Pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality among malignant cancers. Known asthe king of cancer,it lacks early symp-toms, diagnostic methods and oncologic markers. Early lymph node metastasis could be found in this disease. Moreover, advanced panereatic cancer is incurable by surgery. Due to the limited efficacy of surgery, as well as radiotherapy and chemotherapy tolerance, therapeutic methods for pancreatic cancer are being explored. L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM) is a member of the cell adhesion molecule inmunoglobulin (Ig) super family that is usually expressed in normal developing nervous tissues. L1CAM is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer cells, binds withα5-integrin to activate downstream factors that mediate tumor metastasis and invasion via the TGF-β1/JUK/slug signaling pathway, induces epithelium-mesenchymal transition, and resists chemotherapy drugs. However, L1CAM forms abnormal vessels that increase the invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells. This abnormal L1CAM expression in pancreatic can-cer cells is a new therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer treatment. Therefore, future studies on L1CAM could promote the develop-ment of pancreatic cancer therapy and provide new treatment methods.

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)is a kind of cytokines with a wide range of biological activity,which is closely related to the occurrence and development of various diseases.Nowadays,a number of researchers use TNF-α as a radiation-sensitizing agent to evaluate the effect of radiation sensitivity of tumor cells.The scheme may have correlation with cell apoptosis,cell cycle,hypoxic cells,repair of DNA damage,etc.

Objective To explore the effectiveness and esophageal strictures of concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with cervical and upper-thoracic esophageal cancer (EC) and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC.Methods Between January 2011 and December 2014,ninety patients with different parts of EC were treated with radiotherapy combined with concurrent chemotherapy in People's Hospital of Subei.The median irradiation dose was 60 Gy.The chemotherapy regimens consisted of Paclitaxel and Nedaplatin.Of all the patients,48 patients had cervical and upper-thoracic EC,42 patients had middle-thoracic and lowerthoracic EC.The response rates,the local control rates,the survival rates and esophageal strictures were evaluated between two groups.Results The follow-up rate was 100％.The response rates of the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC were 81.2％ and 73.8％ (x2 =0.717,P =0.397),respectively.The 1-year local control rates of the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC were 90.3％ and 71.8％ (x2 =5.865,P =0.015),respectively.The 1-year survival rates of the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC were 87.5％ and 69.0％ (x2 =4.580,P =0.032),respectively.The moderate-to-severe esophageal strictures rates of the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC were 55.6％ and 29.4％ (x2 =5.360,P =0.021),respectively.There were no significant differences in shortterm effects between the cervical and upper-thoracic EC and middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC.The patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC showed significantly higher 1-year local control rates,1-year survival rates and esophageal strictures rates than those with middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC.Conclusion The effectiveness of concurrent chemoradiotherapy is better in the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC than in those with middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC,but the esophageal stenosis is more severe in the patients with cervical and upper-thoracic EC than in those with middle-thoracic and lower-thoracic EC.

The complementary oligonucleotides, each with two consensus estrogen response element (ERE)-sequences and 5'-Hind III and 3'-Sph I sticky ends were artificially synthesized. A solution with both the complementary DNA sequences was heated to 95'C and cooled down to room temperature to form double strand DNA (dsDNA). The set was cloned into the corresponding sites of CYC1 promoter of the pERE-CYC-yEGFP to yield pERE-CYCalpha-yEGFP vector. The two different reporter vectors, pERE-CYC-yEGFP and pERE-CYCalpha-yEGFP, the 2ERE, were placed in the CYC1 promoter. The former promoter downstream ERE contains alpha and beta-TATA boxes and the latter has only alpha-TATA box. The two different reporter vectors were transformed into the yeast cells that express human estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha). Incubation of the recombinant yeasts with the six estrogenic compounds for 4 hours showed that the recombinant cell containing pERE-CYCalpha-yEGFP would give very poor dose-response curves, in contrast to the recombinant cell containing pERE-CYC-yEGFP which produced well-shaped dose-response curves. So it is necessary for this bioassay that alpha and beta-TATA boxes in the minimal CYC1 promoter when the promoter is used as a rapid and high throughput system for screening estrogenic chemical products.
Base Sequence ; Cytochromes c ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Estrogen Receptor alpha ; genetics ; metabolism ; Estrogens ; genetics ; metabolism ; Genetic Vectors ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; metabolism ; Humans ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Promoter Regions, Genetic ; genetics ; Recombinant Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae ; genetics ; metabolism ; Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; TATA-Box Binding Protein ; genetics

