Prognostic significance of the Ki67 index and programmed death-ligand 1 expression after radical cystectomy in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Amide Proton Transfer-Weighted Imaging in Assessing the Aggressive and Proliferative Potential of Bladder Cancer

BACKGROUND

Ki-67 and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are known oncogenes involved in bladder cancer (BCa) patient risk stratification. Preoperative assessment of their expression level can assist in clinical treatment decision-making. Recently, amide proton transfer-weighted (APTw) MRI has shown promising potential in the diagnosis of several malignancies. However, few studies reported the value of APTw imaging in evaluating Ki-67 and HER2 status of BCa.

PURPOSE

To investigate the feasibility of APTw MRI in assessing the aggressive and proliferative potential regarding the expression levels of Ki-67 and HER2 in BCa.

STUDY TYPE

Retrospective.

SUBJECTS

114 patients (mean age, 64.78 ± 11.93 [SD] years; 97 men) were studied.

FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE

APTw MRI acquired by a three-dimensional fast-spin-echo sequence at 3.0 T MRI system.

ASSESSMENT

Patient pathologic findings, included histologic grade and the expression status of Ki-67 and HER2, were reviewed by one uropathologist. The APTw values of BCa were independently measured by two radiologists and were compared between high-/low-tumor grade group, high-/low-Ki-67 expression group, and high-/low-HER2 expression group.

STATISTICAL TESTS

The interclass correlation coefficient, independent sample t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman's rank correlation, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis were used. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

Significantly higher APTw values were found in high-grade BCa patients (7.72% vs. 4.29%, P < 0.001), high-Ki-67 expression BCa patients (8.40% vs. 3.25%, P < 0.001) and HER2 positive BCa patients (8.24% vs. 5.40%, P = 0.001). APTw values were positively correlated with Ki-67 (r = 0.769) and HER2 (r = 0. 356) expression status. The area under the ROC curve of the APTw values for detecting Ki-67 and HER2 expression status were 0.883 (95% CI: 0.790-0.945) and 0.713 (95% CI: 0.592-0.816), respectively.

DATA CONCLUSIONS

APTw MRI is a potential method to assess the biological and proliferation potential of BCa.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4

TECHNICAL EFFICACY

Stage 2.

Immunohistochemical markers Ki67 and P16 help predict prognosis in locally advanced cervical cancer

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between Ki-67 and P16 expression levels after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with locally advanced cervical cancer.

METHODS

Patients with FIGO 2009 stage IB2 or IIA2 cervical cancer, who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with radical hysterectomy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between January 2015 and December 2019, were identified retrospectively to correlate postoperative Ki-67 and P16 expression levels with clinicopathological factors. The optimal threshold for predicting recurrence was analysed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the Ki-67 index, and univariate and multi-factorial Cox regression analysis were used to investigate the association between clinicpathological features including Ki-67 and P16 and recurrence-free survival.

RESULTS

In total, 334 patients were included after screening. The cut-off value of Ki-67 for determining recurrence was 67.5 % according to the ROC curve. On multi-factorial Cox analysis, lymphatic vascular space (p = 0.003) and Ki-67 index (p = 0.005) were shown to increase the risk of recurrence, and were independent prognostic factors for recurrence, while the expression of P16 was not significantly associated with the risk of recurrence (p = 0.097, odds ratio = 0.319). Patients with cervical cancer in the high Ki-67 expression group (Ki-67 ≥ 67.5 %) had lower recurrence-free survival and overall survival than patients in the low Ki-67 expression group (Ki-67 < 67.5 %) (p = 0.001 and 0.036, respectively).

CONCLUSION

The expression levels of Ki-67 and P16 after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer correlated with tumour differentiation. High expression of Ki-67 (Ki-67 ≥ 67.5 %) may indicate poorer recurrence-free survival and overall survival.

Kidney cell culture Macaca fascicularis as a candidate for vaccine development and in vitro model

BACKGROUND

Cell culture is the proliferation of a cell population in vitro by isolating from the original tissue or growing from existing ones. One essential source is the monkey kidney cell cultures which have an essential role in biomedical study. This is due to the significant homology between the human and macaque genomes making these useful for cultivating human viruses, especially enteroviruses, and growing vaccines.

METHODS

This study developed cell cultures derived from the kidney of Macaca fascicularis (Mf) and validated its gene expression.

RESULTS

The primary cultures were successfully subcultured up to six passages, grew as monolayers, and exhibited epithelial-like morphology. The cultured cells remained heterogeneous in phenotype and they expressed CD155 and CD46 as viral receptors, cell morphology (CD24, endosialin, and vWF), proliferation, also apoptosis markers (Ki67 and p53).

