VEGFR2 and VEGFA polymorphisms are not associated with an inferior prognosis in Caucasian patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma

Association between the VEGFR-2 -604T/C polymorphism (rs2071559) and type 2 diabetic retinopathy

This retrospective case-control study examined the association between the rs2071559 (-604T/C) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-2 gene and the risk of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in Northern Han Chinese. This study included patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM) in Shijiazhuang between 07/2014 and 07/2016. The healthy controls were unrelated individuals who received routine physical examinations. The diabetic patients were grouped as DM (diabetes but no fundus examination abnormalities), proliferative DR (PDR), and non-proliferative DR (NPDR). Finally, 438 patients were included: 114 controls and 123, 105, and 96 patients in the DM, NPDR, and PDR groups, respectively. In the multivariable analyses and all genetic models, the VEGFR-2 rs2071559 SNP was not associated with DR (among all diabetic patients) or with PDR (among the patients with DR) after adjustment for age, sex, duration of DM, blood glucose, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and body mass index (all P > 0.05). In conclusion, the VEGFR-2- 604T/C rs2071559 SNP is not associated with DR or PDR in the Han Chinese population of Shijiazhuang (China).

Construction of a Six-Gene Prognostic Risk Model Related to Hypoxia and Angiogenesis for Cervical Cancer

Background: The prognosis of cervical cancer (CC) is poor and not accurately reflected by the primary tumor node metastasis staging system. Our study aimed to develop a novel survival-prediction model.

Methods: Hallmarks of CC were quantified using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis and univariate Cox proportional hazards analysis. We linked gene expression, hypoxia, and angiogenesis using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression was combined with the random forest algorithm to construct a prognostic model. We further evaluated the survival predictive power of the gene signature using Kaplan-Meier analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Results: Hypoxia and angiogenesis were the leading risk factors contributing to poor overall survival (OS) of patients with CC. We identified 109 candidate genes using WGCNA and univariate Cox regression. Our established prognostic model contained six genes (MOCSI, PPP1R14A, ESM1, DES, ITGA5, and SERPINF1). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high-risk patients had worse OS (hazard ratio = 4.63, p < 0.001). Our model had high predictive power according to the ROC curve. The C-index indicated that the risk score was a better predictor of survival than other clinicopathological variables. Additionally, univariate and multivariate Cox regressions indicated that the risk score was the only independent risk factor for poor OS. The risk score was also an independent predictor in the validation set (GSE52903). Bivariate survival prediction suggested that patients exhibited poor prognosis if they had high z-scores for hypoxia or angiogenesis and high risk scores.

Conclusions: We established a six-gene survival prediction model associated with hypoxia and angiogenesis. This novel model accurately predicts survival and also provides potential therapeutic targets.

Angiogenesis' related genetic variants alter clinical features and prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients

OBJECTIVES

Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and VEGFA receptor (KDR) genes confer different inherited abilities in angiogenesis (AG) pathway. We aimed in the present study to evaluate influence of six VEGFA and four KDR SNVs in clinical features and survival of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients.

METHODS

One hundred and sixty-eight DLBCL patients diagnosed between June 2009-September 2014 were enrolled in the study. Patients were homogeneously treated with R-CHOP. Genotypes were identified in genomic DNA by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS

Patients with VEGFA -634CC and +936CT or TT genotypes were at increased risk of showing grade III / IV toxicities and not achieving complete remission with treatment, and shorter event-free and overall survival were seen in patients with VEGFA -1154GA or AA genotype and VEGFA ATAGCC haplotype.

CONCLUSION

Our data suggest that inherited abnormalities in AG's gene modulate clinical features and prognosis of DLBCL patients homogeneously treated with R-CHOP.