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Purpose: To identify tumor-derived exosomal biomarkers that are able to discriminate between adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) as a noninvasive method in the early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Experimental Design: Tumor-derived exosomes from the plasma of early-stage NSCLC patients were isolated. Exosomal miRNA profiling of 46 stage I NSCLC patients and 42 healthy individuals was performed using miRNA-seq to identify and validate adenocarcinoma- and SCC-specific miRNAs. The diagnostic accuracy of select miRNAs was tested further with an additional 60 individuals. Results: There were 11 and 6 miRNAs expressed at remarkably higher levels, 13 and 8 miRNAs expressed at lower levels in adenocarcinoma and SCC patients, respectively, compared with healthy volunteers. Distinct adenocarcinoma- and SCC-specific exosomal miRNAs were validated. The reliability of miRNA-seq data was verified with several demonstrated diagnostic potential miRNAs for NSCLC and other carcinomas, as reported in previous studies, such as let-7, miR-21, miR-24, and miR-486. The results indicated that miR-181-5p, miR-30a-3p, miR-30e-3p, and miR-361-5p were adenocarcinoma-specific, and miR-10b-5p, miR-15b-5p, and miR-320b were SCC-specific. The diagnostic accuracy of three combination miRNA panels was evaluated using an AUC value of 0.899, 0.936, and 0.911 for detecting NSCLC, adenocarcinoma, and SCC, respectively. Conclusions: Tumor-derived exosomal miRNAs, adenocarcinoma-specific miR-181-5p, miR-30a-3p, miR-30e-3p and miR-361-5p, and SCC-specific miR-10b-5p, miR-15b-5p, and miR-320b were observed by next-generation sequencing, and their diagnostic accuracy were verified. These miRNAs may be promising and effective candidates in the development of highly sensitive, noninvasive biomarkers for early NSCLC diagnosis. Clin Cancer Res; 23(17); 5311-9. ©2017 AACR ., (©2017 American Association for Cancer Research.)

To investigate the efficacy of Taxanes- and Oxaliplatin-based chemotherapies (TC and OC) in the treatment of gastric cancer patients after D2 gastrectomy with different Lauren types. In this study, 299 patients of gastric adenocarcinoma with D2 lymph node dissection were reviewed between 2007 and 2014. Chemotherapies were classified as Oxaliplatin-based and Taxanes-based regimen. Treatment outcomes were analyzed according to different Lauren types, such as the intestinal type, diffuse type, and mixed type groups, respectively. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The log-rank test was used for univariate analysis, and Cox regression was used for multivariate analysis. In diffuse type gastric cancer, the Oxaliplatin-based arm had a longer median DFS and OS compared with Taxanes-based arm (DFS: 47.0 vs 28.6 months, P = 0.04; OS: 51.9 vs 34.5 months, P = 0.048). The chemotherapy regimen was an independent prognostic factor for DFS and OS of diffuse type gastric cancer patients by multivariate analysis (P = 0.01). In the intestinal type, although the DFS and OS of intestinal type patients in TC group were higher than those in OC group (DFS: 53.4 vs 42.4 months; OS: 69.7 vs 57.8 months), there was no statistical significance observed (both P > 0.05). For the mixed type, the 2 different chemotherapy regimens achieved similar median DFS and OS. In a conclusion, the patients of diffuse type were more sensitive to OC, and the intestinal type patients may be benefit from TC. Therefore, it will be of benefit for gastric patients by introducing Lauren classification clinically and to help the choice of chemotherapy regimen for gastric patients after D2 gastrectomy.

