Pregnancy Does not Affect the Prognoses of Differentiated Thyroid Cancer Patients With Lung Metastases.

CONTEXT: Pregnancy-related hormones may stimulate thyroid cancer growth, but whether pregnancy affects the prognoses of patients with lung metastases from differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC-LM) after surgery and radioiodine therapy is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of pregnancy on DTC-LM through the comparison of prognoses between female patients with DTC-LM who did and did not become pregnant after surgery and radioiodine therapy. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 124 female patients aged 16 to 35 years who underwent surgery and radioiodine therapy for DTC-LM. These patients were divided into pregnancy group (n = 37) and nonpregnancy group (n = 87) according to whether they became pregnant after surgery and radioiodine therapy, regardless of whether they had a pregnant history before treatment. RESULTS: The 5- and 10-year progression-free survival rates were 94.52% and 63.22% in pregnancy group versus 89.82% and 58.13% in nonpregnancy group. The 5- and 10-year cumulative overall survival rates of pregnancy group were 97.30% and 85.77% versus 93.50% and 81.95% in nonpregnancy group (all P > 0.05). The median time of follow-up in the pregnancy and nonpregnancy groups was 82 months (25-136 months) and 68 months (13-133 months), respectively. Non-radioiodine-avid LM and primary tumors needing repeated resection were independent predictors of poor progression-free survival for patients in pregnancy group. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy does not affect the prognoses of patients with DTC-LM after surgery and radioiodine therapy. Non-radioiodine-avid LM and repeated primary tumor surgeries are independent risk factors for poor prognoses of pregnant patients.

Interleukins in Thyroid Cancer: From Basic Researches to Applications in Clinical Practice.

Inflammation is crucial to tumorigenesis and progression of many cancers. Inflammatory molecules in tumor microenvironment exert pro- or anti-tumor effects. Among them, interleukin, mainly produced by CD3+ and CD4+ T lymphocytes, is a class of small molecule proteins which play an important role in intercellular communication. Numerous studies have confirmed that interleukins are closely related to thyroid cancer. Interleukins regulate the proliferation and migration of thyroid cancer cells and they have prospects in discriminating benign and malignant thyroid diseases, predicting the risk of tumorigenesis, evaluating the prognosis and monitoring the recurrence of thyroid cancer. Besides, the effective application of interleukins in treatment of thyroid cancer has been confirmed by some cell and animal researches. The present review will introduce the potential mechanisms of interleukins in thyroid cancer and focus on the applications of interleukins in clinical practice of thyroid cancer, which will help update understanding of the progress of interleukins researches in thyroid cancer.

Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with no less than three distant organ system metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: For patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), distant metastases are commonly identified in the lungs and bones. However, they are relatively rare in other distant organs, such as the liver, kidneys, or brain. The aim of the current study was to describe the clinical outcomes and evaluate the prognostic factors of patients with no less than three different distant organ system metastases from DTC. METHODS: This study retrospectively identified 717 patients diagnosed with DTC with distant metastases between January 2005 and December 2017. Patient response to radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy was monitored by changes in serum thyroglobulin levels and imaging changes. Five-year and 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards. RESULTS: Among the 717 participants, 37 (5.16%) patients had no less than three different distant organ system metastases from DTC. Five-year and 10-year OS were 45.9% and 37.8% in patients with three or more distant organ system metastases while 74.5% and 64.9% in individuals with one or two distant organ system metastases, respectively. RAI avidity and RAIR-DTC were main independent prognostic factors influencing the clinical outcomes for both groups of patients. The presence of 3 or more different distant organ system metastases was the only independent prognostic factors for 10-year OS by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with no less than three distant organ system metastases from DTC had poor prognosis. RAI avidity and RAIR-DTC were main factors influencing overall survival for patients with distant metastases from DTC in both groups.

Hydrogen-rich saline injection into the subarachnoid cavity within 2 weeks promotes recovery after acute spinal cord injury.

Hydrogen can relieve tissue-damaging oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis. Injection of hydrogen-rich saline is an effective method for transporting molecular hydrogen. We hypothesized that hydrogen-rich saline would promote the repair of spinal cord injury induced by Allen's method in rats. At 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hours after injury, then once daily for 2 weeks, 0.25 mL/kg hydrogen-rich saline was infused into the subarachnoid space through a catheter. Results at 24 hours, 48 hours, 1 week and 2 weeks after injury showed that hydrogen-rich saline markedly reduced cell death, inflammatory cell infiltration, serum malondialdehyde content, and caspase-3 immunoreactivity, elevated serum superoxide dismutase activity and calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity, and improved motor function in the hindlimb. The present study confirms that hydrogen-rich saline injected within 2 weeks of injury effectively contributes to the repair of spinal cord injury in the acute stage.

Frequent hyperphosphorylation of AS160 in breast cancer.

Enhanced cellular glucose uptake is a frequent characteristic of malignant cells. The Akt substrate of 160 kDa (AS160) is a newly discovered substrate for the protein kinase AKT and phosphorylation of AS160 (p-AS160) was recently recognized to play an important role in glucose transport. However, studies on AS160 in cancer do not yet exist. The aim of the present study was to investigate the p-AS160 level and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters and various biological markers in breast cancer. Results showed that in breast cancer, phosphorylation of AS160 at the key residue T642 was significantly (p < 0.001) higher than that in normal adjacent tissues. P-AS160 staining was positive in 75 of 81 cases (92.6%), including 32 with weak-(score 1), 31 with moderate-(score 2) and 12 with strong immunoreactivity (score 3). P-AS160 was inversely correlated with patient age (p = 0.041) and positively correlated with tumor size (p = 0.013) and the cell proliferation marker Ki-67 (MIB-1) (p < 0.001). This is the first study of AS160 in cancer. Our results show that AS160 phosphorylation level is frequently increased in breast cancer. These results implicate a possible role of AS160 in human breast tumorigenesis and suggest that p-AS160 might be useful as a marker and a potential novel treatment target for breast cancer.

Characterization of M2 antibodies in asymptomatic Chinese population.

AIM: To investigate the presence of M2 antibodies specific for primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) in asymptomatic Chinese and identify patients with early PBC. METHODS: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests for M2 antibodies to recombinant protein were performed in 5 011 subjects (age range, 26-85 years; mean age: 45.81+/-15.02 years) who took an annual physical examination. M2-positive subjects were further analyzed for immunoglobulin (Ig) classes and subclasses of M2 antibodies. Clinical, biochemical and immunological data were obtained for M2-positive subjects. In addition, ultrasonography (US) or endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) was performed to exclude any disorders other than PBC. RESULTS: M2 antibodies were detected in 8 (0.16 %) of the 5 011 subjects studied. Of the 8 subjects, 7 were female and 1 was male (age range: 40-74 years). An unexplained increase of serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT) values, often to striking levels, was detected in 4 M2-positive subjects, 3 of them accorded with the diagnostic criteria recommended by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, even though they had no symptoms of PBC (such as fatigue, pruritus or jaundice). Liver biopsy was performed in two M2-positive subjects and the histology was compatible with PBC in both cases. CONCLUSION: Our data, while not assessing the true prevalence of asymptomatic PBC in the general population, suggest that asymptomatic PBC is much more common in China than has been supposed.