ABSTRACT
Bladder cancer is one of the common genitourinary malignancies. Since the discovery of intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) in the 1970s for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, there have not been any major breakthrough drugs especially for locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer. Recently, the immunotherapy for bladder cancer has made great breakthrough. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors targeting the programmed death 1 (PD-1), programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) pathways have shown significant long-term responses and tolerable safety profiles for locally advanced and metastatic bladder cancer. Inhibitors targeting PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are mainly used to restore T cell activity by blocking negative regulation signal, and to enhance the anti-tumor activities of T cells. Other immunotherapies including chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy also have great prospects. In this review, the effect of immunotherapeutic agents and the mechanisms in the treatment of bladder cancer are summarized.
ABSTRACT
The global prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically over the past decades. It has been verified that overweight and obesity have been associated with heart disease and type 2 diabetes, as well as the development and prognosis of cancer (such as breast cancer, renal cancer, and endometrium cancer). Adipose tissues surrounding tumor contributes to tumor growth and prognosis through their interactions with malignant cells, secretion of associated molecules (e.g. adipocytokines, proinflammatory cytokines, proangiogenic factors and extracellular matrix constituents) and acting as an energy reservoir for cancer cells. This paper reviews the advances in mechanism of excess body weight and obesity contributing to cancer development and its impact on cancer growth and prognosis.
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Purpose To investigate the clinicopathological features of multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma ( MCRCC) , and to im-prove the understanding of this disease. Methods Thirty-two of MCRCC were studied by clinic data, pathological features and immu-nophenotype. All the thirty-two cases were followed up. Results In this study, thirty-two patients were diagnosed as MCRCC with a male-to-female ratio of 2.2 : 1, thirteen of whom had the tumor in the left kidney, eighteen in the right kidney, another in the double kidneys. The mean of tumor diameter was 4.6 cm (1.0~8.0 cm). Eleven patients underwent radical nephrectomy while the other 21 patients received nephron sparing surgery. Microscopically, all the cases were multiocular, lined in the cyst wall by a single layer of tumor cells with the clear or pale cytoplasm and Fuhrman grade 1 nuclei. Occasionally, the lining consisted of several layers of tumor cells or a few small papillae were present. The linings of the cyst wall were rich in thin-wall blood vessels. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for CK(32/32), CK7(25/32), EMA(32/32), CD10(23/32) and vimentin(20/32), while negative for CD68. Conclusions MCRCC is characteristic by low grade nuclei, lacking solid nodules, and in the cyst wall, and has a favourable prognosis. The rich in thin-wall blood vessels and the lining cells with the clear or pale cytoplasm are diagnosis clues.
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Background and purpose: The increased of specific expression of prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3), as one of long non-coding RNA, has been observed in prostate cancer, indicating that PCA3 may contribute to the development of prostate cancer. To further study its roles in prostate cancer, we construct a lentivirus expression vector carrying the whole PCA3. Methods: PCA3 was amplified from prostate cancer cell line LNCaP by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). After the sequence was proved to be correct, we recombined the pCDH-CMV-MCS-EF1-copGFP-PCA3. After transformation into E.coli cells, the candidate clones were identified by PCR amplifying, restricting enzyme digestion analysis and DNA sequencing, and the viral titer was determined. Results: Through the Blast analysis software, we compared the results of PCA3 sequence amplified by PCR with GeneBank sequence, ifnding that the homology is 99.8%. The lentivirus vector was constructed successfully, and the virus in the supernatant reached a titer of 2*108. Conclusion: The successful construction of the lentivirus vector encoding PCA3 not only lays the foundation for the further research into the effect of PCA3 gene on the prostate cancer but also provides a new therapy for advanced prostate cancer.
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Objective To analyze the predictive factors of anti-androgen withdrawal in the treatment of androgen independent prostate cancer. Methods 347 cases of advanced metastatic prostate cancer in our prostate cancer database were filtered. All the cases were treated with maximal androgen blockade and had full pathological and clinical information. 237 cases developed to the androgen independent stage during the maximal androgen blockade treatment. Among them, 90 cases were treated with anti-androgen withdrawal. This 90 cases were followed up and the last follow-up date was 30 September 2009. The Logistic regression of univariate and multivariate analysis were used to find the predictive factors for the effectiveness of anti-androgen withdrawal, which including baseline PSA, Gleason score, clinical stage, way of castration, kind of anti-androgen, PSA nadir during maximal androgen blockade, time to PSA nadir, PSAV at the time of AIPC, PSADT at the time of AIPC, the effective duration of maximal androgen blockade, age at the time of AIPC and PSA at the initiation of anti-androgen withdrawal. Results Of the 90 cases treated with anti-androgen withdrawal, 3 cases were excluded for analysis because of the incomplete information. Among the 87 cases, 17 cases were effective with the anti-androgen withdrawal treatment while the other 70 cases were ineffective. At the last follow-up, 3 cases were still effective. The median effective duration of anti-androgen withdrawal was 4 months. The univariate analysis indicated that PSAV at the time of AIPC (P=0.033), PSADT at the time of AIPC (P=0.009) and PSA at the initiation of anti-androgen withdrawal (P=0.002)were predictive factors. The multivariate analysis indicated that PSAV (P=0.042) and PSADT at the time of AIPC (P= 0.036) were independent predictive factors for the effectiveness of anti-androgen withdrawal. Conclusions Among the androgen independent advanced metastatic prostate cancer patient, there were about 19. 5% cases effective with the anti-androgen withdrawal treatment and the median effective duration was 4 months. PSAV and PSADT at the time of AIPC were independent predictive factors for the effectiveness of anti-androgen withdrawal.
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[ Objective] To observe the therapeutic effect of fetus - soothing and liver - clearing therapy for pregnancy associated with chronic hepatitis B. [Methods] Fifty cases of pregnancy associated with chronic hepatitis B were treated with fetus - soothing and liver - clearing Decoction, which is mainly composed of Semen Cuscutae, Radix Astragali, Radix Scutellariae, Herba Phyllanthus and Herba Taraxaci. After treatment, general state of gravida, indexes of hepatic function, hepatitis B virus (HBV) marker and hepatic fibrosis were detected. [Results] No miscarriage was found in the cases. Serum levels of glutamic - pyruvic transaminase, bilirubin and hyaluronic acid ( HA) were decreased obviously , the difference being significant as compared with those before treatment ( P