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Xinping Ye,1,* Guanghui Li,1,* Chuangye Han,1 Quanfa Han,1 Liming Shang,1 Hao Su,1 Bowen Han,1 Yizhen Gong,1 Guodong Lu,2 Tao Peng1 1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Province, China; 2Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi Province, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: This study aimed to determine if the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and changes in their numbers affected tumor recurrence and metastasis after surgical resection in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The primary endpoints were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). A total of 42 patients with HCC were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical College from 2014 to 2017. CTCs were counted 1 day prior to and 30 days after surgical excision of HCC using the CanPatrol™ system. Results: Numbers of CTCs (> 2 CTCs and > 5 CTCs per 5 ml peripheral blood) were significantly associated with Edmondson stage in HBV-related HCC prior to surgery (P = 0.004 and 0.014, respectively). However there were no significant associations between other tested clinicopathological factors and CTC counts. Postoperative CTC counts (> 2 and > 5) and pre/postoperative change in CTC counts were significantly associated with PFS (P = 0.02, 0.009, and 0.001, respectively), but not with OS. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that pre/postoperative changes in the CTC count were a better predictor of performance than absolute count. The postoperative CTC count was also significantly associated with positive TP53 expression (P < 0.05). Conclusion: These results demonstrate that postoperative CTC counts (> 2 and > 5) and changes in CTC counts may be independent prognostic indicators for PFS in patients with HBV-related HCC, with the change in number of CTCs showing better predictive performance. Keywords: circulating tumor cell, hepatocellular carcinoma, progression-free survival, overall survival

Xiwen Liao,1 Chuangye Han,1 Xiangkun Wang,1 Ketuan Huang,1 Tingdong Yu,1 Chengkun Yang,1 Rui Huang,2 Zhengqian Liu,1 Quanfa Han,1 Tao Peng1 1Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China Background: The aim of the current study was to investigate the potential prognostic value of minichromosome maintenance (MCM) genes in patients with early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after pancreaticoduodenectomy by using the RNA-sequencing dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).Methods: An RNA-sequencing dataset of 112 early-stage PDAC patients who received a pancreaticoduodenectomy was obtained from TCGA. Survival analysis was used to identify potential prognostic values of MCM genes in PDAC overall survival (OS).Results: Through mining public databases, we observed that MCM genes (MCM2, MCM3, MCM4, MCM5, MCM6, and MCM7) were upregulated in pancreatic cancer tumor tissue and have a strong positive coexpression with each other. Multivariate survival analysis indicated that a high expression of MCM4 significantly increased the risk of death in patients with PDAC, and time-dependent receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.655, 0.587, and 0.509 for a 1-, 2-, and 3-year PDAC OS prediction, respectively. Comprehensive survival analysis of MCM4 using stratified and joint effects survival analysis suggests that MCM4 may be an independent prognostic indicator for PDAC OS. Gene set enrichment analysis indicated that MCM4 may participate in multiple biologic processes and pathways, including DNA replication, cell cycle, tumor protein p53, and Notch signaling pathways, thereby affecting prognosis of PDAC patients.Conclusions: Our study indicates that MCM2–7 were upregulated in pancreatic cancer tumor tissues, and mRNA expression of MCM4 may serve as an independent prognostic indicator for PDAC OS prediction after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Keywords: minichromosome maintenance, mRNA, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, prognosis, pancreaticoduodenectomy