RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that tumor size has an impact on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Whether tumor size is related to the prognosis of distant metastatic HCC is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of tumor size on the prognosis of distant metastatic HCC. METHODS: Data on patients with HCC were collected from the (SEER) database of surveillance, epidemiology and final results. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to reduce confounding factors and comprehensively evaluate the clinicopathological features and prognosis of distant metastatic HCC. RESULTS: There were 189 patients with distant metastatic HCC whose tumor size was ≤ 50 mm and 615 patients with a tumor size > 50 mm. The tumor sizes of distant metastatic HCC patients were associated with race, grade, surgical treatment, N and AFP. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the mortality rate of patients with a tumor size > 50 mm was higher than that of patients with a tumor size ≤ 50 mm (p = 0.00062). However, there were no significant differences in mortality rates after adjusting for confounding variables by using propensity score matching (p = 0.23). CONCLUSION: This propensity score matching study provides the best data in support of the following assertions: tumor size is not an independent prognostic factor for distant metastatic HCC.

Asunto(s)

Carcinoma Hepatocelular , Neoplasias Hepáticas , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/patología , Humanos , Estimación de Kaplan-Meier , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patología , Pronóstico , Puntaje de Propensión

RESUMEN

Two principal methods for cancer drug testing are widely used, namely, in vitro 2D cell monolayers and in vivo animal models. In vitro 2D culture systems are simple and convenient but are unable to capture the complexity of biological processes. Animal models are costly, time-consuming, and often fail to replicate human activity. Here a microfluidic tumor-on-a-chip (TOC) model designed for assessing multifunctional liposome cancer targeting and efficacy is presented. The TOC device contains three sets of hemispheric wells with different sizes for tumor spheroid formation and evaluation of liposomes under a controlled flow condition. There is good agreement between time-elapsed tumor targeting of fluorescent liposomes in the TOC model and in in vivo mouse models. Evaluation of the anticancer efficacy of four PTX-loaded liposome formulations shows that compared to 2D cell monolayers and 3D tumor spheroid models, the TOC model better predicts the in vivo anticancer efficacy of targeted liposomes. Lastly, the TOC model is used to assess the effects of flow rates and tumor size on treatment outcome. This study demonstrates that the TOC model provides a convenient and powerful platform for rapid and reliable cancer drug evaluation.

Asunto(s)

Antineoplásicos , Dispositivos Laboratorio en un Chip , Liposomas , Técnicas Analíticas Microfluídicas , Análisis de Matrices Tisulares , Animales , Línea Celular Tumoral , Humanos , Ratones

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Vascular invasion, rather than tumor size, was applied into the 7th edition of the AJCC TNM staging system to predict survival of solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, does this mean tumor size is of little value in prognostic prediction? The current study was designed to explore the prognostic ability of tumor sizes in solitary HCC. METHODS: A total of 18 591 patients with solitary HCC categorized as T1 and T2 were retrieved from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was adopted to evaluate the impact of tumor sizes on overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) in general and in subgroups stratified by vascular invasion and surgery type. RESULTS: Large tumor sizes (>39 mm) were associated with unfavorable clinicopathologic characteristics. Compared with tumors ≤30 mm, tumors between 31-50 mm and tumors >50 mm showed significantly worse OS and DSS in general using multivariate analysis (all P < 0.001). In subgroup analyses, for patients without vascular invasion, tumor size was a notable prognostic indicator for OS in the radiofrequency ablation group (P < 0.001), rather than in the liver resection or transplantation group. Nevertheless, for patients with vascular invasion, tumor sizes exhibited a notable impact on OS in the liver resection and transplantation group. CONCLUSIONS: The AJCC TNM staging system for solitary HCC would be more comprehensive if tumor sizes were integrated into the T2 classification. Additionally, for T1 patients, tumor sizes play no role in the choice between resection and transplantation.

Asunto(s)

Carcinoma Hepatocelular/mortalidad , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/patología , Neoplasias Hepáticas/mortalidad , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patología , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/cirugía , Femenino , Humanos , Neoplasias Hepáticas/cirugía , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Estadificación de Neoplasias , Neovascularización Patológica/mortalidad , Neovascularización Patológica/patología , Neovascularización Patológica/cirugía , Pronóstico , Programa de VERF , Análisis de Supervivencia , Carga Tumoral

RESUMEN

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), the most common histological subtype of thyroid cancer, accounts for between 80 and 90% of all thyroid cancer cases. Previous studies have suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) are involved in the development of PTC. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether miR-144 inhibits cellular proliferation in PTC. The expression of miR-144 was detected in PTC and corresponding adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and in the PTC cell line IHH4, using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Associations between miR-144 expression levels and the clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess the diagnostic value of miR-144 expression, and the potential function of miR-144 was investigated in IHH4 cells using a Cell Counting Kit-8 and colony formation assays. Western blotting was applied to analyze the expression level of WW domain-containing transcription regulator 1 (WWTR1) in PTC tissues. miR-144 was significantly downregulated in PTC tissues and the PTC cell line. Low expression of miR-144 was associated with larger tumor sizes (P<0.001). The ROC curves demonstrated that miR-144 may be a potential biomarker for identifying PTC and non-cancerous diseases (sensitivity, 58.7%; specificity, 87.3%) as well as to differentiate PTC with tumor sizes ≥2 cm (sensitivity, 79.2%; specificity, 69.2%). Upregulation of miR-144 significantly suppressed proliferation in IHH4 cells. WWTR1 was overexpressed in PTC tissues compared with in adjacent non-cancerous tissues, and the ectopic expression of miR-144 downregulated WWTR1 in IHH4 cells. Co-transfection with pcDNA-WWTR1 and miR-144 'rescued' the proliferation inhibition. The results of the present study collectively demonstrated that miR-144 is downregulated in PTC, that low expression levels of miR-144 are associated with larger tumor sizes and that miR-144 inhibits cellular proliferation in PTC by targeting WWTR1.