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Background: Tumours in the petroclival region have been a challenge to neurosurgeons. We present a cohort of 24 patients with petroclival meningioma (PCM) and trigeminal schwannoma (TS) in the petroclival region with extension to the middle fossa which were removed with the temporal base intradural transpetrosal (TBIT) approach., Methods: To avoid damage to the important surrounding structures in the petrosal bone, a morphometric analysis in the TBIT approach was performed in 15 cadaveric heads, and the 'safe area of intradural petrosectomy' was identified in the TBIT approach. Subsequently, 14 patients with PCM and 10 patients with TS in the petroclival region were operated on with the TBIT approach., Results: There were no operative deaths in this cohort related to the surgery. Common complications included light hemiparesis in two patients (8.0%), new cranial nerve paresis in nine (37.5%), post-operative pneumonia in one (4.0%) and transient cerebrospinal fluid leak in one (4.0%). Total tumour resection was achieved in 20 patients (83.3%) and subtotal resection in 4 (16.7%). There was no tumour recurrence in all patients at follow-up with a mean duration of 37 months., Conclusions: Surgical strategy for PCM and TS in the petroclival region should be tailored to individual patients. The TBIT approach may improve the exposure of tumours in the petroclival region. A clear description of the 'safe area of intradural petrosectomy' appears to decrease the risk associated with petrosectomy procedure in the TBIT approach.

Nampt/PBEF/visfatin is the rate-limiting enzyme that catalyzes the first step in NAD biosynthesis from nicotinamide and regulates growth, apoptosis and angiogenesis of mammalian cells. This enzyme was originally cloned as a putative cytokine shown to enhance the B cell precursor maturation in the presence of IL-7 and stem cell factor. A number of cancers have increased expression of Nampt/PBEF/visfatin, which regulates a variety of different signaling pathways such as PI3K/Akt, ERK1/2 and STAT3. FK866/APO866 and CHS828/GMX1777 are two known inhibitors of Nampt/PBEF/visfatin and have been evaluated as anticancer agents in the clinic. This review will focus on its role in carcinogenesis and cancer progression and its inhibitors as therapeutic target for cancer treatment.

Side population (SP) cells can be used to identify putative cancer stem cells (CSC), but this technique is hampered by the requirement for an ultraviolet (UV) laser source. DyeCycle Violet reagent (DCV) is a DNA-binding dye that can be used in the common violet laser diode (VLD)-equipped flow cytometer. In this paper, we analyzed SP cells from several bladder cancer cell lines using either Hoechst 33342 or DCV staining. The Hoechst 33342-stained SP cells were identified with a UV-equipped flow cytometer, while the DCV-stained SP cells were identified with a VLD-equipped flow cytometer. DCV staining was also used to sort SP and non-SP (NSP) cells from SW780 cells. Further analysis revealed that SP cells could give rise to both SP and NSP cells. The colony-forming ability of SP cells was significant greater than that of NSP cells. When injected into nude mice, as few as 1 x 10(3) SP cells could initiate tumors in eight of twelve injection sites. In contrast, the injection of NSP cells into nude mice failed to initiate tumors. RT-PCR data showed that the expression of ABCG2, MDRI, Bmi-1 and Oct-4 differed between SP and NSP cells, suggesting that SP cells possess some stem cell characteristics. We conclude that SP cells identified by DCV staining are capable of asymmetric division, self-renewal and tumor initiation. Our study also indicates that DCV is a useful reagent for the identification of SP cells.