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Background The abnormal expression of RMRP and miR-613 was respectively associated with the pathogenesis of lung cancer, but the role of the RMRP/miR-613 axis in NSCLC has not been studied. Methods In this report, we measured the levels of RMRP in clinical NSCLC samples and cell lines. The target gene of RNA was predicted by online tools and verified by Luciferase reporter assay. Moreover, the function and regulatory mechanism of RMRP in the progression of cancer were further investigated. Results Our data showed that the expression of RMRP in NSCLC tissues and cell lines was both up-regulated. Functionally, RMRP promoted the proliferation and metastasis of A549 and H1299 cells. Luciferase reporter assay confirmed that RMRP was the sponger of miR-613, and NFAT5 is the direct target of miR-613. Functional acquisition and loss-of-function strategies further confirmed that RMRP induces the up-regulation of NFAT5 expression through competitive binding with miR-613, leading to promote the progression and metastasis potential of lung cancer cells. Conclusion Collectively, our findings emphasized the importance of RMRP in the development of NSCLC, which may provide a new therapeutic target and potential diagnostic biomarker for NSCLC therapy.

Background B3GNT3 (β1, 3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-3) belongs to the β3GlcNAcT family and is essential to form extended core 1 oligosaccharides. Previous studies revealed that B3GNT3 expression was dysregulated in multiple cancers. Here, we aimed to understand the expression profile and function of B3GNT3 in lung cancer. Materials and methods The expression of B3GNT3 was measured by immunohistochemistry and public database analysis. B3GNT3 was knocked down to evaluate the lung cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion in in vitro and in vivo tumor formation experiments. miR-149-5p targeting B3GNT3 was identified with TargetScan analysis and confirmed with reporter assay. Overexpression of miR-149-5p was achieved using microRNA mimics and function of microRNA-149-5p/B3GNT3 axis was tested in vitro. Results B3GNT3 was upregulated in lung cancer, and B3GNT3 overexpression was associated with poor prognosis of lung cancer patients. High expression of B3GNT3 was associated with advanced TNM stages, larger tumor size, tumor metastasis and recurrence. Functionally, we demonstrated that knockdown of B3GNT3 suppressed lung cancer cell growth and invasion in vitro. Knockdown of B3GNT3 suppressed lung cancer development in a xenograft tumor model. Moreover, miR-149-5p was validated to negatively regulate B3GNT3 expression through directly targeting B3GNT3 3'-UTR. Overexpression of miR-149-5p could antagonize the tumorigenesis effect of B3GNT3 in vitro. Conclusion In summary, our study demonstrated that B3GNT3 overexpression was correlated with poor prognosis of lung cancer patient, indicating that B3GNT3 could be a promising prognostic biomarker for lung cancer. miR-149-5p negatively regulated B3GNT3 expression, which might be utilized for therapeutic target in lung cancer.

Background Integrin αvβ3 has been proposed as crucial determinant for tumor sustained progression and a molecular marker for the estimation of tumor angiogenesis. Our study suggested that integrin αvβ3 could efficiently promote lung cancer cell proliferation and stem-like phenotypes in a tribbles homolog 3 (TRIB3) dependent manner. Result Integrin αvβ3 could mediate the activation of FAK/AKT pro-survival signaling pathway. Meanwhile, activated TRIB3 interacted with AKT to upregulated FOXO1 and SOX2 expression, resulting in sustained tumor progression in lung cancer. Our further analysis revealed that TRIB3 was significantly upregulated in lung tumor tissues and correlated with the poor outcome in clinical patients, indicating the potential role of TRIB3 in diagnostic and prognostic estimation for patients with lung cancer. Conclusion Our study showed here for the first time that integrin αvβ3 promote lung cancer development by activating the FAK/AKT/SOX2 axis in a TRIB3 dependent signaling pathway, and interrupting TRIB3/AKT interaction significantly improved the outcome of chemotherapy in tumor-bearing mice, representing a promising therapeutic strategy in lung cancer.

Non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which accounts for ~85% of all lung cancer cases, is commonly diagnosed at an advanced stage and has a high patient mortality rate. Despite the increasing availability of treatment strategies, the prognosis of patients with NSCLC remains poor, with a low 5‑year survival rate. This poor prognosis may be associated with the tumor heterogeneity of NSCLC, as well as its acquisition and intrinsic resistance to therapeutic drugs. It has been suggested that combination therapy with telomerase inhibition may be an effective strategy for the treatment of drug‑sensitive and drug‑resistant types of cancer. Telomerase is the key enzyme for cell survival, and ~90% of human cancers maintain telomeres by activating telomerase, which is driven by the upregulation of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). Several mechanisms of telomerase reactivation have been described in a variety of cancer types, including TERT promoter mutation, epigenetic modifications via a TERT promoter, TERT amplification, and TERT rearrangement. The aim of the present study was to comprehensively review telomerase activity and its association with the clinical characteristics and prognosis of NSCLC, as well as analyze the potential mechanism via which TERT activates telomerase and determine its potential clinical application in NSCLC. More importantly, current treatment strategies targeting TERT in NSCLC have been summarized with the aim to promote discovery of novel strategies for the future treatment of NSCLC.

