Biodegradable Nanoprodrugs: "Delivering" ROS to Cancer Cells for Molecular Dynamic Therapy.

Biodegradable nanoprodrugs, inheriting the antitumor effects of chemotherapy drugs and overcoming the inevitable drawback of side effects on normal tissues, hold promise as next-generation cancer therapy candidates. Biodegradable nanoprodrugs of transferrin-modified MgO2 nanosheets are developed to selectively deliver reactive oxygen species to cancer cells for molecular dynamic therapy strategy. The nanosheets favor the acidic and low catalase activity tumor microenvironment to react with proton and release nontoxic Mg2+ . This reaction simultaneously produces abundant H2 O2 to induce cell death and damage the structure of transferrin to release Fe3+ , which will react with H2 O2 to produce highly toxic ·OH to kill tumor cells.

Sleep Disturbance and Related Factors in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Their Family Caregivers Prior to the Initiation of Treatment.

Sleep disturbance is a common complaint in cancer patients. However, less is known about the parameters of sleep in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) and their family caregivers (FCs) when they are about to begin treatment. We investigated the sleep quality in patients with NPC and their FCs before treatment and determined the related factors that predict sleep disturbance in these patients before therapy. A total of 101 patient-FC dyads were recruited. They completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) prior to treatment. No differences were found in sleep disturbance between patients (38.6%) and their FCs (31.7%). Patients reported significantly higher rates of short sleep duration than their FCs (P = 0.011). Logistic regression analyses showed that older patients were more prone to suffer from poor sleep quality before treatment (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.01-1.10, P = 0.008), while patients with a higher BMI were less likely to experience sleep disturbance (OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.71-0.96, P = 0.012). Sleep disturbance is a significant problem in patients with NPC and their FCs before therapy. Older patients and those with a lower BMI appear to be more inclined to suffer from poor sleep before treatment.

Meta-analysis of XRCC1 polymorphism and risk of female reproductive system cancer.

Numerous epidemiological studies have evaluated the association between polymorphism in the gene encoding x-ray repair cross complementing 1 (XRCC1) protein and the risk of female reproductive system cancer, but results are inconclusive. To gain a comprehensive picture of available evidence, we searched for relevant studies in the PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases up to December 17, 2016. A total of 26 case-control studies were picked out. The pooled odds ratio (OR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to estimate the association. Based on data of all study participants, we did not find a positive association of rs25487 or rs1799782 polymorphism with risk of female reproductive cancer risk. Subgroup analysis, however, identified two alleles as being associated with an increased risk of female reproductive system cancer in Asians: the A allele of rs25487 (heterozygous genetic model, OR 1.16, 95%CI 1.00-1.36), and the T allele of rs1799782 (homozygous model, OR 2.30, 95%CI 1.39-3.82; dominant model, OR 1.28, 95%CI 1.10-1.50; recessive model, OR 2.11, 95%CI 1.33-3.34). Moreover, the AA genotype at rs25489 was determined to be a risk factor for cervical cancer etiology (homozygous model, OR 2.91, 95%CI, 1.17-7.26; recessive model, OR 3.16, 95%CI 1.91-5.24). This meta-analysis suggests that no association between rs25487 or rs1799782 gene polymorphism and risk of female reproductive cancer risk was found. These results should be validated in larger studies.