Prognostic Impact of Extended Lymph Node Dissection versus Limited Lymph Node Dissection on pN0 Proximal Advanced Gastric Cancer: a Propensity Score Matching Analysis

Integrative Radiogenomics Approach for Risk Assessment of Postoperative and Adjuvant Chemotherapy Benefits for Gastric Cancer Patients

Gastric cancer (GC) is a typical heterogeneous malignant tumor, whose insensitivity to chemotherapy is a common cause of tumor recurrence and metastasis. There is no doubt regarding the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) for GC, but the population for whom it is indicated and the selection of specific options remain the focus of present research. The conventional pathological TNM prediction focuses on cancer cells to predict prognosis, while they do not provide sufficient prediction. Enhanced computed tomography (CT) scanning is a validated tool that assesses the involvement of careful identification of the tumor, lymph node involvement, and metastatic spread. Using the radiomics approach, we selected the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression model to build a radiomics signature for predicting the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with complete postoperative gastric cancer and further identifying candidate benefits from ACT. The radiomics trait-associated genes captured clinically relevant molecular pathways and potential chemotherapeutic drug metabolism mechanisms. Our results of precise surrogates using radiogenomics can lead to additional benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and then survival prediction in postoperative GC patients.

The Clinicopathological Features and Overall Survival of Patients With Gastric Neuroendocrine Carcinoma

OBJECTIVES

Gastric neuroendocrine carcinoma (GNEC) is a class of rare histological subtypes in gastric cancer (GC). This retrospective case-control study aimed to explore the clinicopathological features and overall survival (OS) of patients with GNEC.

METHODS

A large population of GNEC and intestinal-type GC (IGC) patients were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was initiated to adjust the confounders between GNEC and IGC cohorts. Kaplan-Meier (KM) plots with log-rank tests were used to compare the survival differences in GNEC versus IGC. Additionally, Cox proportional hazard regression models were adopted to characterize the prognostic factors relevant to OS of the GNEC patients.

RESULTS

An entity of 4596 patients were collected, including 3943 (85.8%) IGC patients and 653 (14.2%) GNEC patients. The PSM analysis well-balanced all confounders in GNEC versus IGC (all P > .05). The KM plots showed that GNEC had significantly superior OS to IGC both before and after PSM analysis. Before PSM, the median OS was 52 (33.6-70.4) months in GNEC versus 32 (29.3-34.7) months in IGC (P  =  .0015). After PSM, the median OS was 26 (18.3-33.7) months in GNEC versus 21 (17.7-24.3) months in IGC (P  =  .0039). Stratified analysis indicated that GNEC had superior survivals to IGC in early stage patients and those who received surgery. In Cox regression analysis, age ≥ 60, tumor size > 50 mm, stage II-IV, T2, and N3 were independent risk factors for the GNEC patients (hazard ratio [HR]>1, P < .05). By contrast, year 2010 to 2015, female, and surgery were independent protective factors for these patients (HR < 1, P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

GNEC has unique clinicopathological features quite different from IGC and may have a superior survival to IGC in early stage patients. The prognostic factors identified here may assist the clinicians to more individually treat these patients.

Elevated carbohydrate antigen 125 post-operation as a prognostic marker in gastric cancer patients with stage II-III

BACKGROUND

Gastric cancer is one of the high occurrence cancers among gastrointestinal tumor. Further research should be carried out to find more prognostic factors, screening patients with poor prognosis, who need stronger treatment.

METHODS

The clinicopathologic characteristic, the levels of tumor markers and survival of 105 patients who underwent gastrectomy with a D2 lymph node dissection in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital were collected and analyzed.

RESULTS

In the 105 patients, there were 71 males, and the median age was 56 years (range, 21-83 years). In 105 patients, 77 patients were diagnosed with non-cardia cancer, 84.8% patients were diagnosed of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, more than half of the patients were diagnosed of T3-4, and 92 patients had lymph node metastasis, while the clinical stage III patients were accounted for 85%. Seventy point five percent patients were Borrmann III type. The median OS of the patients with increased preoperative serum CEA, CA125, CA19-9, AFP and combined were shorter than those patients with normal serum tumor markers, but without statistical significance (P=0.350, P=0.498, P=0.240, P=0.578 and P=0.219). The OS of patients with elevated levels of CEA, CA19-9, and AFP after operation were shorter than patients with decreased ones without statistical significance (P=0.321, P=0.118 and P=0.424). Elevated CA125 after operation was shorter than patients with decreased ones significantly (P<0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated of CA125 after operation was associated with poor OS in stage II-III GC patients.

Peritoneal metastatic gastric carcinoma cells exhibit more malignant behavior when co-cultured with HMrSV5 cells

Metastasis and recurrence are major causes of death in gastric cancer patients. Because there are no obvious clinical symptoms during the early stages of metastasis, we sought to isolate highly invasive metastatic gastric cancer cells for future drug screening. We first established a mouse model to observe gastric cancer metastasis in vivo. The incidence of peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer was much higher than liver or lymph metastasis. Peritoneal metastatic and non-metastatic NUGC-4 cells were isolated from the mouse model. Cell proliferation was measured using CCK-8 assays, while migration and invasion were investigated in Transwell assays. Proteins involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition were detected by Western blotting. Metastatic gastric carcinoma cells were more proliferative and invasive than primary NUGC-4 cells. The supernatants of metastatic gastric carcinoma cells notably altered the morphology of HMrSV5 peritoneal mesothelial cells and promoted their epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Moreover, primary or metastatic gastric cancer cells co-cultured with HMrSV5 cells markedly increased cancer cell proliferation and invasiveness. Moreover, peritoneal metastatic gastric carcinoma cells in the presence of HMrSV5 cells exhibited most malignant behaviors. Thus, peritoneal metastatic gastric carcinoma cells exhibited high capacities for proliferation and invasion, and could be used as a new drug screening tool for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer and peritoneal metastatic gastric cancer.