Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics and disease burden of liver cancer in Guangdong Province in 2020, and to provide a scientific foundation for the development of regionalized prevention and control strategies for liver cancer. Methods According to the cancer registry data of Guangdong Province, the incidence, mortality and age-standardized rate by Chinese standard population in 2020 were calculated to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of liver cancer. The disability adjusted life years (DALYs), year of life loss (YLL), year of lived with disability (YLD), and cause-eliminated life expectancy were used to assess the disease burden of liver cancer. Results In 2020, the crude incidence rate and the age-standardized incidence rate of liver cancer in Guangdong Province were 27.79/100 000 and 20.84/100 000，respectively, and the crude mortality rate and the age-standardized mortality rate of liver cancer were 25.49/100,000 and 17.64/100 000, respectively. The total DALY and DALY rate of liver cancer in Guangdong Province were 515 311 person-years and 513.83/100 000, respectively. After eliminating the causes of death from liver cancer, the life expectancy in Guangdong Province increased from 84.60 years to 84.99 years. All indicators consistently demonstrated that the burden of liver cancer was higher in males than that in females, and the burden of liver cancer was higher in rural areas than that in urban areas. Conclusion Liver cancer in Guangdong Province exhibits a high incidence, mortality and disease burden level in 2020. There are obvious differences of gender, age and region in cancer burden. It is necessary to strengthen liver cancer screening and diagnosis and treatment in men, the elderly and those in rural areas to reduce the burden of liver cancer gradually in Guangdong Province.

AIM: To investigate the association between dyslipidemia and macular hard exudates(HEs)in non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy(NPDR)secondary to type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).METHODS: NPDR patients attending the outpatient ophthalmology clinic from January 2021 to December 2023 were selected and divided into three groups according to the severity of macular HEs. Group A: None or minimal HEs; Group B: Definite HEs; Group C: Prominent HEs. Total cholesterol(TC), triglycerides(TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C), lipoprotein(a)[Lp(a)] levels and other lipid-related indicators were routinely measured. The correlation between these indicators and HEs was analyzed.RESULTS:Group A(24 eyes)consisted of 9 males and 15 females with the mean age of 54.71±6.15 y, group B(52 eyes)consisted of 20 males and 32 females with the mean age of 55.08±6.27 y, group C(14 eyes)consisted of 9 males and 5 females with the mean age of 53.93±6.08 y. The concentration of TC, TG, LDL-C and Lp(a)was highest in group C, followed by group B and lowest in group A with statistically significant differences(P<0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between the three groups for fasting plasma glucose(FPG), glycated hemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), creatinine(Cr), and HDL-C(P>0.05). The results of multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that elevated levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, and Lp(a)were associated with the presence of macular HEs. Receiver operating characteristiccurve analysis showed that the area under the curve(AUC)for TC, TG, LDL-C, Lp(a), and their combination in predicting macular HEs in NPDR were 0.785, 0.718, 0.784, 0.742, and 0.911, respectively, with the combined model demonstrating the highest predictive performance.CONCLUSION: Dyslipidemia is closely associated with the development and progression of macular HEs in patients with NPDR and T2DM. The levels of TC, TG, LDL-C, and Lp(a)were correlated with the severity of macular HEs, suggesting that dyslipidemia may be involved in the pathological process of macular HEs formation.

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) covers the end-stage of acute and chronic liver diseases, mainly involving decompensated cirrhosis, various types of liver failure, and advanced liver cancer. Hepatocyte transplantation has shown promise in treating ESLD, but its clinical application is hampered by the shortage of donor hepatocytes. Cell therapy, an emerging effective treatment for ESLD, faces the same limitation due to scarce hepatocyte availability. Hepatocyte-like cells (HLCs), which are terminally differentiated cells, can be induced from both stem cells and somatic cells. As HLCs exhibit the morphology and function of primary hepatocytes, they offer a promising supplementary source of hepatocytes for cell therapy. First, we provide a background for the differentiation and maturation of primary hepatocytes. Subsequently, based on the current insights into the molecular pathways that regulate hepatocyte differentiation in vivo, we describe a strategy for establishing HLC derived from either stem cells or somatic cells. The key characteristics of these HLCs are also detailed. Furthermore, HLC offers therapeutic potential for liver failure, and HLC-based liver organoids and bioartificial liver systems have demonstrated the ability to provide liver functions, offering an innovative approach to treating various types of ESLD. Despite their promise, challenges such as efficiency in differentiation and functional maturation need to be addressed to improve the clinical application of HLCs. This review discusses these advancements and outlines the therapeutic potential and current challenges of HLC therapy for ESLD.

