Chinese Journal of Cancer

BACKGROUND: Autophagy plays a crucial role in chemotherapy resistance of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Hence, autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5), an essential molecule involved in autophagy regulation, is presumably associated with recurrence of TNBC. This study was aimed to investigate the potential influence of single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ATG5 on the disease-free survival (DFS) of early-stage TNBC patients treated with anthracycline- and/or taxane-based chemotherapy. METHODS: We genotyped ATG5 SNP rs473543 in a cohort of 316 TNBC patients treated with anthracycline- and/or taxane-based chemotherapy using the sequenom's MassARRAY system...

BACKGROUND: Accurate evaluation of lymph node metastasis in bladder cancer (BCa) is important for disease staging, treatment selection, and prognosis prediction. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for metastatic lymph nodes in BCa and establish criteria of imaging diagnosis. METHODS: We retrospectively assessed the imaging characteristics of 191 BCa patients who underwent radical cystectomy...

Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology, which spark diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, 8 more questions are presented as follows. Question 86. In which circumstances is good supportive care associated with a survival advantage in patients with cancer? Question 87. Can we develop animal models to mimic immunotherapy response of cancer patients? Question 88...

BACKGROUND: We previously showed that the expression of follistatin-like protein 1 (FSTL1) was significantly down-regulated in metastatic clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). In this study, we aimed to characterize the role of FSTL1 in the development of ccRCC. METHODS: The effects of FSTL1 on cell activity and cell cycle were investigated in ccRCC cell lines with altered FSTL1 expression. Gene expression microarray assays were performed to identify the major signaling pathways affected by FSTL1 knockdown...

BACKGROUND: According to the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system, over 50% of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) have N1 disease at initial diagnosis. However, patients with N1 NPC are relatively under-researched, and the metastasis risk of this group is not well-stratified. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic values of gross tumor volume of metastatic regional lymph node (GTVnd) and pretreatment serum copy number of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA in predicting distant metastasis of patients with N1 NPC, and to develop an integrated prognostic model that incorporates GTVnd and EBV DNA copy number for this group of patients...

BACKGROUND: Metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with progressive disease after all available standard therapies need new medication for further treatment. Famitinib is a small-molecule multikinase inhibitor, with promising anticancer activities. This multicenter, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase II clinical trial was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of famitinib in mCRC. METHODS: Famitinib or placebo was administered orally once daily...

BACKGROUND: The prognostic nutritional index (PNI) has been widely applied for predicting survival outcomes of patients with various malignant tumors. Although a low PNI predicts poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer after tumor resection, the prognostic value remains unknown in patients with stage III colon cancer undergoing curative tumor resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of PNI in patients with stage III colon cancer...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the nature of metastasis to small cervical lymph nodes (SCLNs) in the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) examined by using 18-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose (18 F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). The present study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic values of PET/CT in identifying metastasis in SCLNs in NPC patients. METHODS: Magnetic resonance images (MRI) and PET/CT scans for 470 patients with newly diagnosed, non-distant metastatic NPC were analyzed...

BACKGROUND: The programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway inhibits the activation of T cells and plays a crucial role in the negative regulation of cellular and humoral immune responses. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoid malignancy in adults. In the present study, we aimed to detect the expression of PD-L1 in DLBCL and to analyze its relationship with prognosis. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 204 newly diagnosed DLBCL patients in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between October 2005 and August 2012...

BACKGROUND: Locoregional recurrence remains the challenge for long-term survival of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after radical surgery, and curative-intent radiotherapy could be a treatment choice. This study aimed to assess the survival and prognostic factors of patients with postoperative locoregionally recurrent NSCLC treated with radical radiotherapy. METHODS: We reviewed medical records of 74 NSCLC patients with postoperative locoregional recurrence who received radical radiotherapy between April 2012 and February 2016 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (Guangzhou, China)...

The Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research is a prestigious scientific award sponsored by the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR)-a leading cancer research charitable organization in the United States that supports innovative cancer research globally with the ultimate goal to cure cancer. The coveted Szent-Györgyi Prize annually honors a scientist whose seminal discovery or body of work has resulted in, or led toward, notable contributions to cancer prevention, diagnosis, or treatment; and the discovery has had a high direct impact of saving people's lives...

Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology to promote cancer research and accelerate collaborations. In this article, 10 questions are presented as followed. Question 76. How to develop effective therapeutics for cancer cachexia? Question 77. How can we develop preclinical animal models to recapitulate clinical situations of cancer patients for more effective anti-cancer drug development? Question 78. How can we develop novel effective therapeutics for pancreatic cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma? Question 79...

BACKGROUND: Voltage-gated sodium channel 1.5 (Nav1.5) potentially promotes the migratory and invasive behaviors of colon cancer cells. Hitherto, the prognostic significance of Nav1.5 expression remains undetermined. The present study aimed to explore the associations of Nav1.5 expression with clinical outcomes and estrogen receptor-β (ER-β) expression in non-metastatic colon cancer patients receiving radical resection. METHODS: A total of 269 consecutive patients with pathologically confirmed stages I-III colon cancer who underwent radical resection were selected...

BACKGROUND: We estimated the incidence and mortality of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in China in 2010 according to the data of 145 domestic population-based cancer registries in 2014, and no such reports since then. Hence, to further and better understand its epidemiology in China and to provide more precise scientific information for its control and prevention in China, we analyzed the NPC incidence and mortality of 255 domestic population-based cancer registries, and estimated the national rates in 2013 again...

BACKGROUND: Glutamine and glutamate are known to play important roles in cancer biology. However, no detailed information is available in terms of their levels of involvement in various biological processes across different cancer types, whereas such knowledge could be critical for understanding the distinct characteristics of different cancer types. Our computational study aimed to examine the functional roles of glutamine and glutamate across different cancer types. METHODS: We conducted a comparative analysis of gene expression data of cancer tissues versus normal control tissues of 11 cancer types to understand glutamine and glutamate metabolisms in cancer...

BACKGROUND: The value of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA assay during posttreatment follow-up of the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) presenting with different pretreatment plasma EBV DNA levels remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of plasma EBV DNA assay during posttreatment follow-up in the patients with NPC who have undergone intensity-modulated radiotherapy. METHODS: The medical records of 385 NPC patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy between November 2009 and February 2012 were reviewed...

Since the beginning of 2017, Chinese Journal of Cancer has published a series of important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology, which sparkle diverse thoughts, interesting communications, and potential collaborations among researchers all over the world. In this article, 9 more questions are presented as followed. Question 67. How could we overcome the resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma against chemotherapeutics? Question 68. Is pursuit of non-covalent small-molecule binders of RAS proteins viable as a strategy of cancer drug discovery? Question 69...

BACKGROUND: Conditional survival (CS) has been established as a clinically relevant prognostic factor for cancer survivors, and the CS in gallbladder (GB) cancer has not yet been fully evaluated. In this study, we evaluated the cancer-specific CS rate and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rate in patients with GB cancer at multiple time points and investigated prognostic factors which affect cancer-specific CS rate to provide more accurate survival information. METHODS: Between 2004 and 2013, a total of 9760 patients with GB cancer were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data...

BACKGROUND: Stage at diagnosis and molecular subtype are important clinical factors associated with breast cancer patient survival. However, subgroup survival data from a large study sample are limited in China. To estimate the survival differences among patients with different stages and various subtypes of breast cancer, we conducted a hospital-based multi-center study on breast cancer in Beijing, China. METHODS: All resident patients diagnosed with primary, invasive breast cancer between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010 from four selected hospitals in Beijing were included and followed up until December 31, 2015...

BACKGROUND: Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is recommended as the standard care for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) at Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A-B. However, the efficacy of TACE on large (≥ 10 cm) stage A-B HCC is far from satisfactory, and it is proposed that hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) might be a better first-line treatment of this disease. Hence, we compared the safety and efficacy of HAIC with the modified FOLFOX (mFOLFOX) regimen and those of TACE in patients with massive unresectable HCC...