Cachexia commonly occurs at the terminal stage of cancer and has largely unclear molecular mechanisms. A recent study published inNature Medicine, entitled “Excessive fatty acid oxidation induces muscle atrophy in cancer cachexia,”reveals that cachectic cancer cells can secrete multiple cytokines that induce excessive fatty acid oxidation, which is responsible for muscle loss in cancer cachexia. Inhibition of fatty acid oxidation using etomoxir can increase muscle mass and body weight in cancer cachexia animal models. The usage of stable cachexia animal models is also dis?cussed in this research highlight.

Five-year survival rate for patients with all cancers combined,in China,is only 30.9％,which is much lower than those in developed countries.The three main reasons for the low cancer curative rates in China include differences in the spectrum of cancer types,in early detection rates,and in the percentage of cancer patients receiving standardized treatment between China and developed countries.The most important mechanism for improving the curative rate is to improve early detection rates of major cancers in China using novel and affordable technologies that can be operated at home by the patients themselves.This attempt could be helpful in setting up a practical example for other developing countries with limited medical resources and a limited number of healthcare practitioners.

Populations in Southern China (Bai-yue) and Borneo (Bidayuh) with high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer(NPC) share similar mitochondrial DNA signatures, supporting the hypothesis that these two populations may share the same genetic predisposition for NPC, which may have first appeared in a common ancestral reference population before the sea levels rose after the last ice age.
Borneo ; epidemiology ; Carcinoma ; China ; epidemiology ; DNA, Mitochondrial ; genetics ; Ethnic Groups ; genetics ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Humans ; Incidence ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics

Abstracting and Indexing as Topic ; Neoplasms ; Periodicals as Topic

Metastasis is the major cause of treatment failure in cancer patients and of cancer-related deaths. This editorial discusses how cancer metastasis may be better perceived and controlled. Based on big-data analyses, a collection of 150 important pro-metastatic genes was studied. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets to re-analyze the effect of some previously reported metastatic genes—e.g., JAM2, PPARGC1A, SIK2, and TRAF6—on overall survival of patients with renal and liver cancers, we found that these genes are actually protective factors for patients with cancer. The role of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in single-cell metastasis has been well-documented. However, in metastasis caused by cancer cell clusters, EMT may not be necessary. A novel role of epithelial marker E-cadherin, as a sensitizer for chemoresistant prostate cancer cells by inhibiting Notch signaling, has been found. This editorial also discusses the obstacles for developing anti-metastatic drugs, including the lack of high-throughput technologies for identifying metastasis inhibitors, less application of animal models in the pre-clinical evaluation of the leading compounds,and the need for adjustments in clinical trial design to better reflect the anti-metastatic efficacy of new drugs.We are confident that by developing more effective high-throughput technologies to identify metastasis inhibitors,we can better predict, prevent, and treat cancer metastasis.

BACKGROUNDThe aim of this research was to investigate the changes in the vision-related resting-state network (V-RSN) in pituitary adenoma (PA) patients after vision improvement, which was induced by operative treatment.

METHODSTen PA patients with an improved visual acuity or/and visual field after transsphenoidal pituitary tumor resection were recruited and underwent a complete neuro-ophthalmologic evaluation, as well as an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol, including structural and resting-state functional MRI sequences before and after the operation. The regional homogeneity (ReHo) of the V-RSN was evaluated. Two sample t-test was performed to identify the significant differences in the V-RSN in the PA patients before and after transsphenoidal pituitary tumor resection.

RESULTSCompared with the preoperation counterparts, the PA patients with improved vision after the operation exhibited reduced ReHo in the bilateral thalamus, globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, putamen nucleus, supplementary motor area, and left hippocampal formation, and increased ReHo in the bilateral cuneus gyrus, calcarine gyrus, right lingual gyrus, and fusiform gyrus.

CONCLUSIONSPA patients with improved vision exhibit increased neural activity within the visual cortex, but decreased neural activity in subareas of the multisensory and multimodal systems beyond the vision cortex.