The endochondral ossification of the growth plate is crucial for the longitudinal growth of long bones. Mechanical loading plays an important regulatory role in endochondral ossification. Absence or improper mechanical loading can inhibit growth plate development, while moderate mechanical stimuli promote chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation, thereby facilitating long bone growth. Mechanosensitive structures, such as primary cilia, mechanosensitive ion channels, integrins, and the cytoskeleton, play key roles in the regulation of mechanical loading. This review summarizes how mechanical loading influences growth plate endochondral ossification and discusses potential underlying mechanisms, offering theoretical insights for the management and research of bone development disorders in children and adolescents.

The mental health management of laboratory animals is a critical factor in ensuring the reliability of scientific research data. However, due to the subtle nature of mental state alterations and the limitations of current assessment methods, the mental health of laboratory animals is often overlooked by researchers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore a new, objective, simple, and practical method for evaluating mental health. Stress, as a primary factor inducing alterations in the mental state of animals, can influence experimental results across multiple research fields through the neuroendocrine-immune network. This paper first elucidates the necessity of mental health management in laboratory animals from three perspectives: factors contributing to stress, neural mechanisms of stress, and research areas affected by stress. It highlights that excluding animals with abnormal mental states before experiments can enhance the efficiency and reproducibility of biomedical studies. Second, this paper briefly summarizes existing methods for assessing the health of laboratory animals, pointing out that approaches such as behavioral tests and metabolomics have many limitations in evaluating stress responses. Existing methods struggle to meet the demand for simple, objective, and non-invasive assessment methods in animal management. Therefore, this paper focuses on hair, a biological sample with the advantages of cumulative information and non-invasive collection, and systematically describes the theoretical basis and technological advances in using hair characteristics as indicators of stress responses from three perspectives: hair traits, the levels of substances in hair, and artificial intelligence (AI). It proposes and supports an innovative technical pathway that combines hair traits with AI-based image analysis, with the aim of offering an improved solution for non-invasive and objective stress assessment, while providing theoretical support for improving the health management system of laboratory animals.

Gut microbiota is the microbial community that is specifically planted in the human gut and interacts with the human body.It plays an important role in the human body by regulating the basal metabolism and immunity of the host to maintain the homeostasis of the human body.Once the intestinal flora is dysregulated,it can lead to multi-system diseases.Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an organ-specific autoimmune disease.The pathogenesis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis is complex and its incidence is increasing year by year,which is gradually becoming a serious public health disease affecting the world.In recent years,the relationship between gut microbiota and bridge onychitis has received extensive attention.A large number of studies have shown that the richness and diversity of intestinal flora in Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients are changed compared with healthy people.Studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine therapy can play a role in treating this disease by regulating intestinal flora.This article systematically summarizes the relationship between the two and the effect of traditional Chinese medicine on the treatment of bridge onychitis by regulating intestinal flora,so as to provide some reference for research in this field.

Objective To develop and validate data extraction and patient identification algorithms for cutaneous lupus erythematosus(CLE)and its two subtypes,discoid lupus erythematosus(DLE)and subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus(SCLE),and to enable high-efficiency patient identification in large-scale electronic health databases.Methods This study utilized data from the 2013-2017 National Insurance Claims for Epidemiological Research(NICER)to construct data extraction and rapid patient identification algorithms.The manual verification results were used as gold standard to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the algorithms.Additionally,the basic characteristics of the identified patients were analyzed.Results Initially,standardized expressions were developed based on medical terminology and diagnostic codes.These were further refined with input from clinicians to include potential synonyms and common misspellings,improving the preliminary screening expressions.Through iterative verification by clinicians and data management engineers,a final disease-specific screening algorithm was established.The developed extraction and identification algorithms for all 3 targeted disease demonstrated strong performance,with sensitivity values of 0.985,1.000,and 0.991,and specificity values of 0.997,0.999,and 0.998 for CLE,DLE,and SCLE,respectively.A total of 34,554 CLE cases,including 2,879 DLE cases,and 623 SCLE cases were identified between 2013 and 2017,with a higher prevalence among females than males.Conclusion This study developed and validated an identification algorithm for CLE patients based on medical insurance databases,demonstrating high performance.The proposed algorithm provides a methodological framework and empirical evidence for designing and optimizing big data-driven rapid patient identification algorithms in dermatology research.

