Elderly patients with lung cancer have a significantly increased risk of perioperative cardiopulmonary complications due to physiological decline, high incidence of complications and reduced surgical tolerance, which directly affects postoperative recovery and long-term survival. Although the concepts of minimally invasive surgery and enhanced recovery after surgery have improved clinical outcomes, early recognition and intervention of postoperative complications in elderly patients remains a significant challenge in the field of thoracic surgery. By integrating recent literature and clinical practice, this paper systematically analyzes the pathophysiological mechanism and risk factors of perioperative cardiopulmonary complications in elderly patients with lung cancer, and discusses individualized intervention strategies based on risk stratification and multidisciplinary team, in order to provide theoretical basis and practical guidance for optimizing perioperative management and improving postoperative prognosis in elderly patients.

Objective To observe the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant sintilimab combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of patients with locally advanced resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods Clinical data were collected from patients with locally advanced resectable ESCC who received neoadjuvant immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy followed by surgical treatment at the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Jining No.1 People's Hospital from April 2020 to April 2022. The endpoints included major pathological response (MPR), pathological complete response (pCR), R0 resection rate, safety, and postoperative survival. Results A total of 43 patients with ESCC who received at least one cycle of neoadjuvant immunotherapy before surgery were included. Among them, there were 31 males and 12 females with a median age of 65 years (interquartile range: 58-69). All patients successfully completed the surgery without any surgical delays. The pCR rate was 14.0% (6/43), the MPR rate was 58.1% (25/43), and the R0 resection rate was 97.7% (42/43). Patients exhibited reliable safety during neoadjuvant therapy and postoperatively. The 2-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 90.7% and 81.4%, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test revealed lower recurrence rates and better survival in the MPR patients compared to the non-MPR patients. Conclusion The combination of neoadjuvant sintilimab and chemotherapy in the treatment of patients with locally advanced resectable ESCC has demonstrated significant clinical efficacy, while also being safe and reliable.

Protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) acts as an oncogene in liver cancer, yet its roles and in-depth molecular mechanisms within the liver cancer immune microenvironment remain mostly undefined. Here, we demonstrated that disruption of tumor-intrinsic PRMT5 enhances CD8⁺ T-cell-mediated antitumor immunity both in vivo and in vitro. Further experiments verified that this effect is achieved through downregulation of the inhibitory immune checkpoint molecule, fibrinogen-like protein 1 (FGL1). Mechanistically, PRMT5 catalyzed symmetric dimethylation of transcription factor 12 (TCF12) at arginine 554 (R554), prompting the binding of TCF12 to FGL1 promoter region, which transcriptionally activated FGL1 in tumor cells. Methylation deficiency at TCF12-R554 residue downregulated FGL1 expression, which promoted CD8⁺ T-cell-mediated antitumor immunity. Notably, combining the PRMT5 methyltransferase inhibitor GSK591 with PD-L1 blockade efficiently inhibited liver cancer growth and improved overall survival in mice. Collectively, our findings reveal the immunosuppressive role and mechanism of PRMT5 in liver cancer and highlight that targeting PRMT5 could boost checkpoint immunotherapy efficacy.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) poses one of the most urgent medical challenges in the 21st century as it affects millions of people. Unfortunately, the etiopathogenesis of AD is not yet fully understood and the current pharmacotherapy options are somewhat limited. Here, we report a novel inhibitor, Compound 44, for targeting cholinesterases, amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation, and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β) simultaneously with the aim of achieving symptomatic relief and disease modification in AD therapy. We found that Compound 44 had good inhibitory effects on all intended targets with IC₅₀s of submicromolar or better, significant neuroprotective effects in cell models, and beneficial improvement of cognitive deficits in the triple transgenic AD (3 × Tg AD) mouse model. Moreover, we showed that Compound 44 acts as an autophagy regulator by inducing nuclear translocation of transcription factor EB through GSK-3β inhibition, enhancing the biogenesis of lysosomes and elevating autophagic flux, thus ameliorating the amyloid burden and tauopathy, as well as mitigating the disease phenotype. Our results suggest that triple-target inhibition via Compound 44 could be a promising strategy that may lead to the development of effective therapeutic approaches for AD.
Animals ; Alzheimer Disease/genetics* ; Mice, Transgenic ; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta/metabolism* ; Disease Models, Animal ; Mice ; Amyloid beta-Peptides/metabolism* ; Cholinesterase Inhibitors/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Autophagy/drug effects* ; Cognitive Dysfunction/pathology* ; Neuroprotective Agents/pharmacology*

