Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, Llama, and Qwen are emerging as transformative technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. With their exceptional long-context reasoning capabilities, LLMs are proficient in clinically relevant tasks, particularly in medical text analysis and interactive dialogue. They can enhance diagnostic accuracy by processing vast amounts of patient data and medical literature and have demonstrated their utility in diagnosing common diseases and facilitating the identification of rare diseases by recognizing subtle patterns in symptoms and test results. Building on their image-recognition abilities, multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) show promising potential for diagnosis based on radiography, chest computed tomography (CT), electrocardiography (ECG), and common pathological images. These models can also assist in treatment planning by suggesting evidence-based interventions and improving clinical decision support systems through integrated analysis of patient records. Despite these promising developments, significant challenges persist regarding the use of LLMs in medicine, including concerns regarding algorithmic bias, the potential for hallucinations, and the need for rigorous clinical validation. Ethical considerations also underscore the importance of maintaining the function of supervision in clinical practice. This paper highlights the rapid advancements in research on the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of LLMs across different medical disciplines and emphasizes the importance of policymaking, ethical supervision, and multidisciplinary collaboration in promoting more effective and safer clinical applications of LLMs. Future directions include the integration of proprietary clinical knowledge, the investigation of open-source and customized models, and the evaluation of real-time effects in clinical diagnosis and treatment practices.
Humans ; Large Language Models ; Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Objective:To compare the consistency of preoperative frailty assessment in elderly colorectal cancer patients using Frailty Phenotype (FP), FRAIL Scale (FS), Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), and Edmonton Frailty Scale (EFS), and their predictive performance in predicting the postoperative complication, so as to provide reference for nurses to choose appropriate frailty assessment tools.Methods:From December 2020 to October 2021, 207 elderly patients who underwent radical surgery for colorectal cancer at the General Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University were selected as the study subject by convenience sampling. FP, FS, CFS, and EFS were used to assess patients' frailty. Taking postoperative complications as the outcome indicator, the predictive performance of four frailty assessment tools was compared using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and Bayes discriminant analysis.Results:The frailty detection rates of FP, FS, CFS, and EFS in 207 elderly colorectal cancer patients were 19.8% (41/207), 11.6% (24/207), 22.2% (46/207), and 10.1% (21/207), respectively. The areas under the ROC curves of FP, FS, CFS, and EFS were 0.714, 0.643, 0.737, and 0.665, respectively, with statistically significant differences (all P<0.01). Pairwise comparison found that there were statistically significant differences in the area under the ROC curve between FP and FS, FS and CFS, CFS and EFS ( P<0.05). The cross validation accuracy of FP, FS, CFS and EFS in predicting the postoperative complication in elderly colorectal cancer patients was 78.7%, 68.6%, 76.3%, and 75.8%, respectively. Conclusions:FP and CFS have moderate predictive performance for postoperative complications in elderly colorectal cancer patients, and there is no difference in predictive performance between the two. Both CFS and FP can be used for the assessment of preoperative frailty in elderly colorectal cancer patients, but considering clinical applicability, CFS is recommended.

Reflex tests are ordered when a particular test result indicates that additional testing should be performed according to the guidelines or the feedback process formulated by clinical consultation. The application scope of the reflex tests involves various subspecialties of laboratory medicine. The clinical application needs the support of qualified laboratory doctors, comprehensive information and financial system, clinical guidelines, and so on. Active application of reflex tests can promote the standardization of evidence-based medicine in clinical practice, save medical resources, and shorten the diagnosis and treatment time of patients.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of persistent organic pollutants, which have received widespread attentions due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic toxicity. The microbial degradation of PAHs are usually started from the hydroxylation, followed by dehydrogenation, ring cleavage and step-by-step removal of branched chains, and finally mineralized by the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Rieske type non-heme iron aromatic ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases (RHOs) or cytochrome P450 oxidases are responsible for the conversion of hydrophobic PAHs into hydrophilic derivatives by the ring hydroxylation. The ring hydroxylation is the first step of PAHs degradation and also one of the rate-limiting steps. Here, we review the distribution, substrate specificity, and substrate recognition mechanisms of RHOs, along with some techniques and methods used for the research of RHOs and PAHs.
Bacteria/metabolism* ; Biodegradation, Environmental ; Dioxygenases/metabolism* ; Iron ; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ; Substrate Specificity

