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Cervical cancer (CC) seriously threatens the health of women. Radiation therapy (RT) is the major treatment for CC. However, the recurrent CC can acquire resistance to RT. Thus, it is necessary to find a new method for reversing RT resistance in CC. It has been reported that miR-324-5p can suppress the progression of multiple cancers. However, whether it can reverse resistance to RT in CC remains unclear. qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to detect gene and protein expression in CC cells, respectively. Cell proliferation was tested by CCK-8 assay and colony formation assay. In addition, cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry. Transwell assays were performed to detect cell migration. Dual luciferase reporter assay and TargetScan were used to explore the targets of microRNA-324-5p (miR-324-5p). MiR-324-5p was downregulated in CC cells. Overexpression of miR-324-5p sensitized CC cells to RT. In addition, miR-324-5p mimics significantly induced apoptosis and inhibits the migration of CC cells in the presence of 137 Cs ionizing radiation. Furthermore, miR-324-5p sensitized CC cells to ionizing radiation by targeting ELAV-like RNA binding protein 1 (ELAVL1). MiR-324-5p overexpression affects the radiotherapy response of CC by targeting ELAVL1, which may serve as a new target for the treatment of CC., (© 2020 The Authors. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences published by John Wiley & Sons Australia on behalf of Kaohsiung Medical University.)

Objective: This study was made to investigate and evaluate the safety and carcinogenicity of nitenpyram (NIT) in rats., Materials and Methods: A totally 50 male and 50 female SD rats were treated with NIT at 0, 800, 2400, and 7200 ppm, respectively, for 104 w. The growth, clinical signs, and survival rates, as well as the body and organ weights of these animals, were analyzed. Histopathological examination was also performed., Results: Compared with the control group, survival rates at 104 w were significantly decreased in the 7200 ppm dose group, for both the male and female animals. The occurrence of esophageal squamous papilloma (ESP) was significantly increased in the treated animals. The occurrences of ESP for the 0, 800, 2400, and 7200 ppm NIT treatment groups were 0/39, 0/39, 3/35, and 9/27 for the male animals, and 0/43, 0/43, 6/49, and 12/33 for the female animals, respectively. For pre-neoplastic lesion of ESP, the occurrences of esophageal squamous hyperplasia for the 0, 800, 2400 and 7200 ppm NIT treatment groups were 0/39, 1/39, 10/35, and 9/27 for the male animals, and 0/43, 2/43, 15/49, and 17/33 for the female animals, respectively. The basal cell hyperplasia from mild to severe degrees was observed in the treatment groups., Conclusions: NIT exhibits carcinogenicity of ESP in the male and female rats after the two-year treatment.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to be one of the major causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and brain metastases are the major cause of death in NSCLC patients. With recent advances in understanding the underlying molecular mechanism of NSCLC development and progression, mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR ) have been recognized as a key predictor of therapeutic sensitivity to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Using EGFR-TKI alone or in combination with standard treatments such as whole-brain radiotherapy and surgery has been an effective strategy for the management of brain metastasis. Particularly, a newer generation of EGFR-TKIs, including osimertinib and AZD3759, has been developed. These new EGFR-TKIs can cross the blood-brain barrier and potentially treat EGFR-TKI resistance and improve prognosis. In this article, current progress and outcomes of clinical trials on the use of EGFR-TKIs for treating NSCLC patients with brain metastasis will be reviewed.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine a method of dose prescription that minimizes normal tissue irradiation outside the planning target volume (PTV) during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for patients with non-small cell lung cancer., Methods: Previous research and patients with typical T1 lung tumors with peripheral lesions in the lung were selected for analysis. A PTV and several organs at risk (OARs) were constructed for the dose calculated; six treatment plans employing intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) were produced, in which the dose was prescribed to encompass the PTV, with the prescription isodose level (PIL) set at 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 or 95% of the isocenter dose. Additionally, four OARs around the PTV were constructed to evaluate the dose received in adjacent tissues., Results: The use of higher PILs for SBRT resulted in improved sparing of OARs, with the exception of the volume of lung treated with a lower dose., Conclusions: The use of lower PILs is likely to create significant inhomogeneity of the dose delivered to the target, which may be beneficial for the control of tumors with poor conformity indices.

