The prognostic value of the systemic inflammatory score in patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer.

Inflammation has been widely recognized as a contributor to cancer progression and several inflammatory markers have been reported as associated with the clinical outcomes in patients with various types of cancer. Recently, a novel inflammatory marker, the systemic inflammatory score (SIS), which is based on a combination of the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) and the serum albumin concentration has been reported as a useful prognostic marker. The aim of the present study was to assess the prognostic value of the SIS in patients with unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

Near-Field Radiative Nanothermal Imaging of Nonuniform Joule Heating in Narrow Metal Wires.

Probing spatial variation of temperature at the nanoscale provides key information for exploring diverse areas of modern science and technology. Despite significant progress in the development of contact thermometers with high spatial resolution, one inherent disadvantage is that the quantitative analysis of temperature can be complicated by the direct thermal contact. On the other hand, noncontact infrared radiation thermometer is free from such contact-induced disturbance, but suffers from insufficient spatial resolution stemming from diffraction-limit in the micrometer range.

Sequence selective photoinduced electron transfer of a pyrene-porphyrin dyad to DNA.

The binding modes of a pyrene-porphyrin dyad, (1-pyrenyl)-tris(N-methyl-p-pyridino)porphyrin (PyTMpyP), to various DNAs (calf thymus DNA (Ct-DNA), poly[d(G-C)2], and poly[d(A-T)2]) have been investigated using circular dichroism and linear dichroism measurements. Based on the polarization spectroscopic results, it can be shown that the pyrenyl and porphryin planes are skewed to a large extent for PyTMPyP in an aqueous environment and in the binding site of poly[d(G-C)2]. In this complex, a photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process between the pyrenyl and porphyrin moieties occurs.

Kinetics of Spontaneous Bimetallization between Silver and Noble Metal Nanoparticles.

A physical mixture of polymer-protected Ag nanoparticles and Rh, Pd, or Pt nanoparticles spontaneously forms Ag-core bimetallic nanoparticles. The formed nanoparticles were smaller than the parent Ag nanoparticles. In the initial process of this reaction, the surface plasmon absorption of Ag nanoparticles diminished and then almost ceased within one hour.

Clinical Relevance of Postoperative Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) to Recurrence After Adjuvant Chemotherapy of S-1 for Gastric Cancer.

Background/aim: The clinical significance of postoperative neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of postoperative NLR on prediction for postoperative recurrence of gastric cancer.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on data from 170 patients with Stage II/III gastric cancer who underwent surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy using S-1 between 2006 and 2015.

Novel evaluation scale for QOL (QOL-ACD-BP) in preoperative chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Purpose: Quality-of-life (QOL) has been reported to affect the prognosis of many types of cancer, and several studies used various QOL assessment tools to determine the relationship between QOL and cancer prognosis. In this study, QOL-Questionnaire for Cancer Patients Treated with Anti-Cancer Drugs-the Breast (QOL-ACD-B) was modified to be suitable for preoperative chemotherapy (POC) and was named the QOL-ACD-BP.

Methods: A total of 300 patients were treated with POC after being diagnosed with breast cancer between February 2007 and December 2016 at our institute.

Eribulin Promotes Antitumor Immune Responses in Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Background/aim: Several proteins involved in immune regulation and the relationship among these, the tumor microenvironment, and clinical outcomes of eribulin treatment were evaluated in advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: This retrospective cohort study comprised 52 eribulin-treated locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients. Cancer tissue samples were obtained before and after treatment in 10 patients.

A new method for evaluating tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in colorectal cancer using hematoxylin and eosin (H-E)-stained tumor sections.

Purpose: Numerous reports indicate that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are a prognostic factor in various cancers and that they must be good biomarkers. However, the methods of evaluating TILs differ in each study; thus, there is not yet a standardized methodology for evaluating TILs. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) using the new method proposed by the International TILs Working Group in breast cancer and to standardize the method of evaluating TILs in CRC.

Clinical Significance of the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Endocrine Therapy for Stage IV Breast Cancer.

Background: Studies have found that patients with cancer exhibit abnormal leukocyte fractions, such as elevated neutrophil count and diminished lymphocyte count, and that the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) provides a surrogate marker for prognosis and response to treatment of patients after radical surgery for several different types of cancer. However, few reports have addressed the association between the NLR and response to endocrine therapy. In this study, we carried out a clinical investigation to confirm whether or not the NLR predicted the response to endocrine therapy of stage IV breast cancer.

Meta-analysis of Robot-assisted Laparoscopic Surgery for Rectal Cancer.

Background/aim: A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate and compare the short- and long-term outcomes of robot-assisted (RAS) and conventional laparoscopic surgery (LAS) for rectal cancer.

Materials And Methods: We searched MEDLINE for relevant papers published between 2010 and December 2017 by using specific search terms. We analyzed outcomes over short- and long-term periods.

Towards Optimal Denoising of Image Contrast.

Most conventional imaging modalities detect light indirectly by observing high-energy photons. The random nature of photon emission and detection is often the dominant sources of noise in imaging. Such case is referred to as photon-limited imaging, and the noise distribution is well modeled as Poisson.

Neutrophils in primary gastric tumors are correlated with neutrophil infiltration in tumor-draining lymph nodes and the systemic inflammatory response.

Background: Tumor-Associated Neutrophils (TANs) may be able to induce lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis, although the detailed roles of TANs remain unclear. The Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR) is an inflammation-based prognostic factor for gastric cancer. This study aimed to investigate the distribution of CD15neutrophils in the primary tumor and Tumor-Draining Lymph Nodes (TDLNs), and to examine the association of TANs with the clinicopathological features (including NLR) of patients with gastric cancer.