CONCLUSIONS

These results indicated that the cell cultures can be used as in vitro model cells for vaccine development and bioactive compound.

Prognostic value of programmed cell death ligand-1 expression in patients with bladder urothelial carcinoma undergoing radical cystectomy: A meta-analysis

Background

Radical cystectomy and removal of pelvic lymph nodes (RC-PLND) is a recommended treatment for high-risk non-muscle-invasive and muscle-invasive non-metastatic bladder cancer (BC). However, 50% of patients relapse after RC-PLND. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) on the prognosis of bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) after RC-PLND.

Methods

We present this meta-analysis according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses Guidelines. The main outcomes were overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of 3 and 5 years after RC-PLND.

Results

Overall, 11 studies and 1393 BUC cases were included in our meta-analysis. In tumor cells (TCs), the PD-L1 negative group had statistically significant advantage in 5-year OS (risk ratio [RR]: 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.74–0.97, P = 0.02), RFS (RR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.58–0.99, P = 0.04), and CSS (RR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.58–0.92, P = 0.009) compared with the PD-L1 positive group. But, no statistically significant difference in 5-year OS and RFS was observed between the PD-L1 negative and positive groups in tumor-infiltrating immune cells.

Conclusions

Our study found that patients with BUC who tested positive for PD-L1 in TCs had a poor prognosis after RC-PLND. PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors could be used as a adjuvant medication for patients with BUC after RC-PLND who exhibit PD-L1 overexpression in TCs.

Systematic review registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD42022301424.

[Centromere protein U is highly expressed in colorectal cancer and associated with a poor long-term prognosis]

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the expression of centromere protein U (CENPU) in colorectal cancer and its predictive value for long-term prognosis of the patients.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed the data of 102 patients with colorectal cancer undergoing radical resection in our hospital between January, 2005 and December, 2011. The expression level of CENPU in colorectal cancer tissue was detected immunohistochemically, and its association with clinicopathological characteristics of the patients were analyzed. The patients were divided into low expression group (n=51) and high expression group (n=51) based on the median CENPU expression level for analysis the value of CENPU for predicting long-term prognosis of the patients after radical resection of the tumors. In the in vitro study, we constructed colorectal cancer cell lines with CENPU interference and CENPU overexpression by lentiviral transfection and assessed the changes in the proliferation, migration and invasion of the cells using CCK-8 assay and Transwell assay.

RESULTS

The protein expression level of CENPU was significantly higher in colorectal cancer tissues than in the adjacent tissues (P < 0.05) and was positively correlated with the expressions levels of Ki67 (r=0.569, P < 0.05) and VEGF-C (r=0.629, P < 0.05). CENPU expression level in colorectal cancer tissue was closely related with tumor progression and clinicopathological stage of the tumor (P < 0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the patients with high CENPU expression had significantly decreased postoperative overall survival (χ²=11.155, P < 0.05); Cox multivariate regression analysis suggested that CENPU expression level was an independent risk factor affecting the overall survival of the patients after radical resection (HR=1.848, P < 0.05). The results of cell experiments demonstrated that high CENPU expression significantly promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of the tumor cells.

CONCLUSION

CENPU is highly expressed in colorectal cancer tissues in closely correlation with tumor progression and may serve as a potential biomarker for evaluating the long-term prognosis of colorectal cancer patients.

Establishment of an experimental model of normal dog bladder organoid using a three-dimensional culture method

Dog bladder cancer (BC) is mostly muscle-invasive (MI) with poor prognosis, and its pathogenesis is close to human MIBC. Three-dimensional (3D) organoid culture ensures novel knowledge on cancer diseases including BC. Recently, we have established dog BC organoids (BCO) using their urine samples. BCO recapitulated the epithelial structures, characteristics, and drug sensitivity of BC-diseased dogs. However, organoids from dog normal bladder epithelium are not established yet. Therefore, the present study aimed to establish dog normal bladder organoids (NBO) for further understanding the pathogenesis of dog BC and human MIBC. The established NBO underwent various analyzes including cell marker expressions, histopathological structures, cancer-related gene expression patterns, and drug sensitivity. NBO could be produced non-invasively with a continuous culturing and recapitulated the structures and characteristics of the dog's normal bladder mucosal tissues. Different drug sensitivities were observed in each NBO. The analysis of RNA sequencing revealed that several novel genes were changed in NBO compared with BCO. NBO showed a higher expression of p53 and E-cadherin, but a lower expression of MDM2 and Twist1 compared with BCO. These results suggest that NBO could be a promising experimental 3D model for studying the developmental mechanisms of dog BC and human MIBC.