S-phase fraction and ploidy as predictive markers in primary disease and recurrence of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Up-regulation of CNDP2 facilitates the proliferation of colon cancer

BACKGROUND

Cytosolic nonspecific dipetidase (CN2) belongs to the family of M20 metallopeptidases. It was stated in previous articles that higher expression levels of CN2 were observed in renal cell carcinoma and breast cancer. Our study explored the correlation between CN2 and colon carcinogenesis.

METHODS

We analysed the relationship between 183 patients clinicopathological characteristics and its CN2 expression. To detect the levels of CN2 in colon cancer cell lines and colon cancer tissues by western blot. To verify cell proliferation in colon cancer cells with knockdown of CNDP2 and explore the causes of these phenomena.

RESULTS

The expression levels of CN2 in clinical colon tumors and colon cancer cell lines were significantly higher than that in normal colon mucosa and colon cell lines. The difference in CN2 levels was associated with tumor location (right- and left-sided colon cancer), but there was no significant association with age, gender, tumor size, tumor grade, tumor stage or serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Knockdown of CNDP2 inhibited cell proliferation, blocked cell cycle progression and retarded carcinogenesis in an animal model. The signaling pathway through which knockdown of CNDP2 inhibited cell proliferation and tumorigenesis involved in EGFR, cyclin B1 and cyclin E.

CONCLUSIONS

Knockdown of CNDP2 can inhibit the proliferation of colon cancer in vitro and retarded carcinogenesis in vivo.

Familial vs sporadic papillary thyroid carcinoma: a matched-case comparative study showing similar clinical/prognostic behaviour

OBJECTIVE

Familial non-medullary thyroid cancer has been proposed as an aggressive clinical entity. Our aim in this study is to investigate potential distinguishing features as well as the biological and clinical aggressiveness of familial vs sporadic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). We assessed clinicopathological characteristics, outcome measures and DNA ploidy.

DESIGN

A matched-case comparative study.

METHODS

A series of patients with familial PTC (n=107) and two subgroups, one with three or more affected elements (n=32) and another including index cases only (n=61), were compared with patients with sporadic PTC (n=107), matched by age, gender, pTNM disease extension and approximate follow-up duration. Histological variant, extrathyroidal extension, vascular invasion, tumour multifocality and bilateral growth were evaluated. Ploidy pattern was analysed in available samples by DNA flow cytometry. The probabilities of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated according to the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method.

RESULTS

No patient with familial PTC died of disease during follow-up (median, 72 months), contrarily to five patients (4.7%) (P=0.06) with sporadic PTC (median, 90 months). There was a significantly higher tumour multifocality in familial PTC (index cases subgroup) vs sporadic PTC (P=0.035), and a trend, in the familial PTC cohort with three or more affected elements, to show extrathyroidal extension (P=0.054) more frequently. No difference was observed in DNA ploidy status. The K-M analyses showed no significant differences between both entities in relation to DFS or OS.

CONCLUSION

Apart from multifocality, familial PTC appears to have similar clinical/prognostic behaviour when compared with sporadic forms of the disease.