Photosensitized Protein-Damaging Activity, Cytotoxicity, and Antitumor Effects of P(V)porphyrins Using Long-Wavelength Visible Light through Electron Transfer.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a less-invasive treatment for cancer through the administration of less-toxic porphyrins and visible-light irradiation. Photosensitized damage of biomacromolecules through singlet oxygen (O) generation induces cancer cell death. However, a large quantity of porphyrin photosensitizer is required, and the treatment effect is restricted under a hypoxic cellular condition.

Verification of the methodology for evaluating tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in colorectal cancer.

Background: The density of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been reported to reflect antitumor immune response and correlate with prognosis in malignancy. However, the methodology for evaluating the density of TILs by an immunohistochemical analysis differs among reports. The aim of this study was to verify the methodology for evaluating the density of TILs by immunohistochemical analysis and thereby identify the optimum methodology in clinical setting.

Use of the tumor-infiltrating CD8 to FOXP3 lymphocyte ratio in predicting treatment responses to combination therapy with pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and docetaxel for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer.

Background: The trastuzumab, pertuzumab, and docetaxel (TPD) regimen is strongly recommended as a treatment option for first-line therapy for advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) 2-positive breast cancer. Monitoring the host microenvironments in cancer plays a significant role in predicting prognoses and curative effects. It is important to clarify the role of immune related gene expression in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in the tumor microenvironment.

Prediction of treatment responses to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer by analysis of immune checkpoint protein expression.

Background: "Avoiding immune destruction" has recently been established as one of the hallmarks of cancer. The programmed cell death (PD)-1/programmed cell death-ligand (PD-L) 1 pathway is an important immunosuppression mechanism that allows cancer cells to escape host immunity. The present study investigated how the expressions of these immune checkpoint proteins affected responses to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer.

A comparison of the local immune status between the primary and metastatic tumor in colorectal cancer: a retrospective study.

Background: The anticancer immune response has been reported to correlate with cancer progression. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), which are one of the indicators of host immunity, affect the tumor growth, metastasis and chemoresistance. Both TILs in the primary tumor and those in the metastatic tumor have been reported to be a useful predictor of the survival and therapeutic outcome.

Prediction of Treatment Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer by Subtype Using Tumor-infiltrating Lymphocytes.

Background/aim: Recent interest has focused on the significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) on the efficacies and outcomes of the treatment in breast cancer (BC). Based on the recent international recommendation to standardize the evaluation method, the clinical validity and utility of TILs in patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) were investigated in the present study.

Patients And Methods: TILs were evaluated in 177 patients with BC treated with NAC and subsequent curative surgery.

Analysis of HER Family (HER1-4) Expression as a Biomarker in Combination Therapy with Pertuzumab, Trastuzumab and Docetaxel for Advanced HER2-positive Breast Cancer.

Background: Chemotherapy with trastuzumab, pertuzumab and docetaxel (TPD regimen) is now strongly recommended as a treatment option for first-line therapy for advanced human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2-positive breast cancer. In this study, we analyzed the expression of HER 1-4 proteins, and investigated whether or not their expression was predictive of the response of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer to chemotherapy with the TPD regimen.

Patients And Methods: The study consisted of 29 cases in which TPD regimen chemotherapy was carried out from September 2013 to November 2015.

MicroRNA-96 Promotes Tumor Invasion in Colorectal Cancer RECK.

Background: miR-96 is reported to inhibit reversion cysteine-rich Kazal motif (RECK), which is associated with tumor invasion, in solid cancer types (e.g. breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, esophageal cancer).

Camera-Aware Multi-Resolution Analysis for Raw Image Sensor Data Compression.

We propose novel lossless and lossy compression schemes for color filter array (CFA) sampled images based on the Camera-A ware ulti-esolution nalysis, or CAMRA. Specifically, by CAMRA we refer to modifications that we make to wavelet transform of CFA sampled images in order to achieve a very high degree of decorrelation at the finest scale wavelet coefficients; and a series of color processing steps applied to the coarse scale wavelet coefficients, aimed at limiting the propagation of lossy compression errors through the subsequent camera processing pipeline. We validated our theoretical analysis and the performance of the proposed compression schemes using the images of natural scenes captured in a raw format.

Correction to: Circulating tumor cell clusters-associated gene plakoglobin is a significant prognostic predictor in patients with breast cancer.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s40364-017-0099-2.].

Study on the progression types of cancer in patients with breast cancer undergoing eribulin chemotherapy and tumor microenvironment.

Background: Recently, the concepts of progression due to pre-existing lesions (PPL) and progression due to new metastasis (PNM) have been proposed to differentiate the progression types of treatment-resistant cancers. Previously, the differences between these two progression types did not affect the determination of treatment strategies since both PPL and PNM are classified as progressive disease based on the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) diagnostic criteria. On the other hand, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are effective when used as indicators for monitoring the immune tumor microenvironment (iTME) in the cancer host, and TILs play an important role as biomarkers in predicting prognosis and therapeutic effects.

Mechanism of oxidative DNA damage induced by metabolites of carcinogenic naphthalene.

Naphthalene is a carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, to which humans are exposed as an air pollutant. Naphthalene is metabolized in humans to reactive intermediates such as 1,2-hydroxynaphthalene (1,2-NQH), 1,4-NQH, 1,2-naphthoquinone (1,2-NQ), and 1,4-NQ. We examined oxidative DNA damage by these naphthalene metabolites using P-labeled DNA fragments from human cancer-relevant genes.

[Significance of Immune-Cell Infiltration in Gastric].

There are many reports on the association between infiltrating immune cells andcancer prognosis. It is generally thought that cancer cells escape from the immune surveillance system in vivo. Cells associatedwith tumor immunosuppressive mechanisms include macrophages, regulatory T cells, bone marrow-derived immunosuppressive cells(MDSC), andneutrophils.