The natural product trienomycin A is a STAT3 pathway inhibitor that exhibits potent in vitro and in vivo efficacy against pancreatic cancer.

Background And Purpose: Pancreatic cancer is an exceptionally fatal disease. However, therapeutic drugs for pancreatic cancer have presented a serious shortage over the past few decades. Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) is persistently activated in many human cancers where it promotes tumour development and progression.

Diagnostic Performance of Biparametric MRI for Detection of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the diagnostic performance of biparametric MRI (bpMRI) for detection of prostate cancer (PCa).

Materials And Methods: Two independent reviewers performed a systematic review of the literature published from January 2000 to July 2017 by using predefined search terms. The standard of pathologic reference was established at prostatectomy or prostate biopsy.

Clinical Application of Biparametric MRI Texture Analysis for Detection and Evaluation of High-Grade Prostate Cancer in Zone-Specific Regions.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of biparametric MRI texture analysis (TA) in detecting and evaluating high-grade prostate cancer in zone-specific regions.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study included 184 consecutively registered biopsy-naive patients in whom prostate cancer was suspected who were undergoing multiparametric prostate MRI. MR images were scored and evaluated by two readers using the Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System version 2 (PI-RADSv2) and biparametric MRI TA in separate sessions.

Comparative study of heavy metals in "soil-wheat" systems between sewage-irrigated areas and clean-water-irrigated areas in suburban Beijing.

After years of irrigating farmland with wastewater, concern is increasing about health risks from heavy metals contaminating wheat grown in sewage-irrigated soils in suburban areas of Beijing, China. The study discussed in this article aimed to compare the characteristics of heavy metal distribution in a sewage-irrigated "soil-wheat" system with those from a clean-water-irrigated area by collecting and analyzing samples from both areas. The results indicated that the average concentrations of copper, chromium, lead, and zinc in sewage-irrigated soil were higher than the values in the clean-water-irrigated region.

[Total contents of heavy metals and their chemical fractionation in agricultural soils at different locations of Beijing City].

In this study, 23 groups of suited typical soil-wheat grain samples were collected from different locations of Beijing city (central city, suburban plain and exurban plain), the accumulation, chemical forms and bioavailability of heavy metals in arable soils under different human activity intensity were analyzed, and their source identifications and health risk were discussed. The results showed that (1) Urban soils exhibited Pb contamination with an average concentration (35.59 mg x kg(-1)) above the WHO limit, probably due to the emission of traffic activities and industrial processes.

Health risks of heavy metals in sewage-irrigated soils and edible seeds in Langfang of Hebei province, China.

Background: Human exposure to heavy metals is attributed to consumption of food crops grown in polluted soil environment. The objective of our study was to assess the health risks of heavy metals in edible seeds of crops grown in sewage-irrigated soils located in the Langfang of Hebei province, China. Here, heavy metal contents in soils and plants were determined using an internal standard and high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

Retrospection of recent 30-year changes in the process of soil wind erosion in the Luanhe River Source Area of North China using Cesium-137.

The Luanhe River Source Area belongs to typical semi-arid, agro-pastoral ecotone of North China. It is very important for the prevention and treatment of soil erosion in North China to analyze and evaluate quantitatively the recent 30-year changes in the process of soil wind erosion in this area. Based on long field observations, soil samples from different depths in a representative wind-deposited soil profile in the Luanhe River Source Area were collected.