Objective    To analyze the symptom characteristics and influencing factors in order to provide reference for symptom management of patients with esophageal cancer after operation. Methods    A total of 216 esophageal cancer patients, including 180 males and 36 females with an average age of 63.7±8.3 years, who underwent surgical operation in our hospital from March to October 2018 were recruited and investigated with self-designed symptom questionnaire at 1 month after surgery. Results    The top five symptoms were acid reflux (48.6%), cough (42.6%), dysphagia (40.7%), hoarseness (12.0%), and diarrhea (11.6%). Women were more prone to acid reflux (OR=2.053), fatigue (OR=1.932), chest pain (OR=3.681), sleep disturbance (OR=2.419), abdominal pain (OR=3.882), nausea (OR=3.014) and vomiting (OR=2.505). Patients over 60 years were more prone to dysphagia (OR=2.274). Patients with lower thoracic esophageal cancer had a higher incidence of dysphagia compared with patients with carcinoma of esophagogastric junction (OR=0.326). Patients who had neoadjuvant chemotherapy were more likely to suffer acid reflux (OR=1.594). Open surgery (OR=3.681) and neoadjuvant radiotherapy (OR=2.495) were the risk factors of chest pain. Conclusion    There are many symptoms in patients with esophageal cancer after operation, and the occurrence of symptoms is closely related to gender, age, tumor location, surgical procedure and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.

Chondrosarcoma is extremely rare in maxillofacial soft tissue. A case diagnosed as well-differentiated chon- drosarcoma in the left parotid region was reported. The clinic pathological features, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis were discussed with the literature review.
Bone Neoplasms ; Chondrosarcoma ; Humans ; Parotid Neoplasms ; Parotid Region

OBJECTIVETo study the expression and clinical significance of MTDH and VEGF in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

METHODSTissue samples of 168 breast cancers (including 112 TNBC tissue and 56 non-TNBC tissue), 10 breast fibroadenomas and 15 normal breast tissues were collected. Postoperative specimens were examined by immunohistochemistry for MTDH and VEGF expression. The correlation between the expression of MTDH and VEGF and clinicopathological features was analyzed.

RESULTSMTDH and VEGF were expressed in 57.1% and 49.4% of breast cancer patients, 64.3% and 56.3% in TNBC patients, respectively, significantly higher than that in the non-TNBC tissues, breast fibroadenomas and normal breast tissues (P<0.05 for all). Statistically significant correlation was found between the MTDH and VEGF expressions (r=0.356, P<0.001). Moreover, MTDH expression was correlated with tumor size, BMI index, lymph node metastasis, pathological stage, recurrence and metastasis, and the expression of p53 and Ki-67 proteins (P<0.05 for all). The VEGF protein expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis, pathological staging, recurrence and metastasis, and the expression of Ki-67 protein (P<0.05 for all). The patients with high expression of MTDH and VEGF showed a lower DFS and OS (P<0.05 for both).

CONCLUSIONSMTDH and VEGF expression may be correlated with tumor angiogenesis and progression and has the potential to be valuable prognostic factors in patients with TNBC.

Biomarkers, Tumor ; metabolism ; Breast ; metabolism ; Cell Adhesion Molecules ; metabolism ; Disease-Free Survival ; Female ; Fibroadenoma ; blood supply ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lymphatic Metastasis ; Neoplasm Proteins ; metabolism ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; Prognosis ; Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms ; blood supply ; metabolism ; pathology ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; metabolism