Background: Lung cancer is the most common cancer worldwide. The correlation between lung microbiota dysbiosis and lung cancer has been explored. However, the characteristics of the lung mycobiome in lung cancer patients has not been fully examined. In this study, we performed metagenomic sequencing on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from 24 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 14 non-cancerous controls with benign mass. Results: We observed greater fungal diversity and connectivity in NSCLC patients compared to non-cancer controls. Network analysis revealed that the sum of degrees in NSCLC was more numerous, suggesting the connections of fungal communities were more active. The community networks were reconstructed in 4 main ecological modules. The module and network hubs included Vanderwaltozyma polyspora, Apiotrichum porosum, Lobosporangium transversal, Capronia epimyces and Pseudomicrostroma glucosiphilum. Random forest analysis and DESeq2 were performed to screen out distinct species in two seperate groups and 3 fungi Alternaria arborescens, Eremoyces bilateralis and Malassezia restricta were identified as potential diagnosis biomarkers for NSCLC patients. In these 3 fungi, the relative abundance of Alternaria arborescens was gradually increasing as NSCLC progressed. Conclusions: Taken together, our study innovatively proposes that changes in the structure of fungal communities in lung cancer may be closely related to lung carcinogenesis as well as its progression and the distinct species listed above could be used to detect and monitor NSCLC.

Lung is colonized by a diverse array of microbes and the lung microbiota is profoundly involved in the development of respiratory diseases. There is little knowledge about the role of lung microbiota dysbiosis in lung cancer. In this study, we performed metagenomic sequencing on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from two different sampling methods in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and non-cancer controls. We found the obvious variation between bronchoscopy samples and lobectomy samples. Oral taxa can be found in both bronchoscopy and lobectomy samples and higher abundance of oral taxa can be found in bronchoscopy samples. Although the NSCLC patients had similar microbial communities with non-cancer controls, rare species such as Lactobacillus rossiae, Bacteroides pyogenes, Paenibacillus odorifer, Pseudomonas entomophila, Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense, fungus Chaetomium globosum et al. showed obvious difference between NSCLC patients and non-cancer controls. Age-, gender-, and smoking-specific species and EGFR expression-related species in NSCLC patients were detected. There results implicated that different lung segments have differential lung microbiome composition. The oral taxa are found in the lobectomy samples suggesting that oral microbiota are the true members of lung microbiota, rather than contamination during bronchoscopy. Lung cancer does not obviously alter the global microbial composition, while rare species are altered more than common species. Certain microbes may be associated with lung cancer progression.

SummaryLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Genome-wide association studies have revealed genetic risk factors, highlighting the role of smoking, family history, telomere regulation, and DNA damage-repair in lung cancer etiology. Many studies have focused on a single ethnic group to avoid confounding from variability in allele frequencies across populations; however, comprehensive multi-ethnic analyses may identify variants that are more likely to be causal. This large-scale, multi- ethnic meta-analyses identified 28 novel risk loci achieving genome-wide significance. Leading candidates were further studied using single-cell methods for evaluating DNA-damage. DNA-damage promoting activities were confirmed for selected genes by knockdown genes and overexpression studies.

There were many reports published on the relationship between glutathione S-transferase T1 (GSTT1) null/presence gene polymorphism and the risk of lung cancer in these years. In previous, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between GSTT1 null/presence gene polymorphism and the risk of lung cancer. This study was conducted to update it.The association studies were identified from PubMed and Cochrane Library on March 1, 2016.Sixty-three reports were recruited into this meta-analysis for the association of null genotype of GSTT1 with lung cancer susceptibility, consisting of 21,220 patients with lung cancer and 21,496 controls. There was a marked association between GSTT1 null genotype and lung cancer risk in overall populations and in Asians (overall populations: Odds ratio [OR] = 1.17, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.07-1.28, P = 0.006; Asians: OR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.23-1.62, P0.00001). However, GSTT1 null genotype was not associated with the risk of lung cancer in Caucasians, Brazilian population, and Africans.GSTT1 null genotype is associated with the lung cancer risk in overall populations and in Asians.

