Combination of Tumor Mutational Burden and Specific Gene Mutations Stratifies Outcome to Immunotherapy Across Recurrent and Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

To investigate the prognostic significance of tumor mutational burden (TMB) combined with specific prognosis-related gene mutations in immunotherapy for recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (r/m HNSCC). One hundred thirty-two r/m HNSCC patients from the Morris and Allen cohorts had undergone immunotherapy. We constructed the immunotherapy-related gene prognostic index TP-PR combining TMB and , , or mutation.

Development of a web-based prognostic model to quantify the survival benefit of cumulative cisplatin dose during concurrent chemoradiotherapy in childhood nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: To quantify and predict the survival benefits of cumulative cisplatin dose during concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CC-CCD) in children and adolescents with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (CA-LANPC).

Materials And Methods: Patients with CA-LANPC who received first-line neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) between September 2007 and April 2018 were evaluated. Recursive partitioning analyses (RPAs) helped identify the ideal thresholds of CC-CCD on disease-free survival (DFS).

Transcription factor CDX2 up-regulates proto-oncogenic miR-744 via a promoter activation mechanism in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Background: The role of caudal-related homeobox 2 (CDX2) in the pathogenesis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mRNA (message RNA) expression of CDX2 in NSCLC, and to determine its relationship with miR-744 (microRNA744) and its potential as a biomarker of NSCLC.

Methods: MiR-744 is overexpressed in A549, H460, and H1299 cell lines.

Comparison of efficacy and safety between pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy and simple chemotherapy in neoadjuvant therapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Immunotherapy can activate the recognition of tumor antigen, build immune memory, and more and more clinical trials have taken the scheme of immunochemotherapy or immunoradiotherapy as a treatment strategy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Our objective was to compare the efficacy and safety between pembrolizumab combined with the chemotherapy group and simple chemotherapy in neoadjuvant therapy of ESCC.

Methods: Fifty-four ESCC patients with stage II-IVa were enrolled at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University between January 2018 and December 2020, including 23 in the pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy group (combined group), and 31 in the simple chemotherapy group.

Impact of cumulative cisplatin dose in childhood nasopharyngeal carcinoma based on neoadjuvant chemotherapy response in the intensity-modulated radiotherapy era: a real-world study.

Background: We aimed to comprehensively investigate the optimal cumulative cisplatin dose during concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CC-CCD) for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (CA-LANPC) with different tumor responses after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Methods: Patients with CA-LANPC who underwent NAC followed by cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. Evaluation of tumor response in patients was conducted by Response Evaluation Criteria for Solid Tumor (RECIST) 1.

Tumor-Infiltrating Cytotoxic T Cells and Tumor-Associated Macrophages Correlate With the Outcomes of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer.

Background: Tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) play a key role in immunoregulatory networks and are related to tumor development. Emerging evidence shows that these cells are associated with sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the predictive role of TIICs in the outcomes of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) is unclear.

Pathological and genomic phenotype of second neuroendocrine carcinoma during long-term follow-up after radical radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Background: Second head and neck neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) after radical radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treatment is rarely reported. The prognosis of second cancer is poor, and our research focuses on finding a breakthrough in the treatment. In this study, we aimed to investigate clinicopathological characteristics and to identify the genomic landscape of second head and neck NECs.

The Role of Pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT for Early Prediction of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response in Patients with Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Introduction: To evaluate the role of maximal standardized uptake values (SUVmax) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) from serial F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for early prediction of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANPC).

Methods: A total of 121 LANPC patients who completed pretreatment F-FDG PET/CT between June 2017 and July 2020 were retrospectively included. The median age of all the participants was 50 years old (range: 19-74 years), with 94 (77.

Activation of Gonadotropin-releasing Hormone Receptor Impedes the Immunosuppressive Activity of Decidual Regulatory T Cells via Deactivating the Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin Signaling.

Understanding maternal immune tolerance is crucial for the development of therapeutics for immunological pregnancy complications. Decidual regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a pivotal role in the maintenance of maternal immune tolerance. Using a murine allogeneic pregnancy model in the current study, we identified the up-regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRHR) in decidual T cell subsets including CD4 conventional T cells, CD8 T cells, and CD4Foxp3 Tregs.

The critical role of peroxiredoxin-2 in colon cancer stem cells.

Colon cancer stem cells (CCSCs) play an important role in facilitating colon cancer occurrence, metastasis and drug resistance. The results of our previous studies confirmed that the well-studied antioxidant gene peroxiredoxin-2 (PRDX2) promotes colon cancer progression. However, the underlying function and mechanisms associated with PRDX2 remodeling in the context of CCSCs have remained poorly studied.

OX40L/OX40 Signal Promotes IL-9 Production by Mucosal MAIT Cells During Infection.

Mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells play a critical role in ()-induced gastritis by promoting mucosal inflammation and aggravating mucosal injuries (1, 2). However, the underlying mechanism and key molecules involved are still uncertain. Here we identified OX40, a co-stimulatory molecule mainly expressed on T cells, as a critical regulator to promote proliferation and IL-9 production by MAIT cells and facilitate mucosal inflammation in -positive gastritis patients.