Objective:To evaluate the impact of the surgical strategy of selective thoracic duct(TD) ligation established through fluorescence thoracoscopy TD imaging technology on the occurrence of chylothorax after lung cancer surgery in the elderly.Methods:A prospective cohort study was conducted.Elderly patients who underwent right lung cancer surgery in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Beijing Hospital from October 2023 to June 2024 were enrolled as the research subjects.The surgical approaches involved pulmonary resection, systematic lymphadenectomy, and selective TD ligation using fluorescence thoracoscopy.Prior to the surgery, 0.4 mg/kg indocyanine green(ICG)was injected subcutaneously into the right inguinal region of all patients.Clinical data, surgical details, pathological information, and intraoperative TD imaging, including the course, collateral vessels, and any injuries, were collected.Postoperative chylothorax and other complications were also recorded.Results:A total of 83 patients were enrolled, of which 38 were males, and 45 were females, with a median age of 68 years raging from 60 to 83 years old, TD imaging was observed in 69 cases(83.1%)within one hour after IGC injection.Intraoperative injuries of collateral branches were visualized in 4 cases(4.8%). Among them, 2 cases had injuries in both the 2R+ 4R and the subcarinal station, while 2 others had injuries of collateral branches only in the 2R+ 4R station.These 4 patients underwent concurrent TD ligation.No TD or collateral injury was found in the remaining patients during the surgery, and the TD was not ligated, none of the patients developed chylothorax postoperatively, and no adverse reactions related to indocyanine green were observed.Conclusions:Fluorescence thoracoscopy-guided TD imaging technique can well visualize TD and its collateral injuries in elderly lung cancer surgeries, assist in the management of leaks or TD ligation, thereby effectively preventing the occurrence of postoperative chylothorax.

Esophageal cancer is one of the malignant tumors that poses a threat to human health, with both high incidence and malignancy. Currently, surgery following neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is the standard treatment for locally advanced esophageal cancer; however, the long-term prognosis remains unsatisfactory. In recent years, inhibitors of programmed death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligand (programmed death ligand-1, PD-L1) have achieved breakthrough progress in other solid tumors, and research on esophageal cancer is gradually being conducted. With the demonstration of good efficacy of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in the first-line and second-line treatment of advanced unresectable esophageal cancer, their incorporation into neoadjuvant treatment regimens has become a hot topic. Therefore, this article reviews the mechanism of action of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and their application in the neoadjuvant treatment of esophageal cancer.

