Circulating cytokeratin-positive cells and tumor budding in colorectal cancer

Impact of uPA/PAI-1 and disseminated cytokeratin-positive cells in breast cancer

BACKGROUND

The protease uPA and its inhibitor PAI-1 play major roles in hemostasis and are also involved in cancer progression. This is mainly caused by their ability to degrade extracellular matrix-facilitating tumor cell migration. This study aimed to investigate the impact of uPA/PAI-1 and disseminated cytokeratin-positive cells (dCK+) on the outcome and the existence of synergistic effects.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 480 breast cancer cases with known uPA/PAI-1 and dCK+ status. uPA/PAI-1 was tested on fresh tumor samples using a commercial ELISA test. Bone marrow aspirates were investigated immunocytochemically for CK18.

RESULTS

DCK+ cells were identified in 23% of cases. uPA positivity was significantly associated with the occurrence of dCK+ cells (P = 0.028). uPA and PAI-1 were significantly associated with outcome in the subgroup of early-stage cases without chemotherapy. DCK+ cells alone were not prognostic. However, we found synergistic effects. In the subgroup of node-negative cases with and without chemotherapy, the prognostic impact of uPA and PAI-1 was enhanced in cases with additional dCK-positivity (triple +). In cases without chemotherapy, triple-positive status was independently prognostic (HR: 9.3 CI: 1.1-75) next to T stage.

CONCLUSIONS

uPA and PAI-1 seem to influence the metastatic potential of dCK+ cells, which underlines its important role in tumor progression.

Circulating Tumor Cell-Derived Pre-Clinical Models for Personalized Medicine

The main cause of death from cancer is associated with the development of metastases, resulting from the inability of current therapies to cure patients at metastatic stages. Generating preclinical models to better characterize the evolution of the disease is thus of utmost importance, in order to implement effective new cancer biomarkers and therapies. Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are good candidates for generating preclinical models, making it possible to follow up the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of tumor tissues. This method is a non-invasive liquid biopsy that can be obtained at any stage of the disease. It partially summarizes the molecular heterogeneity of the corresponding tumors at a given time. Here, we discuss the CTC-derived models that have been generated so far, from simplified 2D cultures to the most complex CTC-derived explants (CDX models). We highlight the challenges and strengths of these preclinical tools, as well as some of the recent studies published using these models.

Effect of microRNA-370 on coronary atherosclerosis and its underlying mechanism

As a global health problem, cardiovascular disease threatens the lives of human beings. It has been reported that microRNAs (miRs) are important in regulating coronary atherosclerosis. In the present study, the expression levels of miR-370 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with coronary atherosclerosis were significantly increased compared with healthy patients, as demonstrated by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. Additionally, the target of miR-370 was predicted as Forkhead Box 1 (FOXO1) with bioinformatics, and was confirmed by a dual luciferase assay. The mRNA and protein expression levels of FOXO1 were inhibited by miR-370. Furthermore, the invasion and proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells were promoted by miR-370 via inhibiting the expression of FOXO1. The results obtained in the present study demonstrated that miR-370 served an important role in regulating coronary atherosclerosis via targeting FOXO1. The present data also indicated that miR-370 may be a promising molecular target for treating coronary atherosclerosis.