Circulating tumor cell enumeration for improved screening and disease detection of patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: The immunochemical fecal occult blood test (iFOBT) for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and the serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) assay for disease detection of CRC is associated with a high false-positive rate and a low detection sensitivity, respectively. There is an unmet need to define additional modalities to complement these assays. Different subsets of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in the peripheral blood of cancer patients.

Sequential Circulating Tumor Cell Counts in Patients with Locally Advanced or Metastatic Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Monitoring the Treatment Response.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is among the most common causes of cancer death in men. Whether or not a longitudinal follow-up of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) before and at different time points during systemic/targeted therapy is useful for monitoring the treatment response of patients with locally advanced or metastatic HCC has been evaluated in this study. Blood samples ( = 104) were obtained from patients with locally advanced or metastatic HCC ( = 30) for the enrichment of CTCs by a negative selection method.

Hyaluronic Acid-Based Multilayer Films Regulate Hypoxic Multicellular Aggregation of Pancreatic Cancer Cells with Distinct Cancer Stem-Cell-like Properties.

In vitro spherical cancer models have been widely used in cancer stem cell (CSC) research, and the ability of CSCs to form multicellular colonies is recognized as a morphological marker. However, although several spherical/colony models share a common three-dimensional (3D) conformation, each model displays its own intrinsic properties. Thus, the CSC phenotypes with distinct multicellular aggregate morphologies must be defined and clarified.

Circulating Epithelial Cell Characterization and Correlation with Remission and Survival in Patients with Thyroid Cancer.

Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine tumor and generally has relatively good clinical outcomes. However, 15-20% of patients ultimately develop recurrence or disease-related death. The appropriate prognostic factors for thyroid cancer are still elusive.

Disabled-2 is a negative immune regulator of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated Toll-like receptor 4 internalization and signaling.

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) plays a pivotal role in the host response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a major cell wall component of Gram-negative bacteria. Here, we elucidated whether the endocytic adaptor protein Disabled-2 (Dab2), which is abundantly expressed in macrophages, plays a role in LPS-stimulated TLR4 signaling and trafficking. Molecular analysis and transcriptome profiling of RAW264.

The endocytic adaptor protein Disabled-2 is required for cellular uptake of fibrinogen.

Endocytosis is pivotal for uptake of fibrinogen from plasma into megakaryocytes and platelet α-granules. Due to the complex adaptor and cargo contents in endocytic vehicles, the underlying mechanism of fibrinogen uptake is not yet completely elucidated. In this study, we investigated whether the endocytic adaptor protein Disabled-2 (DAB2) mediates fibrinogen uptake in an adaptor-specific manner.