Purpose: Three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) has become widely applied in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and gross tumor volume (GTV) is a reliable index for predicting prognosis in patients with NSCLC. This meta-analysis investigated the association between GTV and prognosis in patients with NSCLC after 3D-CRT., Methods: Electronic bibliographic databases were searched to identify articles related to NSCLC and 3D-CRT. The search results were carefully screened, using predetermined selection criteria, to select the most relevant studies. Newcastle-Ottawa Scale criteria were applied by 2 reviewers independently to evaluate the quality of the methodology of each included article., Based on GTV, each patient was assigned to either the study group (large GTV [≥112 cm(3)]) or the control group (small GTV [<112 cm(3)]), and the mean rates of overall survival (OS) and survival at 1, 3, and 5 years were calculated in each group. Summary hazard ratio (HR) with 95% CI was calculated., Findings: The data from 10 cohort studies were incorporated into the current meta-analysis (1473 patients; study group, 773; control group, 700). The OS in the study group was significantly less than that in the control group (HR = 1.52; 95% CI, 1.10-1.94; P < 0.01). The study and control groups also had significantly different survival rates at 1 year (HR = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.10-1.46, P = 0.01), 3 years (HR = 2.06; 95% CI, 1.63-2.61; P < 0.01), and 5 years (HR = 2.25; 95% CI, 1.63-3.10; P < 0.01). Findings from funnel plots and Egger tests of the OS and 3-year survival rate suggested no publication bias. With respect to the 1- and 5-year survival rates, however, the funnel plots and Egger tests demonstrated publication bias among the included studies., Implications: The relatively small number of studies and small sample size, as well as the lack of a specific and standard method of defining small and large GTV, may have influenced the credibility and reliability of our results. The findings suggest that GTV influences prognosis in patients with NSCLC after 3D-CRT. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm our finding that a larger GTV is negatively associated with NSCLC prognosis after 3D-CRT., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Assembly of nano-objects with tunable size, morphology and function into integrated nanostructures is critical for the development of a novel nanosystem in adsorption, sensing and drug/gene delivery. We demonstrate herein the fabrication of ordered mesoporous carbon by assembling uniform and highly dispersed copper-oxide (CuxOy) nanoparticles into the mesopores via evaporation of solvent from the mixture of triblock copolymer, carbon source and metal nitrate hydrate. The ordered 2D hexagonal mesoporous carbon composite possesses a large surface area of 580.8 cm(2)/g, a uniform pore size of 5.4 nm, a large pore volume of 0.64 cm(3)/g and a high metal content of 3.32 wt %. The mesoporous composite exhibits excellent adsorption selectivity and high adsorption capacity to hemoglobin (Hb) under the synergistic effect of hydrophobic and metal-affinity interactions as well as size exclusion. This facilitates multimode adsorption of hemoglobin fitting Langmuir adsorption model and offers an adsorption capacity of 1666.7 mg g(-1) for hemoglobin. The mesoporous composite is used for the isolation of hemoglobin from human whole blood with high purity. It demonstrates the potential of the copper-oxide nanoparticle-embedded mesoporous carbon composite in selective isolation/removal of specific protein species from biological sample matrixes.

Objective: To review the current status and progress on nuclear medical molecular imaging of angiogenesis., Data Sources: A literature search was performed in Medline and PubMed published in English up to May 31, 2012. The search terms were molecular imaging, nuclear medicine and angiogenesis., Study Selection: Articles studying molecular imaging of angiogenesis using radionuclide were selected and reviewed., Results: Molecular imaging has been used for studying angiogenesis by targeting integrin αVβ3, VEGF/VEGFR, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) with radionuclide-labeled tracers. The technology has been shown to be able to assess the angiogenesis status and/or predict the efficacy of anti-angiogenic therapy. Future directions of the research on the molecular imaging of angiogenesis include development of new tracers with better tumor targeting efficacy, desirable pharmacokinetics, and easy translation to clinical applications., Conclusion: Advances in molecular imaging of angiogenesis using radioculcide will make the technology a valuable tool for personalized anti-angiogenesis treatment.

