression in PC was an independent risk factor in both stage II (HR = 2.023, [95% CI 1.297–3.154], p = 0.002; HR = 1.883, [95% CI 1.295-2.737], p = 0.001; OS and PFS respectively) and simultaneous liver metastasis (HR = 1.559, [95% CI 1.096–2.216], p = 0.013; HR = 1.541, [95% CI 1.129–2.104], p = 0.006; OS and PFS respectively). However, the overexpression of ApoE could not predict the benefit from the chemotherapy in stage II. The study revealed that the relevance of the ApoE overexpression in CRC progression, conferring a poor prognosis in CRC patients especially for stage II and simultaneous liver metastasis. These finding may improve the prognostic stratification of patients for clinical strategy selection and promote CRC clinic outcomes

Satisfactory short-term outcomes of totally laparoscopic ileostomy reversal compared to open surgery in colorectal cancer patients

BackgroundRecently, totally laparoscopic (TLAP) surgery has suggested its potential on ileostomy reversal. This study aimed to compare the short-term outcomes between TLAP and traditional open ileostomy reversal.Patients and methodsFrom September 2016 to September 2021, 107 eligible patients underwent TLAP (n = 48) or open (n = 59) loop ileostomy reversal were retrospectively enrolled. Surgical parameters, postoperative recovery and complications were identified and compared between TLAP technique vs. open surgery.ResultsThe operation time and estimated blood loss showed no obvious difference between TLAP and open group. However, TLAP reversal significantly decreased the incision length (4.5cm vs. 6cm, P < 0.001). Furthermore, patients underwent TLAP surgery showed quicker first ground activities (1 day vs. 2 days, P < 0.001), faster first flatus passage (2 days vs. 3 days, P = 0.004) and shorter postoperative stay (5 days vs. 7 days, P = 0.007). More importantly, postoperative complications were significantly reduced after TLAP reversal (3 cases vs. 10 cases, P = 0.026). Further logistic regression analyses also indicated the TLAP technique was associated with lower incidence of complications (OR=3.316, CI, 1.118–9.835; P = 0.031).ConclusionsTLAP surgery is competitive in promoting postoperative recovery as well as reducing complications compared to the traditional open ileostomy reversal

Distinction and Recognition of the 'Black Pearl' Fresh Corn Origin Based on Electronic Nose and BP Neural Network

: 'Black pearl' fresh corns from different regions were analyzed using an electronic nose to capture the aroma profile. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant function analysis (DFA) were used for multivariate statistical analysis of 200 data from two regions. Based on this, the judgment model of samples from Heilongjiang production area was built using a soft independent modeling class analysis (SIMCA) algorithm, and a back propagation neural network model was established by Pytorch software to identify and differentiate samples from different regions. The results illustrated that, although the volatile flavor of 'black pearl' fresh corns from different origins were similar, it also showed obvious origin characteristics. SIMCA model could effectively distinguish whether unknown samples come from Heilongjiang (the accuracy rate was 97%), while BP neural network model could predict and identify the origin of 'black pearl' fresh corns from unknown production areas, and the average accuracy rate was 99.44%. The combination of electronic nose technology and BP neural network model could accurately distinguish and identify the origin of 'black pearl' fresh corns

Cell-free circulating mitochondrial DNA content and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with chronic HBV infection.

Recent studies have demonstrated a potential link between circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content and cancers. However, there is no study evaluating the association between circulating mtDNA as a non-invasive marker of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) risk. We conducted a nested case-control study to determine circulating mtDNA content in serum samples from 116 HBV-related HCC cases and 232 frequency-matched cancer-free HBV controls, and evaluate the retrospective association between mtDNA content and HCC risk using logistic regression and their temporal relationship using a mixed effects model. HCC cases had significantly lower circulating mtDNA content than controls (1.06 versus 2.47, P = 1.7 × 10(-5)). Compared to HBV patients with higher mtDNA content, those with lower mtDNA content had a significantly increased risk of HCC with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.28-3.72, P = 0.004). Quartile analyses revealed a significant dose-dependent effect (Ptrend = 0.001) for this association. In a pilot longitudinal sub-cohort of 14 matched cases-control pairs, we observed a trend of dramatically decreased mtDNA content in cases and slightly decreased mtDNA content in controls, with a significant interaction of case-control status with time (Pinteraction = 0.049). Our findings suggest that circulating mtDNA is a potential novel non-invasive biomarker of HCC risk in HBV patients

Primary tumor resection in colorectal cancer patients with unresectable distant metastases: a minireview

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related death among both men and women worldwide and the third most common cancer overall. About 20% of patients diagnosed with CRC were discovered to have distant metastatic lesions, the majority of which were located in the liver. For the optimum treatment of CRC patients with hepatic metastases, interventional radiologists, medical oncologists, and surgeons must all collaborate. The surgical excision of the primary tumor is an important part of CRC treatment since it has been found to be curative in cases of CRC with minimal metastases. However, given the evidence to date was gathered from retrospective data, there is still controversy over the effectiveness of primary tumor resection (PTR) in improving the median overall survival (OS) and quality of life. Patients who have hepatic metastases make up a very tiny fraction of those who are candidates for resection. With a focus on the PTR, this minireview attempted to review the current advancements in the treatment options for hepatic colorectal metastatic illness. This evaluation also included information on PTR’s risks when performed on individuals with stage IV CRC

Prioritizing human cancer microRNAs based on genes’ functional consistency between microRNA and cancer

The identification of human cancer-related microRNAs (miRNAs) is important for cancer biology research. Although several identification methods have achieved remarkable success, they have overlooked the functional information associated with miRNAs. We present a computational framework that can be used to prioritize human cancer miRNAs by measuring the association between cancer and miRNAs based on the functional consistency score (FCS) of the miRNA target genes and the cancer-related genes. This approach proved successful in identifying the validated cancer miRNAs for 11 common human cancers with area under ROC curve (AUC) ranging from 71.15% to 96.36%. The FCS method had a significant advantage over miRNA differential expression analysis when identifying cancer-related miRNAs with a fine regulatory mechanism, such as miR-27a in colorectal cancer. Furthermore, a case study examining thyroid cancer showed that the FCS method can uncover novel cancer-related miRNAs such as miR-27a/b, which were showed significantly upregulated in thyroid cancer samples by qRT-PCR analysis. Our method can be used on a web-based server, CMP (cancer miRNA prioritization) and is freely accessible at http://bioinfo.hrbmu.edu.cn/CMP. This time- and cost-effective computational framework can be a valuable complement to experimental studies and can assist with future studies of miRNA involvement in the pathogenesis of cancers