Objective To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of hepatolithiasis associated with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (HLAIHCC).Method A ret rospective study was conducted on 36 patients who suffered from histopathologically confirmed HLAIHCC.These patients received surgical resection of the tumor from June 2006 to September 2009.Results The overall 1,3,5 year survival rates for patients with HLAIHCC were not significantly better than those patients with ICC (63.6％,36.4％,and 30.3i％ vs.65.4％,34.3％,and 28.6％,P=0.57).For the patients who received curative resection,the 1-,3-,and 5-year survival rates (81.4 ％,61.7 ％,and 58.6 ％) were significantly better than those who received palliative resections (x2 =20.426,P＜0.001).The white blood cell count was significantly higher in the HLAIHCC group than in the ICC group (x2 =19.70,P＜0.001) and tumor size was significantly smaller in the ICC group than in the HLAIHCC group (P=0.04).Serum CA19-9 level (P=0.049) and resection margin (P=0.019) were independent risk factors of prognosis.Conclusions This study showed HLAIHCC to have different clinicopathological characteristics from ICC.Curative resection was the optimal surgical treatment for HLAIHCC.Serum CA19-9 level and resection margin were independent risk factors of prognosis.

Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of low-dose aspirin concurrent with IFN-a in inducing hepatocellular carcinoma apoptosis in BEL-7402 cells. Methods BEL-7402 cells were cultured and treated with IFN-α,or low dose aspirin or both.MTT and flow cytometry were used to measure the cell proliferation and apoptosis after treatment with a singular drug or the combined regiment.The expressions of the apoptosis-related proteins were detected by Western blot.Results MTT assay revealed after IFN α administration alone or combined with aspirin treatment for 48 h,the proliferation ratio of the IFN-α or aspirin group were 82.45％ ± 1.71％ and 83.22％ ±2.26 ％,compared with the control group.The group which received the combined therapy had a proliferation ratio of 69.84 ％ ±1.18 ％,which was significantly lower than the single groups (P＜0.05).The flow cytometry revealed that the apoptosis ratio in IFN-α group and aspirin group were 14.78 ％ ±1.93％ and 14.00％±0.61％,respectively,while the IFN-α + aspirin group was 21.68％±1.28％,which was also significantly higher than that of the single groups (P＜0.05).Western blot detected that IFN-α and aspirin (1 mmol/L) could promote caspase-3 and caspase-9 protein expressions,and when the two drugs were combined,caspase-3 and caspase-9 were also significantly activated.IFN-α alone or combined with aspirin can promote the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax (P＜0.05),while the anti-apoptotic proteins expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl did not change significantly (P＞0.05).Conclusions Low-dose aspirin can cooperate with IFN-α in inhibiting the BEL-7402 cell growth and inducing the cell apoptosis by activating and increasing caspase-3 and caspase-9 levels,which may be related to the increased expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax.

Poly adenosine diphosphate ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors lead to synthetic lethality in homologous recombination repair-deficient (HRD) tumors by inhibiting DNA damage repair. Two PARP inhibitors, olaparib and talazoparib, have been approved for the salvage treatment of breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutation, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) negative advanced breast cancer, and adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer. PAPR inhibitor single agent shows good antitumor activity and controllable safety. A number of clinical studies on PAPR inhibitors combined with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, antiangiogenic therapy and immunotherapy are being carried out. The indications of PARP inhibitors also extend from BRCA mutation to HRD, from ovarian cancer and breast cancer to other solid tumors, promising to benefit more patients in the future.