Adenoma ; pathology ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pituitary Neoplasms ; pathology ; Young Adult

Once considered a taboo topic or stigma, cancer is the number one public health enemy in the world. Once a product of an almost untouchable industry, tobacco is indisputably recognized as a major cause of cancer and a target for anticancer efforts. With the emergence of new economic powers in the world, especially in highly populated countries such as China, air pollution has rapidly emerged as a smoking gun for cancer and has become a hot topic for public health debate because of the complex political, economic, scientific, and technologic issues surrounding the air pollution problem. This editorial and the referred articles published in this special issue of the Chinese Journal of Cancer discuss these fundamental questions. Does air pollution cause a wide spectrum of cancers? Should air pollution be considered a necessary evil accompanying economic transformation in developing countries? Is an explosion of cancer incidence coming to China and how soon will it arrive? What must be done to prevent this possible human catastrophe? Finally, the approaches for air pollution control are also discussed.
Air Pollution ; adverse effects ; Carcinogens, Environmental ; toxicity ; China ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; etiology ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; adverse effects

Serglycin belongs to a family of small proteoglycans with Ser-Gly dipeptide repeats, and it is modified with different types of glycosaminoglycan side chains. Intracellular serglycin affects the retention and secretion of proteases, chemokines, or other cytokines by physically binding to these factors in secretory granules. Extracellular serglycin has been found to be released by several types of human cancer cells, and it is able to promote the metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Serglycin can bind to CD44, which is another glycoprotein located in cellular membrane. Serglycin's function of promoting cancer cell metastasis depends on glycosylation of its core protein, which can be achieved by autocrine as well as paracrine secretion mechanisms. Further investigations are warranted to elucidate serglycin signaling mechanisms with the goal of targeting them to prevent cancer cell metastasis.
Autocrine Communication ; Glycosylation ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Hyaluronan Receptors ; metabolism ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Paracrine Communication ; Protein Binding ; Proteoglycans ; biosynthesis ; physiology ; secretion ; RNA, Messenger ; metabolism ; Vesicular Transport Proteins ; biosynthesis ; physiology ; secretion

Cancer is the most deadly disease in the United States. In developing countries such as China, cancer is increasingly prevalent as a cause of death. The "war against cancer" that was initially declared in the United States has become a global war that requires an alliance of world-wide cancer researchers. As part of such an effort, the Second Guangzhou International Symposium on Oncology was held on May 20-22, 2011, in Guangzhou, China. The symposium was jointly organized by the Guangdong Anti-Cancer Association, the US Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (USCACA), the Chinese Journal of Cancer, and the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. More than 1000 cancer researchers attended, including speakers from China, the USA, Finland, England, Japan, and Spain. The presentations covered most cancer types and both basic and clinical research. Recurring themes of the presentations were that cancer is "smart", cancer is complex, and cancer cells communicate actively. Outsmarting cancer is clearly a challenging task that needs multipronged attacks on multiple targets and on the communication systems among cancer cells. Presenters and attendees left the conference with a sense of urgency in the need for more communication among cancer researchers in fighting this disease. In this article, we summarize highlights from a number of presentations. Many of the presenters have published or will publish reviews and research articles in the Chinese Journal of Cancer, which has become an important international forum in disseminating exciting cancer research progress.
Drug Delivery Systems ; Female ; Genetic Heterogeneity ; Glioblastoma ; genetics ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; genetics ; radiotherapy ; Oncogenes ; Ovarian Neoplasms ; genetics ; Precision Medicine ; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; antagonists & inhibitors ; Radiotherapy, Image-Guided ; Tumor Microenvironment

Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is endemic in Southern China, with Guandong province and Hong Kong reporting some of the highest incidences in the world. The journal Science has called it a "Cantonese cancer". We propose that in fact NPC is a cancer that originated in the Bai Yue ("proto Tai Kadai" or "proto Austronesian" or "proto Zhuang") peoples and was transmitted to the Han Chinese in southern China through intermarriage. However, the work by John Ho raised the profile of NPC, and because of the high incidence of NPC in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, NPC became known as a Cantonese cancer. We searched historical articles, articles cited in PubMed, Google, monographs, books and Internet articles relating to genetics of the peoples with high populations of NPC. The migration history of these various peoples was extensively researched, and where possible, their genetic fingerprint identified to corroborate with historical accounts. Genetic and anthropological evidence suggest there are a lot of similarities between the Bai Yue and the aboriginal peoples of Borneo and Northeast India; between Inuit of Greenland, Austronesian Mayalo Polynesians of Southeast Asia and Polynesians of Oceania, suggesting some common ancestry. Genetic studies also suggest the present Cantonese, Minnans and Hakkas are probably an admixture of northern Han and southern Bai Yue. All these populations have a high incidence of NPC. Very early contact between southern Chinese and peoples of East Africa and Arabia can also account for the intermediate incidence of NPC in these regions.
Asia, Southeastern ; epidemiology ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; genetics ; history ; Borneo ; epidemiology ; China ; epidemiology ; Emigration and Immigration ; history ; Ethnic Groups ; genetics ; history ; Female ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics ; Genetics, Population ; Greenland ; epidemiology ; History, Ancient ; Hong Kong ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Incidence ; India ; epidemiology ; Inuits ; genetics ; Male ; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms ; epidemiology ; ethnology ; genetics ; mortality ; Oceania ; epidemiology