Immune-inflammatory markers and clinical characteristics as predictors of the depth of response and prognosis of patients with PD-L1 ≥50% metastatic non-small cell lung cancer receiving first-line immunotherapy.

Background: Patients with programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) ≥50% metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with first-line immunotherapy showed heterogeneous tumor responses. In this study, we investigated the clinical and immune-inflammatory markers distinguishing patients with metastatic NSCLC achieving high depth of tumor response (HDPR) from those with non-high depth of response (NHDPR). The impact of clinical features on the prognosis of patients with PD-L1 ≥50% were further clarified.

Bevacizumab reduces peritumoral brain edema in lung cancer brain metastases after radiotherapy.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of bevacizumab (Bev) in reducing peritumoral brain edema (PTBE) after stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) for lung cancer brain metastases.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 44 patients with lung cancer brain metastases (70 lesions) who were admitted to our oncology and Gamma Knife center from January 2020 to May 2022. All patients received intracranial SRT and had PTBE.

The prognostic value of cancer stage-associated genes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Objectives: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a highly prevalent subtype of malignant renal tumor, but unfortunately, the survival rate remains unsatisfactory. The aim of the present study is to explore genomic features that are correlated with cancer stage, allowing for the identification of subgroups of ccRCC patients with high risk of unfavorable outcomes and enabling prompt intervention and treatment.

Methods: We compared the gene expression levels across ccRCC patients with diverse cancer stages from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, which revealed characteristic genes associated with tumor stage.

In vitro CRISPR screening uncovers CRTC3 as a regulator of IFN-γ-induced ferroptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) exerts anti-tumor effects by inducing ferroptosis. Based on CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screening targeting genome-wide protein encoding genes in HepG2 and SK-Hep-1 cell lines, we found that cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) regulated transcription coactivator 3 (CRTC3) protects tumor cells from drug-induced ferroptosis and significantly inhibits the efficacy of IFN-γ treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Mechanistically, CRTC3 knockout altered tumor cell lipid patterns and increased the abundance of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which enables lipid peroxidation and enhances the susceptibility of HCC cells to ferroptosis inducers.

Thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF-1) negativity as a predictor of unfavorable response to EGFR-TKI therapy in advanced lung adenocarcinoma patients with EGFR mutations.

Background: The absence of thyroid transcription factor 1 (TTF-1) is associated with a lower frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of TTF-1 expression on the clinical response to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment in patients with advanced LUAD.

Methods: The data of patients with advanced LUAD who were admitted to the Beijing Tiantan Hospital and Peking University Cancer Hospital (China) between April 2009 and May 2023 was retrospectively analyzed.

A supervised topic embedding model and its application.

We propose rTopicVec, a supervised topic embedding model that predicts response variables associated with documents by analyzing the text data. Topic modeling leverages document-level word co-occurrence patterns to learn latent topics of each document. While word embedding is a promising text analysis technique in which words are mapped into a low-dimensional continuous semantic space by exploiting the local word co-occurrence patterns within a small context window.

Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Colonoscopy for Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background And Aims: Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted colonoscopy improves polyp detection and characterization in colonoscopy. However, data from large-scale multicenter randomized controlled trials (RCT) in an asymptomatic population are lacking.

Methods: This multicenter RCT aimed to compare AI-assisted colonoscopy with conventional colonoscopy for adenoma detection in an asymptomatic population.

Octagonal Quasicrystal Defect Mode Laser-Based PVK: Ir(ppy) Polymer Driven by Optical Pumping.

Based on the conjugated complex PVK: Ir(ppy), a green-emitting organic quasicrystal microcavity laser is demonstrated driven by optical pumping. The organic laser adopts a sandwich structure of DBR/organic gain membrane/output Ag-layer for the vertical oscillation and an octagonal quasi-crystal for in-plane light localization. The experimental results show that the single-mode lasing action is observed at 521 nm with an FWHM of 0.

Prognostic nomograms for patients undergoing radical operation for stage I-III appendiceal adenocarcinoma: A surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database analysis.

Objective: To develop nomograms for effective prediction of cause-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) of patients who underwent radical operation for stage I-III appendiceal adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Clinical information from the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database was retrieved from 2004 to 2015 and subjected to multivariate analysis to explore variables that affect the OS and CSS. Results were used to construct nomograms to assess the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS and CSS rates, then their calibration accuracy and discriminative power were examined using Kaplan-Meier curves, calibration plots, and C statistics.

Cognitive Impairment and Related Factors Among Middle-Aged and Elderly Patients with Type 2 Diabetes from a Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective.

Objective: This study investigated the biomedical, psychological, and social behavior risk factors for cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 240 patients with T2DM. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic and disease-related data on patients, and the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Diabetes Self-care Scale (DSCS), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were used to assess patients' depression status, self-management behavior, and social support, respectively.

