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Background: To evaluate whether the addition of taxanes to platinum and fluoropyrimidines in adjuvant chemotherapy would result in longer survival than platinum plus fluoropyrimidines in gastric cancer patients who received D2 gastrectomy., Methods: Data of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who received D2 gastrectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy with platinum plus fluoropyrimidines or taxanes, platinum plus fluoropyrimidines was retrospectively collected and analyzed. 1:1 Propensity score matching analysis was used to balance baseline characteristics between two groups. Survival curves were estimated using Kaplan-Meier method, and the differences were compared using the log-rank test., Results: Four hundred twenty-five patients in the platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group and 177 patients in the taxanes, platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group were included into analysis. No statistical differences in disease-free survival and overall survival were observed between two groups. After propensity score matching, 172 couples of patients were matched, the baseline characteristics were balanced. The median disease-free survival were 15.8 months (95% CI, 9.3~22.4) in the platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group and 22.6 months (95% CI, 15.9~29.4) in the taxanes, platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group (HR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.48~0.85; P = 0.002). The median overall survival was 25.4 months for patients in the platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group (95% CI, 19.4~31.3) and 33.8 months (95% CI, 23.5~44.2) for those in the taxanes, platinum plus fluoropyrimidines group (HR = 0.68; 95% CI, 0.53-0.87; log-rank test, P = 0.002)., Conclusions: For gastric adenocarcinoma patients, the adjuvant triplet combination of taxanes, platinum, and fluoropyrimidines regimen after D2 gastrectomy was superior to platinum plus fluoropyrimidines regimen in disease-free survival as well as overall survival., Trial Registration: This project has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( ChiCTR1800019978 )., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The biological roles of the newly identified long non-coding RNA family with sequence similarity 83 member H antisense 1 (FAM83H-AS1) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have remained largely elusive. In the present study, it was determined that, in comparison with paired para-tumorous tissues or normal esophageal epithelial cells, FAM83H-AS1 expression in cancer tissues and cell lines was markedly upregulated. Furthermore, FAM83H-AS1 expression was significantly elevated in patients with ESCC and lymph node metastasis or a late TNM stage, while no association with any other clinicopathological characteristics was detected. Furthermore, the overall and disease-free survival, as assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, were significantly shortened in patients with high FAM83H-AS1 expression. A functional study then uncovered that knockdown of FAM83H-AS1 significantly suppressed the proliferation and migration of ESCC cells. The present results suggested that FAM83H-AS1 may facilitate the malignant progression of ESCC and may be utilized as a prognostic predictor and possibly a novel therapeutic target in ESCC that warrants further exploration., (Copyright © 2020, Spandidos Publications.)

Objectives: To explore the expression level and to investigate the clinical associations of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) FAM83H-AS1 in gastric cancer., Methods: The expression level of FAM83H-AS1 were explored by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR). The Cox regression models as well as log-rank test were utilized to investigate whether FAM83H-AS1 expression could be used as a prognosis predictor. The value of FAM83H-AS1 as a diagnostic biomarker was evaluated by receiver operating curves (ROC)., Results: Aberrantly upregulation of FAM83H-AS1 was identified in gastric cancer in comparison with that in normal tissues. We also found that upregulated FAM83H-AS1 was a risk factor relating to OS and DFS. The area under curve (AUC) was 0.8603 and 0.6778 for gastric cancer and lymph node metastasis, respectively., Conclusion: Our results indicated that FAM83H-AS1 may function as an oncogene in gastric cancer and could be used as a prognosis predictor or diagnostic biomarker in gastric cancer., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

This study was aimed to assess serum microRNA-30d-5p (miR-30d-5p) expression in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma before and after operation, exploring its associations with clinical pathological parameters. A total of 30 esophageal cancer patients who underwent radical resection and were pathologically confirmed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, from April to May in 2013, were enrolled, alongside 19 healthy controls. The expression levels of miRNA in serum from patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma before and after operation were assessed by microarrays and real-time PCR (RT-PCR). The associations of miR-30d-5p expression with clinical pathological parameters were determined. Serum hsa-miR-30d-5p levels in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (study group) were significantly associated with the tumor depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, tumor location and length, histopathological type and degree of differentiation, as well as history of smoking and drinking (P<0.05). Moreover, changes of serum miRNA levels were more prominent than that of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1). There were significant differences in hsa-miR-30d-5p expression levels between the study and control groups ( P <0.05). These results indicated that microRNA-30d-5p is a potential marker of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, with high expression having a certain promoting role in the occurrence and development of esophageal cancer., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2017.)

Immunosuppression is a significant factor in the progression of tumor invasion and metastasis. Melatonin, a well-known hormone, has certain cytotoxic and immune regulatory effects to inhibit tumor function. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles released by many kinds of cells, which contain different macromolecules, such as mRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs), and proteins that can mediate communications between cells. Tumor-derived exosomes may cause immunosuppression, however, it is unknown whether melatonin can attenuate an immunosuppressive status by altering the function of tumor-derived exosomes. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of hepatocellularcarcinoma-derived exosomes (Exo-con) and exosomes derived from hepatocellularcarcinoma cells treated with 0.1 mM melatonin (Exo-MT), on the expression of inflammatory factors and programmed death ligand 1(PD-L1) by co-culturing Exo-con and Exo-MT, respectively, with macrophages differentiated from THP-1 cells or RAW264.7 cells. Our in vitro results indicate that Exo-MT can downregulate the expression of PD-L1 on macrophages while Exo-con can upregulate the expression of PD-L1 through flow cytometry and immunofluorescence analysis. In addition, Exo-con upregulates the secretion of cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-10, IL-1β, and TNF-α in macrophages. Accordingly, Exo-MT could attenuate the high expression of these inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, in vivo experiments confirmed the results found in vitro . PD-L1 expression and cytokine secretion were lower in the Exo-MT group compared with those in the Exo-con group. Working to identify a specific mechanism, our research shows that Exo-MT decreases STAT3 activation compared to the Exo-con group. In summary, we found exosomes from melatonin treated hepatocellularcarcinoma cells alters the immunosupression status through STAT3 pathway in macrophages. Our study may provide a new avenue to investigate the mechanisms of melatonin in regulating an immunosuppressive status., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.