Background: In the CANTOS study, canakinumab (selective interleukin 1β inhibitor) treatment was associated with reduced incidence and mortality from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in stable post-myocardial infarction patients with elevated high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels. The CANOPY-A study was designed to investigate the therapeutic role of canakinumab in NSCLC. Methods: The CANOPY-A study (NCT03447769) is evaluating the efficacy and safety of canakinumab as adjuvant therapy in adult patients with completely resected NSCLC. Patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control version 8 stage IIA-IIIA and IIIB (T >5 cm, N2), any histology, completely resected (R0) NSCLC and completion of adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy (≥2 cycles) and radiotherapy (if applicable) are eligible. Patients must not have had prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Patients (~1500) are randomized 1:1 to receive canakinumab (200 mg) or placebo subcutaneously every 3 weeks for 18 cycles or until disease recurrence as determined by investigator, unacceptable toxicity, or treatment discontinuation at the discretion of the investigator. The primary objective is disease-free survival (DFS) per local investigator assessment. Secondary objectives are overall survival (OS), lung cancer-specific survival, safety, pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity, and patient-reported outcomes. Adult patients with stage IIA-IIIA and IIIB (T>5 cm, N2 disease only) NSCLC who are candidates for complete resection surgery (and therefore prospective candidates for the main study) will be asked to participate in a biomarker substudy to understand how resection may impact biomarkers involved in the interleukin 1β inflammatory pathway and mutations present in blood. In the substudy, the levels of hs-CRP, other cytokines, and additional biomarkers in blood will be assessed before and after surgery (endpoint: summary statistics of hs-CRP and other pharmacodynamic biomarkers). For patients who will enroll in the main study, possible associations between pre- and postsurgery biomarker levels with canakinumab efficacy will be assessed (endpoint: DFS and OS by hs-CRP and other pharmacodynamic biomarkers). The CANOPY-A study is currently enrolling. As of October 19, 2020, there are 356 study locations. Citation Format: Alexander Spira, Andrea Ardizzoni, Fabrice Barlesi, Byoung Chul Cho, Pedro De Marchi, Yasushi Goto, Dariusz Kowalski, Shun Lu, Luis Paz-Ares, David R. Spigel, Michael Thomas, Sabine Turri, Vanessa Rodrik-Outmezguine, Wen Zhou, Terri Kreisl, James Chih-Hsin Yang, Edward B. Garon. Canakinumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with completely resected non-small cell lung cancer: CANOPY-A trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr CT255.

Hyponatremia is a common electrolyte disorder in cancer patients and has been associated with poor prognosis. A frequent cause of cancer‐related hyponatremia is the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH). This study was a post hoc subgroup analysis of the SALT‐1 (Study of Ascending Levels of Tolvaptan in Hyponatremia) and SALT‐2 clinical trials. Hyponatremic subjects with SIADH and cancer received the oral selective vasopressin V2‐receptor antagonist tolvaptan (n = 12) or matching placebo (n = 16) once‐daily for 30 days. The initial tolvaptan dose (15 mg) was titrated over 4 days to 30 or 60 mg per day, as needed, according to serum sodium level and tolerability. Baseline serum sodium levels in the SIADH/cancer cohort of the SALT trials was 130 and 128 mEq/L for tolvaptan and placebo, respectively. Mean change from baseline in average daily serum sodium AUC for tolvaptan relative to placebo was 5.0 versus −0.3 mEq/L (P

Recent evidence suggests that Oxymatrine (OMT) has excellent effects in anticancer. The mechanism, however, remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the potential mechanism of OMT against cancer. The differential expression of miRNA was screened by miRNA array. The expression of miRNA-520 and VEGF in lung cancer was assayed by real-time PCR, Western blot and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The direct interaction between miRNA-520 and VEGF was assayed by luciferase activity assay and their roles in lung cancer proliferation, invasion and migration were analyzed in vivo and in vitro. We found that miR-520 was markedly down-regulated and VEGF was markedly up-regulated in lung cancer tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues, which had significant negative correlation. Dual-luciferase assays confirmed that miR-520 directly targeting VEGF by binding to its upstream promoter region. Through in vitro and in vivo experiments, we found that different doses of OMT could up-regulate miR-520, selectively inhibit VEGF and thus inhibit the proliferation and migration of lung cancer. Our findings indicate that OMT inhibited cancer progression and metastasis by upregulation of miR-520 and downregulation of VEGF, which provide new support for OMT may be as a novel anticancer drug for the treatment of lung cancer in the future.

