Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer patients with situs inversus totalis: Two case reports and review of literature.

Background: Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a rare condition in which the positions of abdominal and thoracic organs present a "mirror image" of the normal ones in the median sagittal plane. Although minimally invasive surgery has evolved to achieve laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer (GC) patients with SIT, it is difficult to perform lymphadenectomy (LND) in such a transposed anatomical condition. Herein, we report the cases of two patients with SIT who successfully underwent laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) with D2 LND.

Levels of Phthalates, Bisphenol-A, Nonylphenol, and Microplastics in Fish in the Estuaries of Northern Taiwan and the Impact on Human Health.

Due to the sparsity in knowledge, we investigated the presence of various estrogenic endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EEDCs), including phthalates (PAEs), bisphenol-A (BPA), and nonylphenol (NP), as well as microplastics (MPs) in samples of the most widely consumed fish collected from different estuaries in northern Taiwan. We then proceeded to determine the likely contribution that this exposure has on the potential for health impacts in humans following consumption of the fish. Six hundred fish caught from five river estuaries (producing 130 pooled samples) were analyzed to determine how different factors (such as the river, benthic, pelagic, and migratory species) influence EEDCs' contamination and the possible impacts on human health following typical consumption patterns.

Evaluating the prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in solid tumor: practice of a standardized method from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarkers Working Group.

Purpose: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) become increasingly relevant to tumor progression. This study aims to evaluate (a) methods of TILs assessment and (b) their prognostic significance in gastric cancer (GC).

Methods: The percentage of stromal TILs (psTIL) was reported semi-quantitatively by H&E evaluation.

The prognosis role of AJCC/UICC 8 edition staging system in gastric cancer, a retrospective analysis.

Objective: The present study was designed to investigate whether AJCC/UICC 8 edition staging system precisely differentiated patients with different prognosis of gastric cancer (GC).

Methods: There were 540 GC cases included in this study. Stratification was done according to the 7 and 8 AJCC/UICC tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging systems.

Distribution pattern of tumor associated macrophages predicts the prognosis of gastric cancer.

Purpose: As mayor biomarkers in tumor microenvironment (TME), tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) of gastric cancer (GC) still needs further studies in terms of the number and distribution pattern.

Methods: Herein, tissue microarrays (TMA) incorporating 494 GC surgical samples in duplicate were stained for TAMs infiltration analysis. TAMs number was counted according to the locations, including infiltrating macrophages in cancer nest (MC), in invasive front (MF) and in stroma (MS).

Efficacy and Safety Evaluation of a Chlorine Dioxide Solution.

In this study, a chlorine dioxide solution (UC-1) composed of chlorine dioxide was produced using an electrolytic method and subsequently purified using a membrane. UC-1 was determined to contain 2000 ppm of gaseous chlorine dioxide in water. The efficacy and safety of UC-1 were evaluated.

Long noncoding RNA HULC promotes colorectal carcinoma progression through epigenetically repressing NKD2 expression.

Recently, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been emerged as crucial regulators of human diseases and prognostic markers in numerous of cancers, including colorectal carcinoma (CRC). Here, we identified an oncogenetic lncRNA HULC, which may promote colorectal tumorigenesis. HULC has been found to be up-regulated and acts as oncogene in gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, but its expression pattern, biological function and underlying mechanism in CRC is still undetermined.

Identification of an aptamer through whole cell-SELEX for targeting high metastatic liver cancers.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most deadly human cancers due to its ability of invasion and metastasis. Thus, the approaches to identify potential compounds that inhibit invasion and metastasis of HCC are critical for treatment of this disease. In the present study, we used HCCLM9 cells with high metastatic potential and MHCC97L with low metastatic potential as a model system to study the molecular mechanisms of HCC metastasis.

Overexpression of the chemokine receptor CXCR3 and its correlation with favorable prognosis in gastric cancer.

Chemokine receptor, CXCR3, has been increasingly reported to be involved in tumorigenesis and tumor progression, but limited data are available regarding the expression of CXCR3 in gastric cancer (GC). In the present study, the expressions of CXCR3 and its variants were detected in 96 GC and corresponding nontumor gastric tissues by immunohistochemical staining, in 40 freshly frozen GC and nontumor gastric tissues by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and in 10 freshly frozen GC and nontumor gastric tissues by Western blotting. Results revealed that an overexpression of CXCR3 occurs in GC tissues as compared to the nontumor gastric tissues.

15-PGDH expression as a predictive factor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer.

Given the various clinical and pathologic responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in gastric cancer (GC), potential biomarkers that reflecting the efficacy of NACT on GC should be investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the 15-PGDH expression response to NACT in GC patients and its relationship with prognosis of GC. Immunohistochemical method was used to assess the level of 15-PGDH expression in 56 GC patients who received NACT before surgery and 46 patients who underwent surgical treatment without NACT as well as their corresponding adjacent non-neoplastic tissues.

Quantum dots-based tissue and in vivo imaging in breast cancer researches: current status and future perspectives.

As the most common malignant tumor for females, breast cancer (BC) is a highly heterogeneous disease regarding biological behaviors. Precisely targeted imaging on BC masses and biomarkers is critical to BC detection, treatment, monitoring, and prognostic evaluation. As an important imaging technique, quantum dots (QDs)-based imaging has emerged as a promising tool in BC researches owe to its outstanding optical properties.