Gut microbiota is the microbial community that is specifically planted in the human gut and interacts with the human body.It plays an important role in the human body by regulating the basal metabolism and immunity of the host to maintain the homeostasis of the human body.Once the intestinal flora is dysregulated,it can lead to multi-system diseases.Hashimoto's thyroiditis is an organ-specific autoimmune disease.The pathogenesis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis is complex and its incidence is increasing year by year,which is gradually becoming a serious public health disease affecting the world.In recent years,the relationship between gut microbiota and bridge onychitis has received extensive attention.A large number of studies have shown that the richness and diversity of intestinal flora in Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients are changed compared with healthy people.Studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine therapy can play a role in treating this disease by regulating intestinal flora.This article systematically summarizes the relationship between the two and the effect of traditional Chinese medicine on the treatment of bridge onychitis by regulating intestinal flora,so as to provide some reference for research in this field.

Objective:To analyze the efficacy and prognostic factors of fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) for patients with breast cancer brain metastases (BCBM).Methods:Medical records and follow-up data of BCBM patients who underwent FSRT in Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen Center and Shenzhen People's Hospital from August 2019 to May 2023 were collected. The R Studio platform of the R version 4.2.1 statistical software was applied to analyze patients' baseline characteristics, 1- and 2-year local brain control (LBC), overall survival (OS) and distant brain control (DBC) and corresponding median failure-free survival, draw survival curve using Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic factors were screened by univariate analysis and multivariate analysis (Cox regression).Results:Cumulatively, 52 patients (163 metastases in total) had a median survival follow-up of 22.1 months, 83% were<60 years old. Molecular typing: 13 cases (25%) were positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2+) / hormone receptor negative (HR-), 2 cases (4%) were luminal A, 26 cases (50%) were luminal B, and 11 cases (21%) were triple negative. The median number of brain metastases was 2 (range: 1 - 17). Follow-up outcomes: the median OS was 34.0 months, with 1- and 2-year OS rates of 85.6% and 65.4%, respectively; the median LBC was 20.6 months, with 1- and 2-year LBC rates of 79.2% and 45.2%, respectively; and the median DBC was 10.3 months, with 1- and 2-year DBC rates of 46.7% and 28.9%, respectively. During follow-up, 13 patients underwent salvage local therapy (10 FSRT); 5 developed radiation necrosis (1 symptomatic). Prognostic factor analysis: absence of extracranial organ metastases (compared with ≥3) was a protective factor for OS, P<0.05. For LBC, fewer (1 - 2) extracranial organ metastases (compared with ≥3), and single brain metastasis (compared with ≥2) were favorable prognostic factors , while N 3 staging upon initial diagnosis was a poor prognostic factor (all P<0.05). For DBC, brain metastasis after surgery was a good prognostic factor, while complicated with lung metastasis and asymptomatic brain metastasis at the first diagnosis were poor prognostic factors (all P<0.05). Conclusions:FSRT yields relatively good LBC and poor DBC for BCBM patients. A certain percentage of patients require salvage FSRT during follow-up, but OS is maintained acceptable and the radiation necrosis is tolerable. Among the prognostic factors, the absence of extracranial metastatic organs is a good prognostic factor for OS; patients with single brain metastasis, fewer extracranial metastatic organs, and non-N 3 staging upon initial diagnosis can obtain better LBC after FSRT.

Cancer stands as a significant global public health challenge, and cancer screening serves as a pivotal strategy for reducing its mortality. Presently, only a limited number of cancer types have appropriate screening methods available. Traditional single-cancer screening approaches are fraught with limitations, including invasiveness, low accuracy, and poor patient compliance. Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) leveraging liquid biopsy technology enables non-invasive and efficient early detection of multiple cancers by analyzing biomarkers such as cell-free DNA, cell-free RNA, proteins, and metabolites in blood and other bodily fluids. This innovative approach substantially broadens the spectrum of detectable cancers and enhances population coverage, showcasing immense potential for improving existing cancer screening strategies. This expert consensus comprehensively reviews the progress of liquid biopsy-based MCED, biomarker selection and detection technologies, the criteria for cancer type selection, research design and clinical utility evaluation, as well as implementation pathways. The overarching goal of this consensus is to offer scientific guidance for further research and the widespread adoption of MCED, thereby facilitating the continuous optimization of cancer screening strategies.