Publication bias test for the role of <i>MLH1</i> -93G>A polymorphism (AA/AG versus GG) in (A) CRC and (B) MSI-CRC.

<p>Each point represents a separate study of the indicated association. Log [or] is the natural logarithm of OR. Horizontal lines indicate the magnitude of the mean effect.</p

Articles identified with criteria for inclusion and exclusion.

<p>Articles identified with criteria for inclusion and exclusion.</p

Meta-analysis of the effects of <i>MLH1</i> -93G>A polymorphism on risk of CRC.

a<p><i>P</i> value of Q test for heterogeneity test.</p

Forest plot of the risk of (A) CRC and (B) MSI-CRC associated with the <i>MLH1</i> -93G>A polymorphism (AA/AG versus GG).

<p>The areas of the squares reflect the study-specific weight (inverse of the variance). The diamonds represent the summary OR and 95% CI. The unbroken vertical line is at the null value (OR = 1.0).</p

Analysis of the influence of AA/AG versus GG in the overall CRC meta-analysis.

<p>This figure shows the influence of individual studies on the summary OR. The middle vertical axis indicates the overall OR and the two vertical axes indicate the pooled OR when the left study is omitted from the meta-analysis. The two ends of the dotted lines represent the 95% CI.</p

Characterization of SNPs Associated with Prostate Cancer in Men of Ashkenazic Descent from the Set of GWAS Identified SNPs: Impact of Cancer Family History and Cumulative SNP Risk Prediction

<div><p>Background</p><p>Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple SNPs associated with prostate cancer (PrCa). Population isolates may have different sets of risk alleles for PrCa constituting unique population and individual risk profiles.</p> <p>Methods</p><p>To test this hypothesis, associations between 31 GWAS SNPs of PrCa were examined among 979 PrCa cases and 1,251 controls of Ashkenazic descent using logistic regression. We also investigated risks by age at diagnosis, pathological features of PrCa, and family history of cancer. Moreover, we examined associations between cumulative number of risk alleles and PrCa and assessed the utility of risk alleles in PrCa risk prediction by comparing the area under the curve (AUC) for different logistic models.</p> <p>Results</p><p>Of the 31 genotyped SNPs, 8 were associated with PrCa at p≤0.002 (corrected p-value threshold) with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 1.22 to 1.42 per risk allele. Four SNPs were associated with aggressive PrCa, while three other SNPs showed potential interactions for PrCa by family history of PrCa (rs8102476; 19q13), lung cancer (rs17021918; 4q22), and breast cancer (rs10896449; 11q13). Men in the highest vs. lowest quartile of cumulative number of risk alleles had ORs of 3.70 (95% CI 2.76–4.97); 3.76 (95% CI 2.57–5.50), and 5.20 (95% CI 2.94–9.19) for overall PrCa, aggressive cancer and younger age at diagnosis, respectively. The addition of cumulative risk alleles to the model containing age at diagnosis and family history of PrCa yielded a slightly higher AUC (0.69 vs. 0.64).</p> <p>Conclusion</p><p>These data define a set of risk alleles associated with PrCa in men of Ashkenazic descent and indicate possible genetic differences for PrCa between populations of European and Ashkenazic ancestry. Use of genetic markers might provide an opportunity to identify men at highest risk for younger age of onset PrCa; however, their clinical utility in identifying men at highest risk for aggressive cancer remains limited.</p> </div

Tapered Optical Fiber Probe Assembled with Plasmonic Nanostructures for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Application

Optical fiber-Raman devices integrated with plasmonic nanostructures have promising potentials for <i>in situ</i> probing remote liquid samples and biological samples. In this system, the fiber probe is required to simultaneously demonstrate stable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signals and high sensitivity toward the target species. Here we demonstrate a generic approach to integrate presynthesized plasmonic nanostructures with tapered fiber probes that are prepared by a dipping–etching method, through reversed electrostatic attraction between the silane couple agent modified silica fiber probe and the nanostructures. Using this approach, both negatively and positively charged plasmonic nanostructures with various morphologies (such as Au nanosphere, Ag nanocube, Au nanorod, Au@Ag core–shell nanorod) can be stably assembled on the tapered silica fiber probes. Attributed to the electrostatic force between the plasmonic units and the fiber surface, the nanostructures do not disperse in liquid samples easily, making the relative standard deviation of SERS signals as low as 2% in analyte solution. Importantly, the detection sensitivity of the system can be optimized by adjusting the cone angle (from 3.6° to 22°) and the morphology of nanostructures assembled on the fiber. Thus, the nanostructures-sensitized optical fiber-Raman probes show great potentials in the applications of SERS-based environmental detection of liquid samples

Characteristics of studies included in the CRC meta-analysis.

<p>CRC, colorectal cancer; MSI, microsatellite instability; HWE, Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium; RFLP, restriction fragment length polymorphism.</p

Distribution of the cumulative number of risk alleles among prostate cancer cases and control subjects.

<p>Solid lines represent the median number of risk alleles in controls (black line) and cases (red line). The arrow shows the shift in median number of risk alleles between cases and controls. Abbreviation, SD: standard deviation.</p

Boxplots of the posterior medians of the log odds ratio () for subjects within each true cluster from each of 50 datasets simulated under the model .

<p>(a). Boxplots of posterior medians of for subjects in cluster 1, with the true value given by the horizontal line in green; (b). Boxplots of posterior medians of for subjects in cluster 2, with the true value given by the horizontal line in blue; (c). Boxplots of posterior medians of for subjects in cluster 3, with the true value given by the horizontal line in red.</p