Right ventricle segmentation from cardiac MRI: a collation study.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a reference examination for cardiac morphology and function in humans, allows to image the cardiac right ventricle (RV) with high spatial resolution. The segmentation of the RV is a difficult task due to the variable shape of the RV and its ill-defined borders in these images. The aim of this paper is to evaluate several RV segmentation algorithms on common data.

High expression of transform growth factor beta 1 in gastric cancer confers worse outcome: results of a cohort study on 184 patients.

Background/aims: Transform growth factors beta (TGFbeta) plays different roles at different stages of tumor development. TGFbeta1 is one isoform of TGFbeta, with complex secretion mechanism and bidirectional functions. This study was to investigate TGFbeta1 expression and its clinical significance in different clinicopathological subgroups of gastric cancer (GC) patients.

Long term follow up and retrospective study on 533 gastric cancer cases.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer death in China and the outcome of GC patients is poor. The aim of the research is to study the prognostic factors of gastric cancer patients who had curative intent or palliative resection, completed clinical database and follow-up.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 533 GC patients from three tertiary referral teaching hospitals from January 2004 to December 2010 who had curative intent or palliative resection, complete clinical database and follow-up information.

Tumor invasion unit in gastric cancer revealed by QDs-based in situ molecular imaging and multispectral analysis.

In tumor tissues, cancer cells, tumor infiltrating macrophages and tumor neo-vessels in close spatial vicinity with one another form tumor invasion unit, which is a biologically important tumor microenvironment of metastasis to facilitate cancer invasion and metastasis. Establishing an in situ molecular imaging technology to simultaneously reveal these three components is essential for the in-depth investigation of tumor invasion unit. In this report, we have developed a computer-aided algorithm by quantum dots (QDs)-based multiplexed molecular imaging technique for such purpose.

Lymph node ratio is a better prognosticator than lymph node status for gastric cancer: A retrospective study of 138 cases.

To study the clinical significance of lymph node ratio (LNR) in gastric cancer (GC), this study analyzed 613 patients with GC who underwent surgical resection. Of 613 patients with GC, 138 patients who had >15 lymph nodes (LNs) resected and radical resection were enrolled into the final study. All major clinicopathological data were entered into a central database.

Evaluation and comparison of current fetal ultrasound image segmentation methods for biometric measurements: a grand challenge.

This paper presents the evaluation results of the methods submitted to Challenge US: Biometric Measurements from Fetal Ultrasound Images, a segmentation challenge held at the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2012. The challenge was set to compare and evaluate current fetal ultrasound image segmentation methods. It consisted of automatically segmenting fetal anatomical structures to measure standard obstetric biometric parameters, from 2D fetal ultrasound images taken on fetuses at different gestational ages (21 weeks, 28 weeks, and 33 weeks) and with varying image quality to reflect data encountered in real clinical environments.

Quantum dots-based in situ molecular imaging of dynamic changes of collagen IV during cancer invasion.

Cancer invasion and metastasis remains the root cause of mortality. This process involves alterations of tumor microenvironment, particularly the remodeling of extracellular matrix, characterized by collagen IV uncoiling, degradation, fragments deposition and cross-linking. Quantum dots-labeled molecular probes are promising platforms to simultaneously study several subtle changes of key biomolecules, because of their unique optical and chemical properties.

In vitro invasive pattern of hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HCCLM9 based on three-dimensional cell culture and quantum dots molecular imaging.

This study aimed to establish a new in vitro three-dimensional (3D) cell culture and use quantum dots (QDs) molecular imaging to examine the invasive behaviors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Each well of the 24-well cell culture plate was cover-slipped. Matrigel diluted with serum-free DMEM was added and HCCLM9 cells were cultured on the Matrigel.

Coevolution of the tumor microenvironment revealed by quantum dot-based multiplexed imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Aim: This study aimed to provide new insights into the mechanisms of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) invasion by simultaneously imaging tumor cells and major components of the tumor microenvironment.

Materials & Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded human HCC tissues were studied by conventional immunohistochemistry and quantum dot-based multiplexed imaging to reveal type IV collagen, LOX and tumor angiogenesis.

Results: Type IV collagen degradation and repatterning in the extracellular matrix (ECM) was a continuous process, making the ECM harder, although more fragile and less resistant to cancer invasion.

Evaluation of the staging systems for gastric cancer.

Background: Some staging systems for gastric cancer (GC) have been developed as alternatives to the 6th and 7th TNM staging systems, including the Hybrid, tumor-ratio-metastasis (TRM), and Kiel staging systems. This study evaluated the overall performance of these systems for GC.

Methods: A total of 540 GC patients undergoing surgical resection were staged using these five systems.

Combined features based on MT1-MMP expression, CD11b + immunocytes density and LNR predict clinical outcomes of gastric cancer.

Background: Given the complexity of tumor microenvironment, no single marker from cancer cells could adequately predict the clinical outcomes of gastric cancer (GC). The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic role of combined features including conventional pathology, proteinase and immune data in GC.

Methods: In addition to pathological studies, immunohistochemistry was used to assess membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) expression and CD11b + immunocytes density in three independent GC tissue microarrays containing 184 GC tissues.