The extensive application of radiotherapy and the long survival of patients with malignant tumors have led to an in-creased incidence rate of radiation-induced osteosarcoma (RIOS), one of the most critical radiation-induced complications. Compared with primary osteosarcoma, RIOS has higher grade and poorer prognosis, which reduces the survival of patients with cancers. However, RIOS has not been fully understood in the clinical setting. This paper summarizes the latest progress at home and abroad, focusing on the incidence rate, risk factor, latency, and diagnostic criteria of RIOS. The molecular mechanism of RIOS is associated with the muta-tion of p53, the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and the superposition of multiple alleles. Furthermore, we discuss the differences in clinical characteristics, imaging findings, treatment, and prognosis between primary osteosarcoma and RIOS.

AIM: To investigate the effects of interferon-alpha (IFN-?) on the development of dendritic cells (DCs) derived from bone marrow mononuclear cells in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). METHODS: Bone marrow mononuclear cells from 12 CML patients were cultured initially using cytokines as follows: recombined human granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) plus IFN-? (IFN-?-DCs); rhGM-CSF plus recombined human interleukin-4 (rhIL-4) (IL-4-DCs); IFN-? alone; rhGM-CSF alone in 10% FBS RPMI-1640 medium for 7 days and then recombined human tumor necrosis factor-? (rhTNF-?) was added for another 3 days. The morphologic features were observed by Wright's staining under inverted microscope. CD_ 80,CD_ 86,CD_ 83,CD_ 1a and HLA-DR expression were assayed by flow cytometry. Cytogenetic analysis was performed for one CML patient by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH), and the functions of antigen presenting were tested by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). RESULTS: IFN-?-DCs displayed features in morphology that was similar to those of IL-4-DCs with delicate membrane projections. IFN-?-DCs showed an increase in expression of CD80, CD86, CD83, HLA-DR and more intense abilities of allogeneic antigen presentation with and without rhTNF-? stimulation, compared with the control groups of IL-4-DCs. FISH confirmed the DCs of both groups were leukemic origin. CONCLUSIONS: (1) IFN-? promoted the differentiation/activation of bone marrow mononuclear cells from patients with CML into activated dendritic cells. (2) The phenomenon of generation of activated DCs in vitro might contribute to therapeutic effect of IFN-? in CML. (3) IFN-? may be valuable for the generation of active bone marrow mononuclear cells-derived DCs to be as vaccination strategies of CML patients.

Background and purpose:The chemokine,CXCL12 and its receptor,CXCR4,have recently been shown to play an important role in the metastasis of several kinds of carcinoma. It also has been demonstrated that VEGF regulates both the expression of CXCR4 and invasiveness in cancer cell. Our aim was to study the expression of CXCR4,VEGF in osteosarcoma and the correlation between these two factors and distant metastasis. Methods: The immunohistochemical staining SP method was used to detect the expression of CXCR4 and VEGF in 56 cases of osteosarcoma. We analyzed the correlation between the expression of CXCR4 and VEGF,and the correlation between the expression of CXCR4,VEGF and clinical stage,the level of ALP. The patients were followed up for 2 years. Results:There was signifi cant correlation between the expression of CXCR4 and VEGF in 56 cases(r=5.678,P=0.02). Univariate analysis showed a signifi cant correlation between the expression of CXCR4,VEGF and clinical tumor stage(P=0.026),and no correlation between the expression of these two factors and age,sex and serum ALP level. 31 cases had metastasis in two years in a total of 56 follow-up cases,and the expression of CXCR4 and VEGF was associate with metastasis(P=0.018 and P=0.022,respectively). Conclusion:VEGF can upregulate tumor angiogenesis and promote tumor metastasis to specific organ by increasing expression of CXCR4.The increasing expression of CXCR4 and VEGF is useful to predict metastasis and prognosis of osteosarcoma.