The familial aggregation indicated the inheritance of cancer risk. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified a number of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Following heritability analyses have shown that SNPs could explain a moderate amount of variance for different cancer phenotypes among Caucasians. However, little information was available in Chinese population. We performed a genome-wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) for common cancers at nine anatomical sites in Chinese population (14,629 cancer cases vs. 17,554 controls) and estimated the heritability of these cancers based on the common SNPs. We found that common SNPs explained certain amount of heritability with significance for all nine cancer sites: gastric cancer (20.26%), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (19.86%), colorectal cancer (16.30%), lung cancer (15.17%), and epithelial ovarian cancer (13.31%), and a similar heritability around 10% for Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We found that nearly or less than 25% change was shown when removing the regions expanding 250kb or 500kb up and downwards of the GWAS-reported SNPs. We also found strong linear correlations between variance partitioned by each chromosome and chromosomal length only for lung cancer (R2=0.641, P=0.001) and esophageal squamous cell cancer (R2=0.633, P=0.002), which implied us the complex heterogeneity of cancers. These results indicate polygenic genetic architecture of the nine common cancers in Chinese population. Further efforts should be made to discover the hidden heritability of different cancer types among Chinese. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Emerging evidence indicates that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in cancer development. This study aimed to evaluate whether circulating circRNAs may serve as novel biomarkers for non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We used RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) and quantitative real‐time PCR to explore cancer‐related circRNAs. Bioinformatics and functional analyses were performed to reveal biological effects of circRNAs on lung cancer cells. A total of 5471 distinct circRNAs were identified by total RNA‐seq, in which 185 were differentially expressed between cancerous and adjacent normal tissues. A circRNA derived from exon 5–7 of the FARSA gene, termed circFARSA, was observed to increase in cancerous tissues (P = 0.016), and was more abundant in patients’ plasma than controls (P

Lung cancer is becoming the leading cause of cancer death worldwide with highest morbidity and mortality, and knowing the pathogenesis and signaling pathway is very important and advances in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease are urgently needed. Gene polymorphism was reported to be associated with the lung cancer risk. We reviewed the potential signaling pathway of hypoxia-inducible factor in lung cancer and conducted a meta-analysis to explore its gene polymorphism with lung cancer risk. In the meta-analysis, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) G1790A A allele, AA genotype and GG genotype were associated with lung cancer risk (A allele: OR = 2.31, 95% CI: 1.77-3.02, p

Genome-wide association studies identified genetic susceptibility variants mostly lie outside of protein-coding regions. It suggested variants located at transcriptional regulatory region should play an important role in cancer carcinogenesis including lung cancer. In the present study, we systematically investigated the associations between the variants in the binding sites of an extensive transcription factor CTCF and lung cancer risk in Chinese population. A two-stage case-control design was conducted to evaluate the variants located at the uniform CTCF ChIP-seq peaks in a Chinese population (2,331 vs 3,077; 1,115 vs 1,346). The ChIP-seq data for CTCF, specified on lung cancer cell line A549, were downloaded from ENCODE database. Imputation was performed to increase the genome coverage in the CTCF binding regions. Three variants in CTCF binding sites were found to associate with lung cancer risk in the first stage. Further replication revealed a novel single nucleotide polymorphism rs60507107 was significantly associated with increased risk of lung cancer in two stages (Additive model: OR = 1.19, 95%CI = 1.11-1.27, P = 6.98 × 10(-7)). Our results indicate that rs60507107 in the binding site of CTCF is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. This may further advance our understanding of regulatory DNA sequences in cancer development.

Background Alternative splicing is an important biological step during mRNA processing. Misregulation of alternative splicing can produce aberrant protein isoforms, thus contributing to cancer. We hypothesized that variants in 5 critical splicing factor-associated genes might play an important role in carcinogenesis of lung cancer. Materials and methods A case-control study including 1,341 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases and 1,982 cancer-free controls were conducted to evaluate the associations of 16 tagging/functional polymorphisms in 5 splicing factor-associated genes with lung cancer risk. Results We found altogether 8 SNPs were associated with lung cancer risk with adjustment of age, gender, and smoking status after multiple corrections (FDR). Among these, six SNPs were related with SRSF7 (rs10197412, OR(95%CI)=1.23(1.06–1.43), P for FDR=0.018; rs12621103, OR(95%CI)=1.25(1.08–1.46), P for FDR=0.016; rs13024811, OR(95%CI)=1.25(1.07–1.46), P for FDR=0.016; rs2037875, OR(95%CI)=1.23(1.06–1.42), P for FDR=0.018; rs3134628, OR(95%CI)=1.25(1.07–1.45), P for FDR=0.016 and rs6715866, OR(95%CI)=1.23(1.07–1.43), P for FDR=0.016); one SNP was near PTBP2 (rs12566237: OR(95%CI)=1.16(1.05–1.28), P for FDR=0.016) and one SNP in HNRNPQ (rs16876385: OR(95%CI)=1.17(1.04–1.32), P for FDR=0.022). Conclusions Our findings indicated that genetic variants in these splicing-associated genes might modify individual susceptibility to lung cancer in Chinese population. Further large-scale well-formed population studies and functional researches are warranted to confirm our findings.