Objective: To assess the frequency of brain metastasis in patients with primary esophageal cancer and to describe the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and prognosis., Methods: Of 1612 patients with primary esophageal carcinoma treated at a single institution from 2000-2010, a retrospective analysis of the medical files of 26 consecutive patients with central nervous system involvement was carried out. The clinical history, imaging, and pathologic findings were analyzed., Results: Of the 26 patients, 12 initially presented with a single cerebral metastatic lesion, and 14 had multiple brain lesions. There were 4 patients with adenocarcinoma and 22 with squamous cell carcinoma. Treatments were as follows: 5 patients underwent surgery followed by whole-brain radiation, 5 underwent stereotactic radiosurgery, 13 received whole-brain radiation, and 3 received chemotherapy. The median survival was 4.2 months; 1-year survival rate was 5.8%., Conclusions: In this retrospective study of 1612 patients with esophageal carcinoma at a single medical center, 1.61% (26 of 1612) of the patients had a diagnosis of brain metastasis. The prognosis is poor for patients with brain metastasis from esophageal carcinoma. A solitary brain lesion, surgical treatment, and a good Karnofsky Performance Status may indicate a good prognosis., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Tumor length is an important prognostic factor for many carcinomas, but its role in esophageal cancer remained undetermined. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of tumor length on survival for patients with confined tumors (grade pT1-2) without lymph-node metastases in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma., Methods: We enrolled 201 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who had undergone surgical resection and been confirmed as pT1-2N0M0. The relationship of tumor length with overall survival was assessed and compared with other factors detailed in the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) staging system published in 2009., Results: The overall survival (OS) rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 93.0%, 83.7%, and 69.2%, respectively. The tumor length adversely affected OS, with the 5-year rate being 93.5%, 82.0%, 68.6%, 67.9%, 55.3% and 41.1%, respectively for tumor lengths of less than 10 mm, 10 to 20 mm, 20 to 30 mm, 30 to 40 mm, 40 to 50 mm, and greater than 50 mm (P< 0.001). Multivariate analyses showed that the pathologic T classification and grade of tumor was significantly associated with OS. Tumor length of 30 mm or more remained an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.04), as did the other current TNM factors., Conclusion: Tumor length appears to affect the OS of patients with early-stage esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. It may provide additional prognostic information for the current TNM staging system.

Background: Brain metastasis (BM) is a poor prognostic factor for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The efficacy and roles of combining temozolomide (TMZ) with whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in protection neurocognitive function (NCF) and improvement quality of life (QOL) were investigated and compared with WBRT alone in the treatment of NSCLC patients with BM.Methods: A total of 238 NSCLC patients with BM were reviewed and categorized into WBRT plus TMZ (RCT) arm and WBRT alone (RT), respectively. The efficacy was evaluated with Pearson chi-square or Fisher's exact tests, Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards model. NCF was assessed by using revised Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT-R), Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA) test and Trail-making Test (TMT). QOL was assessed by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Treatment-Lung (FACT-L) Chinese version 4.0 questionnaire.Results: The average intracranial objective response (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) for all the patients were 26.9 and 95.8%, respectively. The intracranial ORR and DCR for RCT and RT arm were 34.9% vs. 20.2% (p = 0.01) and 98.4% vs. 92.7% (p = 0.03), respectively. The median intracranial progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of NSCLC patients with BM were 5.2 and 7.3 months, respectively. The median PFS of RCT arm was significantly longer than that of RT arm (5.9 vs. 4.9 months, p = 0.002). The median OS of the RCT arm was also slightly longer than that of the RT arm (8.5 vs. 5.9 months), but without statistical significance (p = 0.11). Multivariate analysis indicated that TMZ was a significant factor for PFS. Statistically significant differences on NCF and QOL were observed between CRT and RT arms at 5 months. RCT showed a trend of toxicities increase compared with RT, however, the toxicities were tolerable and manageable.Conclusions: Adding TMZ to WBRT in the treatment of NSCLC patients with BM could improve the intracranial ORR, DCR, and median PFS compared with WBRT alone. Although no remarkable difference on median OS was found, adding TMZ could prevent NCF and QOL from worsening. The side effects increased by adding TMZ, but the difference was not statistical significance and toxicities were well tolerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]