Quantitative assessment of tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia and mast cells in tumor proper and lymph nodes of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Competing endogenous RNA network characterization of lymph node metastases in Leuran gastric cancer subtypes

Gastric cancer is a kind of tumor with strong heterogeneity. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) play significant roles in the development of tumors. In this study, we divided all TCGA gastric cancer patients into the whole, intestinal and diffuse cohorts for further analysis, and constructed competitive endogenous RNA network and evaluated immune cells using CIBERSORTx. The support vector machines recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE) was used for screening significant signatures and the support vector machines (SVM) for establishing model predicting the lymph node metastasis. The performance of SVM model was good in the intestinal and diffuse cohort, while the model in the whole cohort was relatively poor. Some important co-expression patterns between immune cells and ceRNAs network indicated significant correlation CD70 with dendritic cells and so on. Our research inferred competing endogenous RNA network of lymph node metastasis and built an excellent predicting model.

The emerging role of mast cells in skin cancers: involved cellular and molecular mechanisms

Skin cancers are the most common cancers worldwide. They can be divided into nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC) including basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and less common lymphomas and merkel cell carcinoma, and melanomas. Melanomas comprise less than 5% of skin cancer rate but are responsible for more than 90% of skin cancer death. Mast cells (MCs) are multifunctional cells that play an important role in inflammatory and allergic reactions. They attract other key players of the immune system by releasing cytokines. Healthy human skin comprises MCs under physiological status, and the number can increase under certain conditions including skin malignancies postulating their possible role in pathogenesis of and immunity against skin cancers. MCs respond to cytokines released by tumor stromal cells, release mediators (including histamine and tryptase), and induce the neovascularization, degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM), and induce mitogenesis. However, MCs may use molecular mechanisms to exert immunosuppressive activity including releasing complement C3, lower expression of CD40L, and overexpression of enzymes with vitamin D3 metabolizing activity including CYP27A1 and CYP27B1. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the role of MCs in pathogenesis and immunity against skin cancers.

Tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) in oral squamous cell carcinoma: a comprehensive review

Oral squamous cell carcinoma is the most common head and neck malignancy, characterised by high invasive capacity, lymph node metastasis, and high recurrence rate. Among the morphological features of oral cancer, the tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia has gained growing interest in the last years. Eosinophils are a minor subpopulation of leukocytes, representing 1-3% of all circulating white blood cells. The presence of high levels of eosinophils is associated with several diseases, but their role in cancer pathophysiology is controversial. In particular, an uncertain and contradictory relationship exists between the exact role of tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia and oral cancer development. Many studies have shown that tumour-associated tissue eosinophilia increases both in the progression of oral potentially malignant disorders as well as in the grade and stage progression of oral cancer. Despite this, both negative and positive prognostic outcomes have been associated with eosinophil infiltration. The heterogeneous results may be partially due both to several methodological inconsistencies and to an incorrect interpretation of the physiological role of eosinophils. Therefore, further studies to elucidate the contribution of eosinophil infiltration are needed, focusing on the existence of eosinophil subpopulations regulated by the cancer immune microenvironment. Furthermore, the correct reporting of prognostic marker research is encouraged, in order to ensure the reproducibility and the comparability of the results from different studies.