Special issue "The advance of solid tumor research in China": FGFR4 alterations predict efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors in nonsmall cell lung cancer.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), which represent the new standard of care for advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NCSLC), are not effective in many patients. Biomarkers are needed to guide treatment. Sequencing data of an ICI-treated cohort were analyzed to identify genomic signatures predicting ICI efficacy, followed by validation using multiple independent cohorts.

Circulating tumor DNA predicts neoadjuvant immunotherapy efficacy and recurrence-free survival in surgical non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Background: There is currently a lack of effective biomarkers to evaluate efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) for resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has been investigated as a non-invasive tool for the assessment of tumor burden and minimal residual disease (MRD). The utility of ctDNA profiling in reflecting NAT efficacy, however, has not been confirmed.

Redefine Hyperprogressive Disease During Treatment With Immune-Checkpoint Inhibitors in Patients With Gastrointestinal Cancer.

Objective: Emerging evidence showed that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) lead to hyperprogressive disease (HPD) in a small proportion of patients. There is no well-recognized standard for the evaluation of HPD. Comprehensive exploration of HPD definition system in gastrointestinal cancer treated with ICI is lacking to date.

Landscape of IDH1/2 mutations in Chinese patients with solid tumors: A pan-cancer analysis.

Background: Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) is an enzyme family involved in cell aerobic metabolism of tricarboxylic acid cycle. However, the landscape of IDH mutations in pan-cancer has not been fully characterized.

Methods: Tissue or blood samples were subjected to next-generation sequencing (NGS) for detection the IDH mutation.

Efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors plus nab-paclitaxel for patients with non-small cell lung cancer who have progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy.

Background: Immunotherapy combined with platinum-based chemotherapy is now the standard first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, limited evidence exists to show the efficacy of immunotherapy plus taxanes for patients who have progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy.

Methods: The immunotherapy naïve patients with metastatic NSCLC who received anti-PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy or combined with nab-paclitaxel after prior platinum-based chemotherapy from 2015 to 2018 in PLA General Hospital were identified.

Pathogenic Germline Mutations in Chinese Patients with Gastric Cancer Identified by Next-Generation Sequencing.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in China, while the nature of genetic factors related to GC has not been well-studied.

Objectives: To assess the inherited genetic factors regarding pathogenic germline mutations in Chinese GC population.

Methods: Genomic profiling of DNA was performed through next-generation sequencing with 381 cancer-related genes on tissue from patients with GC between January 1, 2017, and May 7, 2019.

Use of Immunotherapy With Programmed Cell Death 1 vs Programmed Cell Death Ligand 1 Inhibitors in Patients With Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Importance: Immune checkpoint inhibitors of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) have led to a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. Understanding the clinical efficacy and safety profile of these drugs is necessary for treatment strategy in clinical practice.

Objective: To assess the differences between anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 regarding efficacy and safety shown in randomized clinical trials across various tumor types.

PLEKHM2-ALK: A novel fusion in small-cell lung cancer and durable response to ALK inhibitors.

Objectives: In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement identifies a subgroup of patients who are sensitive to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). ALK fusion is extremely rare in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). To the best of our knowledge, only two cases of SCLC harboring ALK fusion mutation has been reported previously, both of whom carrying EML4-ALK fusion.

DCA1 Acts as a Transcriptional Co-activator of DST and Contributes to Drought and Salt Tolerance in Rice.

Natural disasters, including drought and salt stress, seriously threaten food security. In previous work we cloned a key zinc finger transcription factor gene, Drought and Salt Tolerance (DST), a negative regulator of drought and salt tolerance that controls stomatal aperture in rice. However, the exact mechanism by which DST regulates the expression of target genes remains unknown.

The miR156-SPL9-DFR pathway coordinates the relationship between development and abiotic stress tolerance in plants.

Young organisms have relatively strong resistance to diseases and adverse conditions. When confronted with adversity, the process of development is delayed in plants. This phenomenon is thought to result from the rebalancing of energy, which helps plants to coordinate the relationship between development and stress tolerance; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this phenomenon remains mysterious.