Identification of predictors of long-term survival and prognostic outcomes in thymic squamous cell carcinoma: A real-world study.

BACKGROUND: Although thymic squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) is among the most prevalent forms of thymic carcinoma, there are relatively few studies on this tumor type, and its staging, optimal treatment strategies, and relevant prognostic factors remain controversial. METHODS: The present study analyzed 79 patients diagnosed with TSCC between January 2008 and January 2021. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to explore factors associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in the overall patient cohort and patient subgroups stratified according to the TNM stage. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to compare the TNM and Masaoka systems as predictors of patient prognosis. RESULTS: The 5- and 10-year OS rates in this study were 65.5% and 49.4%, respectively, with corresponding 5- and 10-year PFS rates of 52.3% and 37.9%. Survival outcomes were better for patients with early-stage disease (p < 0.001) and patients that underwent surgical treatment (p < 0.001). Neither extent of resection (p = 0.820) nor the surgical approach (p = 0.444) influenced patient survival. In individuals with advanced disease, all forms of adjuvant therapy including radiotherapy (p = 0.021), chemotherapy (p = 0.035), and chemoradiation (p = 0.01) significantly improved patient PFS, but only adjuvant chemoradiotherapy improved patient OS (p = 0.035). When predicting the patient survival outcomes, the TNM system was slightly superior to the Masaoka system (area under the ROC curve [AUC] at 5 years: OS, 0.742 vs. 0.723; PFS, 0.846 vs. 0.816). CONCLUSION: TSCC is an orphan malignancy with a poor prognosis. TNM staging may be superior to Masaoka staging as a predictor of TSCC patient prognosis. Surgery is the mainstay of TSCC treatment. Video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) should be considered for selected patients. Multimodal therapy was associated with excellent results for patients with advanced TNM stage, particularly when surgery was accompanied by adjuvant chemoradiation.

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma in thymus: a SEER analysis.

OBJECTIVES: The present study explores an extremely rare disease, thymic mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma, for its characteristics and prognostic factors by analyzing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. METHODS: From 2000 to 2018, cases with a diagnosed thymic MALT lymphoma were extracted. Clinical characteristics, treatments, and survival patterns of these cases were analyzed. RESULTS: Thymic MALT lymphoma (n = 26) accounted for 0.09% of all MALT lymphomas. With a sex ratio of 0.53 (male/female), 68% white population was affected. Most cases were diagnosed with Ann Arbor stage I (50%), yet advanced-stage did not show worse prognosis (p = 0.236). Different treatment protocols did not influence the overall prognosis (p > 0.99). The 5- and 10- year overall survival rates were 83.1% and 78.2%, respectively. Older than 70 years may be an independent risk factor for overall survival (HR = 7.166 [95% CI 1.173-43.756], p = 0.033). CONCLUSION: Thymic MALT lymphoma is a highly rare disease with a favorable prognosis. Ann Arbor staging might not be appropriate to classify severity of this disease or its treatment. Older people may have worse survival. A standardized treatment mode needs to be established, and surgery could remain as the mainstay.

Surgical Treatment of Ectopic Mediastinal Parathyroid Tumors: A 23-Year Clinical Data Study in a Single Center.

Background. Ectopic mediastinal parathyroid glands are parathyroid glands located completely below the clavicle. At present, most literature reports on ectopic mediastinal parathyroid tumors (EMPT) are case reports or small case sequences.Methods. This study conducted a retrospective analysis of ectopic mediastinal parathyroid tumors cases treated over the past 23 years, summarizing and analyzing general conditions, preoperative positioning, postoperative pathology, intraoperative conditions, and long-term follow-up results.Results. This study enrolled 28 patients. Among them, 27 patients underwent preoperative localization diagnosis using 99mTc-sestamibi scan (MIBI) in conjunction with chest computed tomography (CT), including 26 cases of the anterior superior mediastinum and 2 cases of middle mediastinum. Postoperative pathology revealed 23 cases of parathyroid adenoma, 4 cases of parathyroid hyperplasia, and 1 case of parathyroid cyst. In this study, 12 patients underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and thoracotomy approaches. Using Mann-Whitney U test, we discovered that VATS approach group is significantly superior in surgical time (P = 0.039) and intraoperative bleeding (P < 0.001). Within one week of surgery, 26 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) experienced a significant decrease in blood parathyroid hormone (PTH) (P < 0.001) and blood calcium (P < 0.001), and all achieved long-term remission.Conclusions. EMPT is most frequently performed in the anterior superior mediastinum. EMPT is predominantly parathyroid tumors, and most of them are associated with PHPT. MIBI and chest CT combination can be used for preoperative lesion localization (positive rate 96.15%). VATS can be used as a better surgical approach. PHPT patients before surgery can achieve long-term symptom relief with surgical treatment.

Silencing of circ_0000517 suppresses proliferation, glycolysis, and glutamine decomposition of non-small cell lung cancer by modulating miR-330-5p/YY1 signal pathway.

In recent years, circular RNA (circRNA) has been found to be involved in a variety of cancer processes. More and more attention has been paid to the research of circRNA in lung cancer. This study aims to investigate whether circ_0000517 affected the physiology of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the underlying mechanism. The results demonstrated that circ_0000517 was highly expressed in lung cancer tissues and cells, and overexpression of circ_0000517 was negatively correlated with the prognosis of NSCLC patients. Silencing of circ_0000517 significantly inhibited the proliferation, glycolysis, and glutamine decomposition of NSCLC cells in vitro and repressed the growth of xenografted tumors in vivo. Moreover, knockdown of circ_0000517 attenuated the expression of PCNA, HK2, LDHA, ASCT2, and GLS1. Further study found that circ_0000517 targeted miR-330-5p and miR-330-5p targeted YY1. In addition, miR-330-5p inhibitor reversed inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, glycolysis, and glutamine decomposition induced by si-circ_0000517. In conclusion, our study revealed that silencing of circ_0000517 improved the progression of NSCLC through regulating miR-330-5p/YY1 axis.