Objective:To evaluate the short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer who achieved clinical complete response (cCR) or near-clinical complete response (near-cCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and then underwent local excision.Methods:This was a descriptive case series study. Clinical data of patients with low rectal cancer who received neoadjuvant therapy, achieved cCR or near-cCR, underwent local excision, and had complete postoperative follow-up data were retrospectively analyzed. The study period was from May, 2015 to October, 2024, and the patients were treated at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital. Indications for local excision in this study were as follows: pathologically confirmed rectal adenocarcinoma, with the lower edge of the tumor ≤ 6 cm from the anal verge; maximum diameter of the lesion ≤ 2 cm after nCRT; no regional lymph node metastasis detected by transrectal endoscopic ultrasound (ERUS), pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) after nCRT; MRI showing fibrosis of the primary lesion with a small amount of high signal on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), consistent with ymrT0-1 stage; serum carcinoembryonic antigen level within the normal range (< 5 μg/L) after nCRT; complicated with severe underlying diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and assessed as unable to tolerate radical surgery through comprehensive evaluation; and signed informed consent for local excision. The contraindications were: colonoscopic pathology indicating poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma; suspected lateral lymph node metastasis before neoadjuvant therapy; patients with residual lesions exceeding 3 cm in range after treatment. A total of 153 patients were included in this study, including 84 males and 69 females. The median age was 62 years, and the median distance from the tumor to the anal verge after neoadjuvant therapy was 4.0 cm. The short-term efficacy indicators of this study included postoperative complications of local excision and postoperative pathological results, and the long-term efficacy indicators included oncological prognosis (3-year cumulative local recurrence rate, 3-year cumulative distant metastasis rate, 3-year progression-free survival, and 3-year overall survival) and anal function at 1 year after surgery evaluated using the Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS) scale where the total score is 42 points such that 0-20 points indicate no LARS, 21-29 points indicate mild LARS, and 30-42 points indicate severe LARS.Results:Postoperative pathology showed 122 cases (79.7%) of ypT0 stage, 10 cases (6.5%) of ypT1 stage, 18 cases (11.8%) of ypT2 stage, and 3 cases (2.0%) of ypT3 stage. The incidence of surgery-related complications was 42.5% (65/153), and the main complications included perianal pain (39.9%, 61/153), intestinal wall incision dehiscence (21.6%, 33/153), and intestinal wall incision infection (18.3%, 28/153). The proportion of patients who received hypofractionated radiotherapy before surgery and developed intestinal wall incision dehiscence was 65.2% (15/23), which was higher than that in the conventional long-course (13.6%, 16/118) and short-course radiotherapy groups (16.7%,2/12) (χ 2=30.55, P<0.001); of the 20 patients who received additional immunotherapy before surgery, 13 developed intestinal wall incision dehiscence was 65.0%, which was higher than that in the group without additional immunotherapy [15.0%(20/133),χ 2=25.66, P<0.001]. The median follow-up time of the entire group was 35.4 months. During the follow-up period, there were 9 cases of postoperative local recurrence, with a 3-year cumulative local recurrence rate of 7.9% and 5 cases of distant metastasis, with a 3-year cumulative distant metastasis rate of 5.0%. The 3-year progression-free survival rate was 89.0%, and the 3-year overall survival rate was 95.9%. At 1 year after surgery, 10 cases (10.5%, 10/95) had severe anal dysfunction, and the median LARS score of the entire group was 5.0 (range: 0-41.0) points. Conclusions:For patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer who achieve cCR or near-cCR after neoadjuvant therapy, local excision results in favorable oncological prognosis and anal function preservation effects; however, the incidence of complications is relatively high.

Objective:To evaluate the short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer who achieved clinical complete response (cCR) or near-clinical complete response (near-cCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and then underwent local excision.Methods:This was a descriptive case series study. Clinical data of patients with low rectal cancer who received neoadjuvant therapy, achieved cCR or near-cCR, underwent local excision, and had complete postoperative follow-up data were retrospectively analyzed. The study period was from May, 2015 to October, 2024, and the patients were treated at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital. Indications for local excision in this study were as follows: pathologically confirmed rectal adenocarcinoma, with the lower edge of the tumor ≤ 6 cm from the anal verge; maximum diameter of the lesion ≤ 2 cm after nCRT; no regional lymph node metastasis detected by transrectal endoscopic ultrasound (ERUS), pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) after nCRT; MRI showing fibrosis of the primary lesion with a small amount of high signal on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), consistent with ymrT0-1 stage; serum carcinoembryonic antigen level within the normal range (< 5 μg/L) after nCRT; complicated with severe underlying diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and assessed as unable to tolerate radical surgery through comprehensive evaluation; and signed informed consent for local excision. The contraindications were: colonoscopic pathology indicating poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma or signet ring cell carcinoma; suspected lateral lymph node metastasis before neoadjuvant therapy; patients with residual lesions exceeding 3 cm in range after treatment. A total of 153 patients were included in this study, including 84 males and 69 females. The median age was 62 years, and the median distance from the tumor to the anal verge after neoadjuvant therapy was 4.0 cm. The short-term efficacy indicators of this study included postoperative complications of local excision and postoperative pathological results, and the long-term efficacy indicators included oncological prognosis (3-year cumulative local recurrence rate, 3-year cumulative distant metastasis rate, 3-year progression-free survival, and 3-year overall survival) and anal function at 1 year after surgery evaluated using the Low Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS) scale where the total score is 42 points such that 0-20 points indicate no LARS, 21-29 points indicate mild LARS, and 30-42 points indicate severe LARS.Results:Postoperative pathology showed 122 cases (79.7%) of ypT0 stage, 10 cases (6.5%) of ypT1 stage, 18 cases (11.8%) of ypT2 stage, and 3 cases (2.0%) of ypT3 stage. The incidence of surgery-related complications was 42.5% (65/153), and the main complications included perianal pain (39.9%, 61/153), intestinal wall incision dehiscence (21.6%, 33/153), and intestinal wall incision infection (18.3%, 28/153). The proportion of patients who received hypofractionated radiotherapy before surgery and developed intestinal wall incision dehiscence was 65.2% (15/23), which was higher than that in the conventional long-course (13.6%, 16/118) and short-course radiotherapy groups (16.7%,2/12) (χ 2=30.55, P<0.001); of the 20 patients who received additional immunotherapy before surgery, 13 developed intestinal wall incision dehiscence was 65.0%, which was higher than that in the group without additional immunotherapy [15.0%(20/133),χ 2=25.66, P<0.001]. The median follow-up time of the entire group was 35.4 months. During the follow-up period, there were 9 cases of postoperative local recurrence, with a 3-year cumulative local recurrence rate of 7.9% and 5 cases of distant metastasis, with a 3-year cumulative distant metastasis rate of 5.0%. The 3-year progression-free survival rate was 89.0%, and the 3-year overall survival rate was 95.9%. At 1 year after surgery, 10 cases (10.5%, 10/95) had severe anal dysfunction, and the median LARS score of the entire group was 5.0 (range: 0-41.0) points. Conclusions:For patients with locally advanced low rectal cancer who achieve cCR or near-cCR after neoadjuvant therapy, local excision results in favorable oncological prognosis and anal function preservation effects; however, the incidence of complications is relatively high.

