HIF-1α P582S and A588T polymorphisms and digestive system cancer risk-a meta-analysis

Radiomic Evaluations of the Diagnostic Performance of DM, DBT, DCE MRI, DWI, and Their Combination for the Diagnosisof Breast Cancer

Objectives

This study aims to evaluate digital mammography (DM), digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE), and diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI, individually and combined, for the values in the diagnosis of breast cancer, and propose a visualized clinical-radiomics nomogram for potential clinical uses.

Methods

A total of 120 patients were enrolled between September 2017 and July 2018, all underwent preoperative DM, DBT, DCE, and DWI scans. Radiomics features were extracted and selected using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression. A radiomics nomogram was constructed integrating the radiomics signature and important clinical predictors, and assessed with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA).

Results

The radiomics signature derived from DBT plus DM generated a lower area under the ROC curve (AUC) and sensitivity, but a higher specificity compared with that from DCE plus DWI. The nomogram integrating the combined radiomics signature, age, and menstruation status achieved the best diagnostic performance in the training (AUCs, nomogram vs. combined radiomics signature vs. clinical model, 0.975 vs. 0.964 vs. 0.782) and validation (AUCs, nomogram vs. combined radiomics signature vs. clinical model, 0.983 vs. 0.978 vs. 0.680) cohorts. DCA confirmed the potential clinical usefulness of the nomogram.

Conclusions

The DBT plus DM provided a lower AUC and sensitivity, but a higher specificity than DCE plus DWI for detecting breast cancer. The proposed clinical-radiomics nomogram has diagnostic advantages over each modality, and can be considered as an efficient tool for breast cancer screening.

Computer-Aided Diagnosis Evaluation of the Correlation Between Magnetic Resonance Imaging With Molecular Subtypes in Breast Cancer

Background

There is a demand for additional alternative methods that can allow the differentiation of the breast tumor into molecular subtypes precisely and conveniently.

Purpose

The present study aimed to determine suitable optimal classifiers and investigate the general applicability of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) to associate between the breast cancer molecular subtype and the extracted MR imaging features.

Methods

We analyzed a total of 264 patients (mean age: 47.9 ± 9.7 years; range: 19–81 years) with 264 masses (mean size: 28.6 ± 15.86 mm; range: 5–91 mm) using a Unet model and Gradient Tree Boosting for segmentation and classification.

Results

The tumors were segmented clearly by the Unet model automatically. All the extracted features which including the shape features,the texture features of the tumors and the clinical features were input into the classifiers for classification, and the results showed that the GTB classifier is superior to other classifiers, which achieved F1-Score 0.72, AUC 0.81 and score 0.71. Analyzed the different features combinations, we founded that the texture features associated with the clinical features are the optimal features to different the breast cancer subtypes.

Conclusion

CAD is feasible to differentiate the breast cancer subtypes, automatical segmentation were feasible by Unet model and the extracted texture features from breast MR imaging with the clinical features can be used to help differentiating the molecular subtype. Moreover, in the clinical features, BPE and age characteristics have the best potential for subtype.

HIF1A gene polymorphisms and human diseases: Graphical review of 97 association studies

Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) belong to a family of transcription factors (TF) responsive to a low O2 availability, which is often a characteristic feature of solid tumors. The alpha subunit of the HIF heterodimer is O2 -sensitive, and once stabilized in hypoxia, it functions as a master regulator of various genes involved in hypoxia pathway. Changes in the HIF1A (hypoxia inducible factor 1, alpha subunit) nucleotide sequence or expression has been shown to be associated with the development of several diseases. Because of increasing research interest in HIF1A gene a review of association studies was needed. We here reviewed published data on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HIF1A in various diseases; in total, 34 SNPs were tested for an association with 49 phenotypes, and the results were visualized using the Cytoscape software. Among all collected polymorphisms 16 SNPs showed significant associations with 40 different phenotypes, including six SNPs associated with 14 cancer types. Missense SNPs (rs11549465 and rs11549467) within the oxygen-dependent degradation domain were most frequently studied. The study provides a comprehensive tool for researchers working in this area and may contribute to more accurate disease diagnosis and identification of therapeutic targets.

Influencia del polimorfismo rs11549465 de HIF-1α en los niveles de hemoglobina y lactato en pacientes de cirugía cardiovascular

Introducción. La anemia perioperatoria es una complicación común de la cirugía cardiovascular. Pacientes con el alelo T del polimorfismo rs11549465 de HIF-1α podrían tener niveles alterados de hemoglobina y lactato antes, durante y después de la cirugía, en comparación con los del ancestral. Esto, por un aumento en la estabilidad de HIF-1α causado por este.Objetivo. Describir la frecuencia del alelo T en pacientes de cirugía cardiovascular programada y su relación con los niveles de hemoglobina y lactato.Materiales y métodos: Se aisló ADN de 84 pacientes de cirugía cardiovascular para genotipificación por secuenciación de Sanger y se recolectaron características demográficas y clínicas.Resultados. La frecuencia del alelo T fue 0.066 (IC95%: 0.037-0.114). No hubo diferencias significativas en los niveles de hemoglobina y lactato preoperatorios, intraoperatorios y posoperatorios entre pacientes con alelo T y aquellos con alelo ancestral.Conclusión. La frecuencia del alelo T fue menor que la esperada, de acuerdo con otros estudios en poblaciones similares de voluntarios sanos y no mostró diferencias significativas con algunas poblaciones asiáticas, ni con un grupo de pacientes con infarto agudo de miocardio. Parece que la genotipificación de rs11549465 en pacientes de cirugía cardiovascular no representó un método de estratificación de riesgo de anemia en este grupo.