CRISPR/Cas9 library screening uncovered methylated PKP2 as a critical driver of lung cancer radioresistance by stabilizing β-catenin.

Radiation resistance is a major cause of lung cancer treatment failure. Armadillo (ARM) superfamily proteins participate in various fundamental cellular processes; however, whether ARM proteins regulate radiation resistance is not fully understood. Here, we used an unbiased CRISPR/Cas9 library screen and identified plakophilin 2 (PKP2), a member of the ARM superfamily of proteins, as a critical driver of radiation resistance in lung cancer.

Mucin 4 mutation is associated with tumor mutation burden and promotes antitumor immunity in colon cancer patients.

At present, immunotherapy is widely used for different mismatch repair (dMMR) or highly microsatellite instability (MSI-H) colorectal cancer patients, and tumor mutation burden (TMB) is a valuable independent predictor of response to immunotherapy. However, specific gene mutations and their relationship with TMB and tumor-infiltrating immune cells in colon cancer remains unclear. In the present study, we analyzed somatic mutation data of colon cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) datasets, and found that 17 frequently mutated genes were occurred in both cohorts, including APC, TP53, TNN, KRAS, MUC16, MUC4 (mucin 4), SYNE1, FLG, FAT4, OBSCN, FAT3, RYR2, PIK3CA, FBXW7, DNAH11, MUC5B and ZFHX4.

Auxiliary Diagnosis for COVID-19 with Deep Transfer Learning.

To assist physicians identify COVID-19 and its manifestations through the automatic COVID-19 recognition and classification in chest CT images with deep transfer learning. In this retrospective study, the used chest CT image dataset covered 422 subjects, including 72 confirmed COVID-19 subjects (260 studies, 30,171 images), 252 other pneumonia subjects (252 studies, 26,534 images) that contained 158 viral pneumonia subjects and 94 pulmonary tuberculosis subjects, and 98 normal subjects (98 studies, 29,838 images). In the experiment, subjects were split into training (70%), validation (15%) and testing (15%) sets.

Anlotinib as a promising inhibitor on tumor growth of oral squamous cell carcinoma through cell apoptosis and mitotic catastrophe.

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been one of the most malignant cancers in head and neck region. Anlotinib is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting several receptors such as vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) and c-Kit. Here we investigated whether Anlotinib have any antitumor effect on oral cancer and tried to explore and explain the possible mechanism.

RNAi-mediated knockdown of PFK1 decreases the invasive capability and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line, CNE-2.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the most prevailing malignancy of the head and neck with unique geographic distribution. Southern China has one of the highest incidence rates of NPC in the world. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the most important treatment modalities for NPC, recurrence, and metastasis severely interfere with the survival quality of patients.

Development and Validation of Web-Based Nomograms to Precisely Predict Survival Outcomes of Non-metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in an Endemic Area.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop web-based nomograms to precisely predict survival outcomes in patients with non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in an endemic area.

Materials And Methods: A total of 10,126 patients who underwent radical intensity-modulated radiotherapy at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) from 2009 to 2015 were analyzed. We assigned patients into a training cohort (SYSUCC-A, n=6,751) and an internal validation cohort (SYSUCC-B, n=3,375) based on computer-generated random numbers.

DLX6 promotes cell proliferation and survival in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: Distal-less homeobox 6 (DLX6) has been reported to play important roles in the development of craniofacial structures, inner ear, limb, and brain. We found in our previous investigation that DLX6 was significantly highly expressed in oral cancer tissues in The Cancer Genome Atlas database. This study aimed to explore its roles and regulation mechanism in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Clinical observation of Pemetrexed first-line treatment in advanced non-squamous lung cancer or non-small cell lung cancer without driver-mutations: a phase 2, single-arm trial.

Background: Non-dominant population, which means patients with advanced non-squamous lung cancer or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without driver-mutations, who are excluded from clinical studies because of specific baseline conditions refractory to multiple treatments, have poor outcomes. We assessed the activity of pemetrexed first-line treatment for a non-dominant population, explore the safety and efficacy of pemetrexed therapy.

Methods: We did this two-phased, single-arm trial at two sites at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and Guangxi medical university cancer hospital.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on lung cancer patients.

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) poses an unprecedented challenge to health and epidemic prevention system, especially the healthcare of patients with cancer. We sought to study the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer patients in our center.

Methods: We initiated a retrospectively study to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer patients in our center, who were accepted for routine anticancer treatment before the epidemic and planned to return to hospital in January and February of 2020.

Research on the effect of health care integration on patients' negative emotions and satisfaction with lung cancer nursing activities.

Background: Lung cancer is a clinical disease with multiple malignant tumors. Currently, it is difficult for patients to benefit from routine clinical nursing due to the lack of a pertinent and systematic approach.

Aim: To investigate the effect of integrated nursing care on the negative emotions and satisfaction of lung cancer patients.