Purpose: The goal of this research was to investigate the feasibility of volumetric modulated arc therapy, RapidArc (RA), in association with the active breathing coordinator (ABC) for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with radiotherapy., Patients and Materials: A total of 12 patients with HCC, after receiving transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) treatment, underwent three-dimensional computer tomography (3D-CT) scanning associated with ABC using end inspiration hold (EIH), end expiration hold (EEH), and free breathing (FB) techniques. The three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and RA plans (three 135° arcs) were designed on different CT images, respectively. The liver volume, gross tumor volume (GTV), and planning target volume (PTV) of the three breath status and the dosimetric differences of the different plans were compared., Results: There were no significant differences in the volumes of live and GTV between the three breathing techniques (p > 0.05); the PTV in FB was greater than in the EEH and EIH (p < 0.05). The overall conformality index (CI) and homogeneity index (HI) for RA (CI 0.92, HI 0.90) were better than IMRT (CI 0.90, HI 0.89) and 3D-CRT (CI 0.70, HI 0.84) for the three breathing techniques (p< 0.05). The RA and IMRT significantly reduced the mean dose, V(20), V(30), and V(40) of normal liver compared to 3D-CRT, while the V(5) and V(10) in RA were higher than in IMRT. The mean values in mean dose, V(10), V(20), V(30), and V(40) of the normal liver were reduced from 13.12 Gy, 46%, 24%, 13%, and 8% in RA(FB) to 10.23 Gy, 35%, 16%, 8%, and 5% in RA(EEH) and 9.23 Gy, 32%, 16%, 8%, and 5% in RA(EIH ), respectively. In addition, the treatment time of RA was equal to 3D-CRT, which was significantly shorter than IMRT., Conclusion: RA in conjunction with ABC for the treatment of HCC with radiotherapy can achieve better dose delivery and ensure the accuracy of the target volume, which spares more organs at risk, uses fewer monitor units, and shortens treatment time.

Hypoxia promotes metastatic potential of tumor cells by largely unknown mechanisms. Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) is a heterodimeric transcription factor consisting of alpha and beta (ARNT) subunits and plays an important role in tumor microenvironment. CXCR4 is a cell surface receptor that has been shown to mediate the metastasis of various tumors. CXCR4 induction by hypoxia is dependent on both activation of HIF and transcript stabilization. To investigate the mechanisms involved in hypoxia-induced metastasis and hypoxia-mediated chemokine receptor CXCR4 expression, we used lentiviral vector mediated RNA interfering (RNAi) to knock down expression of HIF-1alpha or HIF-2alpha in two NSCLC cell lines to investigate HIF-dependent invasion, migration and adhesion. Here we show that: (1) hypoxia is an important factor in regulating CXCR4 mediated metastasis and the cells exhibited reducing invasion, adhesion and migration in response to CXCL12 after knocking down HIF. (2) HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha are essential for hypoxic cellular response to cancer invasion and adhesion through upregulation of CXCR4. HIF-1alpha and HIF-2alpha are playing important roles in tumor metastasis, which may offer for future intervention strategies. We also show that the lentivirus mediated RNAi technology is very effective on knocking down gene expression.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of the whole-body (18)F-fluoro-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography with computerized tomography (PET-CT) for recurrence and distant metastasis after curative resection of the esophagus cancer., Methods: From June 2003 to June 2004, thirty-one patients with clinical or radiologic suspicion of recurrent disease underwent conventional diagnostic work-up, including a spiral CT scan, and a dedicated whole-body PET-CT. All cases were examined by pathology or followed-up for 6 months., Results: Among the 31 cases, recurrences were found in 23 patients, and 43 recurrent lesions were detected, including 14 perianastomotic lesions and 43 regional and distant lesions. For the diagnosis of recurrence, the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of PET-CT were 97.7%, 100%, and 85.7%, while those of conventional CT were 77.3%, 61.7%, and 78.6% respectively. The sensitivity of PET-CT was significantly higher than that of conventional CT (100% vs 61.7%; chi (2)=4.161, P=0.041)., Conclusions: The sensitivity of PET-CT is higher than that of conventional CT. PET-CT will play an important role in the diagnosis of postoperative recurrence and metastasis of esophageal cancer.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of 18F-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) in the staging of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)., Methods: 105 patients with NSCLC had been examined by 18F-FDG PET and staged by PET before radiotherapy. The results of 18F-FDG PET examination were compared with those of CT., Results: The staging was changed in 38 patients because of 18F-FDG PET findings with PET upstaged in 31 patients and downstaged in 7 patients. Because of distant metastasis detected by PET, 21 patients received palliative treatment. Six of the 7 downstaged patients underwent radical surgery, among which the PET findings were concordant with the operative findings in 5 patients. Distant metastasis detected by PET increased with elevation of pre-PET stage: at stage I 10.0% (2/20), stage II 14.3% (3/21) and stage III 25.0% (16/64), respectively., Conclusion: 18F-FDG PET, by changing clinical staging in 36.2% (38/105) NSCLC patients has impact on treatment strategy in NSCLC patients.