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The MAL gene encodes Myelin and Lymphocyte Protein, mainly expressed in T cells with immunomodulatory effects, showing the potential as a target for immunotherapy. However, the mechanism of MAL in the regulation of immune infiltration and its association with the prognosis in pan-cancer patients remain elusive. We used the TCGA, TIMER2.0, GTEx, UCSC, and TISCH databases and the R programming tool to explore the role of MAL in cancers. MAL was differently expressed in the majority of malignancies relative to the matched healthy controls. Patients with low MAL levels had adverse survival outcomes in the BRCA and LUAD cohorts. In all cancer types, MAL showed a significant correlation to specific immune-subpopulation abundance in particular T cells as well as B cells. MAL was also implicated in immunological pathways in BRCA and LUAD, suggesting the important role of MAL in cancer immune regulation. In conclusion, the pan-cancer study indicates that MAL with excellent prognostic value is a potential immunotherapy target in multiple cancers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics, diagnosis and treatment principles and prognosis of multiple primary cancers (MPC)., Methods: A total of 77 patients with MPC admitted in the Central Hospital of Changsha from December 2013 to December 2018 were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. The survival of these 77 patients with complete follow-up data was calculated., Results: There were 77 patients with multiple primary cancers, including 70 patients with double primary cancers, 6 patients with three primary cancers, and 1 patient with four primary cancers. Among the 77 MPC patients, there were 4 synchronous carcinomas (SC), 58 metachronous carcinomas (MC), and 15 unknown cases. The 3, 5, and 10-year overall survival rates of 77 patients with follow-up data were 86.5%, 18.2%, and 12.9%, respectively. The median survival time of 4 SC and 58 MC patients was 12 months and 108 months, respectively. The median survival time was 48.5 months in 23 patients with an interval of less than 5 years, and 108 months in 29 patients with first and second primary cancers whose interval was more than 5 years. The median survival time of 26 patients with second primary lung cancer was 84 months, and that of 23 patients with second primary non-lung cancer was 156 months., Conclusions: MPCs are more likely to occur in the colorectum, and the prognosis of patients with metachronous cancer is better than that of patients with synchronous cancer. The longer the interval between two cancers, the better the prognosis will be. The prognosis of the second primary non-lung cancer patients is better than that of the lung cancer patients.

At present, the therapeutic treatment strategies for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remain unsatisfactory, and novel methods are urgently required to treat this disease. Members of the B cell lymphoma (Bcl)-2 family are anti‑apoptotic proteins, which are commonly expressed at high levels in certain HCC tissues and positively correlate with the treatment resistance of patients with HCC. ABT-737, an inhibitor of Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic proteins, has been demonstrated to exhibit potent antitumor effects in several types of tumor, including HCC. However, treatment with ABT-737 alone also activates certain pro-survival signaling pathways, which attenuate the antitumor validity of ABT-737. Curcumin, which is obtained from Curcuma longa, is also an antitumor potentiator in multiple types of cancer. In the present study, the synergistic effect of curcumin and ABT-737 on HCC cells was investigated for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. It was found that curcumin markedly enhanced the antitumor effects of ABT-737 on HepG2 cells, which was partially dependent on the induction of apoptosis, according to western blot analysis and flow cytometric apoptosis analysis. In addition, the sustained activation of the ROS-ASK1-c-Jun N-terminal kinase pathway may be an important mediator of the synergistic effect of curcumin and ABT-737. Collectively, these results indicated that the combination of curcumin and ABT-737 can efficaciously induce the death of HCC cells, and may offer a potential treatment strategy for patients with HCC.

Background and Objective: Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is a promising new approach for cancer therapy. The purpose of this study is to detect the effects of SDT on the cell proliferation of human lung adenocarcinoma cell SPCA-1, using Chlorin e6 as a sonosensitizing agent activated by ultrasound., Methods: SPCA-1 and normal peripheral mononuclear cell (PMNC) were treated with ultrasound or Chlorin e6 alone and combined. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay, and cell morphology was studied by inverted microscope after 6 h treated., Results: 1.0 MHz ultrasound (1.0 W/ cm(2)-2.0 W/cm2 x 60 s) and Chlorin e6 (0.4 mg/mL-3.2 mg/mL) inhibited the cell proliferation of both SPCA-1 and PMNC cells in a intensity- and a dose-dependent manner respectively. Compared with the ultrasound (1.0 W/cm2 x 60 s) or Chlorin e6 (0.05 mg/mL-0.2 mg/mL) alone, the inhibitory effect on the cell proliferation was remarkably increased by the combination of ultrasound and chlorin e6 in SPCA-1 cells (P < 0.05), but no same effect was observed in PMNC cells (P > 0.05). Compared with the ultrasound (1.0 W/cm2 x 60 s) or chlorin e6 (0.2 mg/mL) alone, the combination treatment of ultrasound with Chlorin e6 induced more necrotic cells in SPCA-1 cells (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: There was a significant selectively inhibitory effect of sonodynamic effect with Chlorin e6 on the SPCA-1 cell growth. Chlorin e6 may be a promising sonosensitizing agent for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.