The combination therapy with the cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 and programmed death 1 antibody-induced asthma in a patient with advanced melanoma.

The combination of programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitors and cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-(CTLA-4) inhibitors have markedly improved the survival of melanoma patients. We report the case of a patient with advanced melanoma who developed asthma during anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 combination therapy. The patient was a 57-year-old woman enrolled in a clinical trial regarding novel CTLA-4 antibody and sintilimab treatment.

Prognostic nomograms for predicting overall survival and cause-specific survival of signet ring cell carcinoma in colorectal cancer patients.

Background: Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRCC) is an uncommon subtype in colorectal cancer (CRC), with a short survival time. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a useful prognostic model. As a simple visual predictive tool, nomograms combining a quantification of all proven prognostic factors have been widely used for predicting the outcomes of patients with different cancers in recent years.

Decreased expression of ARID1A invasively downregulates the expression of ribosomal proteins in hepatocellular carcinoma.

There was increasing evidence showing that ARID1A alterations correlated with higher tumor mutational burden, but there were limited studies focusing on the adaptive mechanisms for tumor cells to survive under excessive genomic alterations. To further explore the adaptive mechanisms under ARID1A alterations, we performed RNA sequencing in ARID1A knockdown hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines, and demonstrated that decreased expression of ARID1A controlled global ribosomal proteins synthesis. The results were further confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and bioinformatic analysis in The Cancer Genome Atlas Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma database.

Chemotherapy combined with antiangiogenic drugs as salvage therapy in advanced melanoma patients progressing on PD-1 immunotherapy.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of salvage therapy with nab-paclitaxel (nab-p) or temozolomide (TMZ) combined with antiangiogenic drugs in programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor-resistant patients with unresectable metastatic melanoma.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of 69 metastatic melanoma patients who received nab-p or TMZ combined with antiangiogenic drugs after developing PD-1 inhibitor resistance and were treated at the Beijing Cancer Hospital between 2016 and 2019. The disease control rate (c-DCR) and progression-free survival (c-PFS) of salvage CA (chemotherapy combined with antiangiogenic drugs) regimens were investigated.

Development and Validation of a Hypoglycemia Risk Model for Intensive Insulin Therapy in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Aims: To develop a simple hypoglycemic prediction model to evaluate the risk of hypoglycemia during hospitalization in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with intensive insulin therapy.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional chart review study utilizing the electronic database of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, and included 257 patients with type 2 diabetes undergoing intensive insulin therapy in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Logistic regression analysis was used to derive the clinical prediction rule with hypoglycemia (blood glucose ≤ 3.

Value of serum tumor markers for predicting EGFR mutations in non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Objectives: We investigated whether serum tumor markers (STMs) represent a valuable noninvasive tool to predict epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for 143 NSCLC patients at the Peking University International Hospital from December 2014 to December 2019. EGFR mutations in the tumor tissues were identified by amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) and next generation sequencing (NGS).

Implications of driver genes associated with a high tumor mutation burden identified using next-generation sequencing on immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy is a treatment strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, its clinical efficacy is limited to a select subset of patients. Next-generation sequencing has identified the value of tumor mutation burden (TMB) as a predictor for ICB efficacy in multiple types of tumor, including HCC. Specific driver gene mutations may be indicative of a high TMB (TMB-H) and analysis of such mutations may provide novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of TMB-H and potential therapeutic strategies.

Long non-coding RNA ZFAS1 regulates the malignant progression of gastric cancer via the microRNA-200b-3p/Wnt1 axis.

Gastric cancer is a common malignant tumor. Studies from our laboratory or others have shown that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) zinc finger antisense (ZFAS)1 often acts as an oncogene. However, the molecular underpinnings of how ZFAS1 regulates gastric cancer remain to be elucidated.

Cytoplasmic expression of estrogen receptor β may predict poor outcome of EGFR-TKI therapy in metastatic lung adenocarcinoma.

There is growing evidence that estrogen receptors (ER) are expressed in lung cancer cells, and are able to interact with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway. However, data on the association between cytoplasmic ER expression and the response to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) treatment are limited. The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between ERα/ERβ expression and EGFR mutational status and response to TKI treatment in metastatic lung adenocarcinoma.

Adverse reactions of sorafenib, sunitinib, and imatinib in treating digestive system tumors.

Background: This study was conducted to assess the adverse reactions caused by multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment of gastrointestinal tumors.

Methods: We carried out a retrospective study of drug-related adverse reactions in 115 patients who were treated with sorafenib, sunitinib, and imatinib for primary hepatocellular carcinoma or gastrointestinal stromal tumors from October 2003 to March 2012 at the Peking University International Hospital.

Results: The total incidence of adverse reactions of sorafenib, sunitinib, and imatinib in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumors was > 80%.