Association between malignancies and Marfan syndrome: a population-based, nested case-control study in Taiwan

Occurrence of cancer in Marfan syndrome: Report of two patients with neuroblastoma and review of the literature

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant connective tissue disorder caused by pathogenic variants in FBN1, with a hitherto unknown association with cancer. Here, we present two females with MFS who developed pediatric neuroblastoma. Patient 1 presented with neonatal MFS and developed an adrenal neuroblastoma with unfavorable tumor genetics at 10 months of age. Whole genome sequencing revealed a germline de novo missense FBN1 variant (NP_000129.3:p.(Asp1322Asn)), resulting in intron 32 inclusion and exon 32 retention. Patient 2 was diagnosed with classic MFS, caused by a germline de novo frameshift variant in FBN1 (NP_000129.3:p.(Cys805Ter)). At 18 years, she developed high-risk neuroblastoma with a somatic ALK pathogenic variant (NP_004295.2:p.(Arg1275Gln)). We identified 32 reported cases of MFS with cancer in PubMed, yet none with neuroblastoma. Among patients, we observed an early cancer onset and high frequency of MFS complications. We also queried cancer databases for somatic FBN1 variants, finding 49 alterations reported in PeCan, and variants in 2% of patients in cBioPortal. In conclusion, we report the first two patients with MFS and neuroblastoma and highlight an early age at cancer diagnosis in reported patients with MFS. Further epidemiological and functional studies are needed to clarify the growing evidence linking MFS and cancer.

Comprehensive analyses identify RIPOR2 as a genomic instability-associated immune prognostic biomarker in cervical cancer

Cervical cancer (CC) is a malignancy that tends to have a poor prognosis when detected at an advanced stage; however, there are few studies on the early detection of CC at the genetic level. The tumor microenvironment (TME) and genomic instability (GI) greatly affect the survival of tumor patients via effects on carcinogenesis, tumor growth, and resistance. It is necessary to identify biomarkers simultaneously correlated with components of the TME and with GI, as these could predict the survival of patients and the efficacy of immunotherapy. In this study, we extracted somatic mutational data and transcriptome information of CC cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas, and the GSE44001 dataset from the Gene Expression Omnibus database was downloaded for external verification. Stromal components differed most between genomic unstable and genomic stable groups. Differentially expressed genes were screened out on the basis of GI and StromalScore, using somatic mutation information and ESTIMATE methods. We obtained the intersection of GI- and StromalScore-related genes and used them to establish a four-gene signature comprising RIPOR2, CCL22, PAMR1, and FBN1 for prognostic prediction. We described immunogenomic characteristics using this risk model, with methods including CIBERSORT, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and single-sample GSEA. We further explored the protective factor RIPOR2, which has a close relationship with ImmuneScore. A series of in vitro experiments, including immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, quantitative reverse transcription PCR, transwell assay, CCK8 assay, EdU assay, cell cycle detection, colony formation assay, and Western blotting were performed to validate RIPOR2 as an anti-tumor signature. Combined with integrative bioinformatic analyses, these experiments showed a strong relationship between RIPOR2 with tumor mutation burden, expression of genes related to DNA damage response (especially PARP1), TME-related scores, activation of immune checkpoint activation, and efficacy of immunotherapy. To summarize, RIPOR2 was successfully identified through comprehensive analyses of the TME and GI as a potential biomarker for forecasting the prognosis and immunotherapy response, which could guide clinical strategies for the treatment of CC patients.

A pancancer overview of FBN1, asprosin and its cognate receptor OR4M1 with detailed expression profiling in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer affects >295,000 women worldwide and is the most lethal of gynaecological malignancies. Often diagnosed at a late stage, current research efforts seek to further the molecular understanding of its aetiopathogenesis and the development of novel biomarkers. The present study investigated the expression levels of the glucogenic hormone asprosin [encoded by fibrillin-1 (FBN1)], and its cognate receptor, olfactory receptor 4M1 (OR4M1), in ovarian cancer. A blend of in silico open access The Cancer Genome Atlas data, as well as in vitro reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence data were used. RT-qPCR revealed expression levels of OR4M1 and FBN1 in clinical samples and in ovarian cancer cell lines (SKOV-3, PEO1, PEO4 and MDAH-2774), as well as the normal human ovarian surface epithelial cell line (HOSEpiC). Immunohistochemical staining of a tissue microarray was used to identify the expression levels of OR4M1 and asprosin in ovarian cancer samples of varying histological subtype and grade, including clear cell carcinoma, serous ovarian cancer and mucinous adenocarcinoma. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed asprosin expression in SKOV-3 and HOSEpiC cells. These results demonstrated the expression of both asprosin and OR4M1 in normal and malignant human ovarian tissues. This research invokes further investigation to advance the understanding of the role of asprosin and OR4M1 within the ovarian tumour microenvironment.

Gastric Cancer Heterogeneity and Clinical Outcomes

Gastric adenocarcinoma is a highly aggressive disease with poor overall survival. The aggressive nature of this disease is in part due to the high intra and inter tumoral heterogeneity and also due to the late diagnosis at presentation. Once progression occurs, treatment is more difficult due to the adaptation of tumors, which acquires resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutics. In this report, using publicly available data sets and pathway analysis, we highlight the vast heterogeneity of gastric cancer by investigating genes found to be significantly perturbed. We found several upregulated genes in the diffuse gastric cancer subtypes share similarity to gastric cancer as a whole which can be explained by the increase in this subtype of gastric cancer throughout the world. We report significant downregulation of genes that are underrepresented within the literature, such as ADH7, GCNT2, and LIF1, while other genes have not been explored within gastric cancer to the best of our knowledge such as METTL7A, MAL, CWD43, and SLC2A12. We identified gender to be another heterogeneous component of this disease and suggested targeted treatment strategies specific to this heterogeneity. In this study, we provide an in-depth exploration of the molecular landscape of gastric cancer in order to shed light onto novel areas of gastric cancer research and explore potential new therapeutic targets.