BACKGROUND Human tumor xenograft models established by transplantation of human tumor cell lines into immunodifficient mice have been routinely used for preclinical test of anticancer agents. But tumor cell lines have a relatively low transplantability and resulted in a limited number of tumor models available for selection of right models for testing novel agents based on their antitumor mechanism. Recently, we have developed a large number of patient primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) xenograft models by transplanting patients’ fresh tumor tissues into nude mice, which have been employed for preclinical test of anticancer agents. METHODS The fresh NSCLC tissues were collected from local hospitals. The tumor fragments of 1-2 mm were subcutaneously implanted in the flanks of the nude mice by trocar needle. Sixteen tumor fragments were grafted into four mice from one patient tumor tissue (passage 0). All therapeutic efficacy experiments used female mice bearing passage 5 xenografts. The test drugs included cisplatin, carboplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, erlotinib, gefitinib, and pemetrexed. RESULTS A total of 213 patient primary NSCLC samples were implanted into nude mice, and 107 primary tumor models have been established with a tumor taking rate of 50% for the first passage. The tumor taking rates were higher (80-100) in the later passages. The therapeutic efficacy of the test drugs in these models is consistent with their clinical findings. The histopathology and gene sequence of the established primary tumor xenografts were analyzed; their architecture, histopathological morphology, and genomic mutation status from five generations of xenografts retained the patients’ original tumor characteristics. CONCLUSIONS The patient primary NSCLC models can be established in a large number for right models selection in preclinical setting, and have been employed for test of standard of care drugs and novel anticancer agents. The primary tumor models retain a similarity in histology and genomic mutation status to their patients’ original tumors. They may predict more relevant clinical response rate and higher correlation with clinical findings than use of traditional xenograft models established from long-term cultured cancer cell lines. Especially, they have advantages for test of target-oriented therapeutics in new drugs discovery and development programs. Citation Format: Changnian Liu, Connie Sun, Wenwei Li, Wen Zhou, Yong Liu, Rui Zhou, Fang He, Chang Bai. Establishment of patient non-small cell lung cancer derived models for test of anticancer drugs. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2776. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2776

BACKGROUND Human xenograft tumor models established by transplantation of human tumor cell lines into immunodifficient mice have been routinely used for preclinical test of anticancer agents. But tumor cell lines have a relatively low transplantability and resulted in a limited number of tumor models available for selection of right models for preclinical testing novel agents based on their antitumor mechanism. Recently, we have developed a large number of patient primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) xenograft models by transplanting patients’ fresh tumor tissues into nude mice, which have been employed for preclinical test of anticancer agents. METHODS The fresh NSCLC tissues were collected from local hospitals. The tumor fragments of 1-2 mm were subcutaneously implanted in the flanks of the nude mice by trocar needle. Sixteen tumor fragments were grafted into four mice from one patient tumor tissue (passage 1). All therapeutic efficacy experiments used female mice bearing passage 5 xenografts. The test drugs included cisplatin, carboplatin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, tarceva, and iressa. RESULTS A total of 142 patient primary NSCLC samples were implanted into nude mice, and 71 primary tumor models were established with a tumor taking rate of 50% for the first passage. The tumor taking rates were higher (80-100) in the later passages. The therapeutic efficacy of the test drugs in these models is consistent with their clinical findings. The histopathology and gene sequence of the established primary tumor xenografts were analyzed; their architecture, histopathological morphology, and genomic mutation status from five generations of xenografts retained the patients’ original tumor characteristics. CONCLUSIONS The patient primary NSCLC models have been employed for preclinical test of standard clinically used and novel anticancer agents. The primary tumor models retain a similarity in histology and genomic mutation status to their patients’ original tumors. They may predict more relevant clinical response rate and higher correlation with clinical findings than use of traditional xenograft models established from long-term cultured cancer cell lines. Especially, they have advantages for test of target-oriented therapeutics in new drugs development programs. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2343. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2343