Objective:To evaluate the impact of the surgical strategy of selective thoracic duct(TD) ligation established through fluorescence thoracoscopy TD imaging technology on the occurrence of chylothorax after lung cancer surgery in the elderly.Methods:A prospective cohort study was conducted.Elderly patients who underwent right lung cancer surgery in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Beijing Hospital from October 2023 to June 2024 were enrolled as the research subjects.The surgical approaches involved pulmonary resection, systematic lymphadenectomy, and selective TD ligation using fluorescence thoracoscopy.Prior to the surgery, 0.4 mg/kg indocyanine green(ICG)was injected subcutaneously into the right inguinal region of all patients.Clinical data, surgical details, pathological information, and intraoperative TD imaging, including the course, collateral vessels, and any injuries, were collected.Postoperative chylothorax and other complications were also recorded.Results:A total of 83 patients were enrolled, of which 38 were males, and 45 were females, with a median age of 68 years raging from 60 to 83 years old, TD imaging was observed in 69 cases(83.1%)within one hour after IGC injection.Intraoperative injuries of collateral branches were visualized in 4 cases(4.8%). Among them, 2 cases had injuries in both the 2R+ 4R and the subcarinal station, while 2 others had injuries of collateral branches only in the 2R+ 4R station.These 4 patients underwent concurrent TD ligation.No TD or collateral injury was found in the remaining patients during the surgery, and the TD was not ligated, none of the patients developed chylothorax postoperatively, and no adverse reactions related to indocyanine green were observed.Conclusions:Fluorescence thoracoscopy-guided TD imaging technique can well visualize TD and its collateral injuries in elderly lung cancer surgeries, assist in the management of leaks or TD ligation, thereby effectively preventing the occurrence of postoperative chylothorax.

Objective To explore the optimal ratio of Baitong decoction based on efficacy,clarify its spectrum-effect relationship,and identify its potential quality markers.Methods An ulcerative colitis(UC)model in mice was established using dextran sulfate sodium.The efficacy of Baitong decoction with varying drug ratios was assessed by evaluating the apparent score,pathological score and inflammatory factor changes of UC in each group of experimental animals.The fingerprints of Baitong decoction with different ratios were established by high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC),and the relationship between the content of each substance and its efficacy was analyzed by partial least squares regression to determine the potential quality markers of Baitong decoction.Results Baitong decoction was most effective in relieving ulcerative colitis when the mass ratio of Fuzi,Ganjiang and Congbai was 1∶2∶2.The fingerprinting identified 14 common peaks across 7 ratios,with 9 peaks were found to be associated with the remission of ulcerative colitis by partial least squares regression analysis.Conclusion The optimal ratio of Fuzi,Ganjiang and Congbai for treating UC is 1∶2∶2.The spectrum-effect relationship analysis suggested that the quality markers of Baitong decoction may be the substances represented by peak 2(benzoylaconine),3,5,6,8(mesaconine),9(aconitine),10(hypaconitine),13(10-gingerol)and 14.