TCN, an AKT inhibitor, exhibits potent antitumor activity and enhances radiosensitivity in hypoxic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in vitro and in vivo

The aim of the present study was to investigate the radiosensitization effect of triciribine (TCN) on human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in normoxia or hypoxia and its mechanism. The cytotoxicity and radiosensitization mechanism of TCN were investigated by Cell Counting Kit 8, clonogenic assay, flow cytometry, western blotting (WB) and immunofluorescence staining of phospho-histone H2A.X, Ser139 (γ-H2AX) in ESCC in vitro, while the protein expression levels of AKT, phosphorylated (p)-AKT, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were evaluated by WB in vivo. The cytotoxicity of TCN was dose dependent. Upon exposure to TCN, ESCC cells in hypoxia treated with 4-Gy radiotherapy exhibited an evidently higher apoptotic rate than cells subjected to other treatments. TCN could significantly inhibit the protein expression of p-AKT, HIF-1α and VEGF in vitro and in vivo. The present results suggested that TCN can effectively inhibit AKT, p-AKT, HIF-1α and VEGF, thus conferring radiosensitivity to ESCC in vitro and vivo. TCN is considered as an adjuvant in radiotherapy of ESCC in clinical application.

The potential anticancer effect of beta-blockers and the genetic variations involved in the interindividual difference

β-ARs are extensively spread in different tissues of our body, which could be activated by neurotransmitters norepinephrine and epinephrine to mediate physiological function and abnormal states including cancer. Recently, β-AR blockers could have significant implications in cancer therapy. But the precise molecular mechanisms are far from being fully understood. Through identifying the β-AR system signal pathways relevant to cancer, we can understand the mechanisms of β-blockers used for cancer treatment. What's more, retrospective clinical data made β-blockers jump out of the traditional field of cardiovascular disease and strengthened our confidence in cancer therapy. At last, genetic studies of β-adrenergic system offered crucial genes to analyze the effects of polymorphisms on cancer susceptibility, therapy response and prognosis of cancer patients.

The natural compound gambogic acid radiosensitizes nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells under hypoxic conditions

AIMS

Hypoxia is an important factor that causes decreased local disease control as well as increased distant metastases and resistance to radiotherapy in patients with advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Gambogic acid (GA), the major active ingredient of gamboge, exerts antitumor effects in vitro and in vivo. However, the molecular mechanism by which GA inhibits tumor radioresistance remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the radiosensitizing effects of GA on NPC and explore the underlying mechanisms.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

CNE-1 and CNE-2 cells exposed to hypoxia and radiation were treated with GA at different concentrations. CCK-8 assay, clonogenic assay, and flow cytometry were performed to analyze cell proliferation, colony formation, apoptosis, and cell cycle. The expression levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3, cyclin B1/p-cdc2 and γ-H2AX were assessed using Western blot and/or immunofluorescence analysis.

RESULTS

Results of the CCK-8 assay, clonogenic assay, and flow cytometry showed that treatment of NPC cells with growth-suppressive concentrations of GA resulted in G2/M phase arrest and apoptosis. Western blot analysis demonstrated that GA-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in CNE-2 cells was associated with upregulated expression of caspase-3 and Bax and downregulated expression of Bcl-2 and cyclin B1/p-cdc2 in hypoxia. Treatment with GA markedly decreased the expression of HIF-1α under hypoxic conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study suggest that GA efficiently radiosensitizes NPC cells and the effect may be significant in hypoxic conditions.

Genetic variants and risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a GWAS-based pathway analysis

This study was designed to identify candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that may affect the susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and elucidate their potential mechanisms to generate SNP-to-gene-to-pathway hypotheses. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) dataset for ESCC, which included 453,852 SNPs from 1898 ESCC patients and 2100 control subjects of Chinese population, was reviewed. The identify candidate causal SNPs and pathways (ICSNPathway) analysis identified seven candidate SNPs, five genes, and seven pathways, which together revealed seven hypothetical biological mechanisms. The three strongest hypothetical biological mechanisms were as follows: rs4135113→TDG→BASE EXCISION REPAIR; rs1800450→MBL2→MONOSACCHARIDE BINDING; and rs3769823→CASP8→d4gdiPathway. The GWAS dataset was evaluated using the ICSNPathway, which showed seven candidate SNPs, five genes, and seven pathways that may contribute to the susceptibility of patients to ESCC.