Objective To identify the influence factors and construct a predicted model for liver, lung, bone, or brain metastasis among patients with left or right colorectal cancer. Methods Patients with colorectal cancer with information on liver, lung, bone, and brain metastasis were retrospectively filtered and analyzed from 2010 to 2018 from the SEER database. These patients were divided into three groups based on their primary tumor location. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the influence factors on metastasis. A nomogram that could predict metastasis was established and further validated by the AUC of ROC curves. Results A total of 49335 eligible patients were chosen from the SEER database. N stage and CEA were identified as risk factors for all metastases, which were unrelated to primary tumor location. By contrast, race had varying effects on liver metastasis between different groups (P < 0.05). The nomogram model predicting liver metastasis was successfully established, and the AUCs based on the three groups were 0.821 (95%CI: 0.813-0.830), 0.841 (95%CI: 0.833-0.848), and 0.796 (95%CI: 0.782-0.811), respectively. Conclusion The influence factors and predictive models on liver metastasis were different in patients with colorectal cancer and different primary tumor locations.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is one of the most common malignant head and neck tumors, and radiotherapy is the main treatment. However, radio-resistance is a key cause of local recurrence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Therefore, overcoming the radio-resistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and enhancing the radiosensitivity have become urgent problems in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which also play a key role in improving the overall survival rate of patients. In this article, recent studies on DNA, non-coding RNA (ncRNA), protein and cell behaviors related to radio-resistance of nasopharyngeal carcinoma were reviewed, aiming to provide valuable ideas for clinical treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Objective:To establish a radioresistant nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line in vitro and provide experimental basis for further research of the molecular mechanism of radioresistance. Methods:A radioresistant cell line 5-8F-IR was established by dose gradient irradiation. Cell morphological changes were observed by optical microscope. The formation of colony was detected by colony formation assay. Cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay. Cell proliferation was assessed by 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay. DNA damage repair ability was measured by immunofluorescence staining and comet assay. Cell apoptosis and cycle were detected by flow cytometry. The expression levels of DNA damage related protein γH2AX and apoptosis related protein Caspase-3 were measured by Western blot.Results:The 5-8F-IR cells became longer than that of parental generation 5-8F cells after dose gradient irradiation. The colony formation ability ( P<0.01), cell viability ( P<0.001), cell proliferation ability ( P<0.05) and DNA damage repair ability ( P<0.05) of 5-8F-IR cells were significantly stronger than those of parental generation 5-8F cells. The apoptosis rate of 5-8F-IR cells after irradiation was significantly lower than that of parental generation 5-8F cells ( P<0.01). The 5-8F-IR cells showed higher percentage of cells in S phase without irradiation, and obvious G 2/M phase arrest after irradiation ( P<0.01). Western blot showed that the expression levels of γH2AX ( P<0.001) and Caspase-3 ( P<0.05) in 5-8F-IR cells after irradiation were significantly lower compared with those of parental generation 5-8F cells. Conclusion:5-8F-IR cells induced by dose gradient irradiation of human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line 5-8F cells exhibit radioresistance and exhibit different biological characteristics compared to their parental 5-8F cells, providing a research tool for exploring radioresistance mechanism of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Objective:To analyze the safety of reduced clinical target volume (CTV) irradiation of suspicious positive lymph nodes in IIa region in patients with N 0-N 1 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and the protective effect of submandibular gland and long-term resting dry mouth, and to explore the diagnostic value of multimodal imaging for suspicious cervical lymph nodes. Methods:Clinical data of T 0-4N 0-1M 0 stage NPC patients admitted to Jiangsu Cancer Hospital from July 2015 to April 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical, radiation therapy planning, multimodal imaging and other relevant data were collected. All patients were treated with an optimized regimen of IMRT with a prophylactic radiation dose of 50.4 Gy (named as CTV50) for IIa region. Imaging characteristics and treatment response of suspicious lymph nodes were monitored by MRI, MRI-DWI, PET-CT and repeated enhanced positioning CT, etc. The dosimetry of the submandibular gland between optimized and standard dose plans (CTV50 vs. CTV60) was compared by paired t-test. The long-term dry mouth degree of the patients was evaluated using advanced radiation injury from Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), Jiangsu Cancer Hospital Multi-dimensional Dry Mouth Evaluation Scale and summated xerostomia inventory (SXI). The difference of dry mouth degree was analyzed by rank-sum test. Results:A total of 106 patients were included in this study, including 149 cervical lymph node negative sides, 73 sides of which had ≤3 recognizable lymph nodes, and 76 of which were>3 in Ⅱa region. Among patients with N 1 stage, 63 patients underwent contralateral single neck area optimization, and 43 patients (N 0 stage and N 1 stage patients with retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis) underwent double-neck area optimization. A total of 109 suspicious lymph nodes with a short diameter of >5 mm were found on the largest cross section, of which 105 had clear portal structure. The ratio of long to short diameter was &ge;1.5 in 93 cases, and the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max) in PET-CT was &ge;2.5 in 76 cases. No lymph node recurrence was found in the CTV optimized area. There was no significant difference in the average dose of GTV in tumor target area after optimization ( P>0.05), and the D mean and V 39 Gy in submandibular gland were significantly lower than those in unoptimized plan (both P<0.01). There was no significant difference in long-term dry mouth and resting dry mouth between patients with unilateral and bilateral optimization of submandibular gland (both P>0.05). Conclusions:The optimal program of CTV50 reduction irradiation in Ⅱa area of N 0-N 1 NPC patients is safe and effective. The submandibular gland has obvious dosimetric advantages, and patients have a good subjective response to resting dry mouth. The multimodal imaging tools such as enhanced CT, MRI-DWI and PET-CT should be performed to deliver individual evaluation and treatment for suspicious lymph nodes.