[Effect of nursing intervention on improving quality of life of patients with advanced schistosomiasis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of nursing intervention on the quality of life of patients with advanced schistosomiasis. METHODS: A total of 226 cases of advanced schistosomiasis were randomly divided into a control group and an experimental group (113 cases each). The patients in the control group received the conventional nursing, while the patients in the experimental group received the conventional nursing plus other interventions such as the health education, psychological counseling and diet guidance. The complications and scores of life quality of the patients in the 2 groups were observed and compared. RESULTS: The awareness of knowledge about the disease improved from 67.7% to 98.9%, the incidence of complications decreased from 28.3% to 13.3%, and the scores of life quality improved significantly in the experimental group, which were much better than those in the control group. CONCLUSION: The nursing intervention on the quality of life of patients with advanced schistosomiasis is effective.

[Role of oxidative stress and thioredoxin in gastric cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the role of oxidative stress and the antioxidant protein thioredoxin in the tumorigenesis and progression of gastric cancer. METHODS: The plasma levels of adenosine deaminase (ADA), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) were determined by colorimetry, and the plasma levels of thioredoxin were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 48 gastric cancer patients and 30 healthy subjects. RT-PCR assay was employed to examine the expression levels of thioredoxin mRNA in the tissue samples of the patients. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, patients with gastric cancer had significantly increased plasma levels of ADA and AOPP (P<0.05), decreased plasma GPX level (P<0.05), and similar plasma SOD levels. The plasma levels of thioredoxin were significantly higher in patients with gastric cancer than in the healthy controls (P<0.05). Thioredoxin levels was not associated with gender, age, degree of tumor cell differentiation, invasion depth, or lymph node metastasis (P>0.05), but was correlated to distant tumor metastasis (P<0.05). The expression of Trx mRNA was significantly higher in gastric carcinoma than in normal gastric tissue (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Gastric cancer patients have high levels of oxidative stress and thioredoxin expression, and the latter is related to distant metastasis of the tumor.

[A pilot study of weekly versus 3-week docetaxel in combination with capecitabine in patients with anthracycline-pretreated metastatic breast cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of weekly or 3-week docetaxel in combination with capecitabine. METHODS: 83 Patients with at least one measurable lesion were randomized to receive the treatment arms: docetaxel 37.5 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 8, oral capecitabine 950 mg/m(2) twice daily on days 1-14 (Group A); docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) on days 1, oral capecitabine 950 mg/m(2) twice daily on days 1-14 (Group B). Each cycle was repeated every 3 weeks. RESULTS: Eighty-three patients were enrolled, 78 eligible for tumor assessment. The overall clinical response rate of all groups was 61.4% (51/83). There was no progressive disease (PD) after two cycles. Efficacy outcomes were similar in the two groups. The response rate of group A and B were 61.8% (21/34) and 61.2% (30/49) respectively. There were no drug-related deaths observed. Neutropenia was the most common toxicity. In all, the frequency of Grade 3/4 neutropenia were 45.8% (38/83), but Grade 3/4 neutropenia of Group B 55.1% (27/49) was higher than Group A 32.4% (11/34), P = 0.04. CONCLUSION: The study confirmed the superior activity of docetaxe-capecitabine combination therapy in anthracycline resistant MBC, and comparing with 3-week schedule, weekly docetaxel plus capecitabine has same high efficacy with a favourable safety profile.

[Immunopotentiation of novel adjuvant SWZY on the poorly immunogenic murine melanoma vaccine].

AIM: To evaluate the immunopotentiation of novel adjuvant SWZY on the cancer vaccine of poorly immunogenic melanoma. METHODS: C57BL/6 mice immunized with inactivated D5 melanoma cells were divided into 6 groups: the control without adjuvants, with FCA, FCA+IL-2+GM-CSF, FIA+IL-2+GM-CSF, FIA+SWZY, and FIA+SWZY+IL-2+GM-CSF. Three days after completion of immunization, DTH response, specific killing activity of splenocytes and the level of IFN-gamma and IL-10 in serum and splenocytes' culture supernatant were assayed in half of the mice in each group. The rest were subject to live D5 tumor cell challenge. Three weeks after tumor inoculation, the same immunological parameters were measured. RESULTS: DTH response, splenocytes' killing activity of all the experimental groups were markedly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05), but decreased as the tumor grew larger. The level of IFN-gamma in serum or splenocyte culture supernatant of each experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control (P<0.05) before tumor formation, whereas IL-10 level was lower than that of the control (P<0.05). After tumor formation, the level of IFN-gamma in all groups decreased while that of IL-10 increased in general, but the levels of IFN-gamma and IL-10 in group FCA and FIA+SWZY didn't change very much. CONCLUSION: All kinds of adjuvants can enhance the cell-mediated immune response against poorly immunogenic tumor to some extent. The novel adjuvant SWZY can strengthen immunoresponses similar to FCA. With few harmful side-effect, SWZY might be a promising adjuvant for cancer vaccine.

The ex vivo microenviroments in MLTC of poorly immunogenic tumor cells facilitate polarization of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells.

CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (TR) cells play an important role in maintaining a balanced peripheral immune system. Recent studies have shown that TR cells may also play a key role in suppressing anti-tumor immune response. In order to investigate the tumor immune microenvironment and its influence on TR polarization, poorly immunogenic tumor cell line D5 (C57BL/6, H-2b), immunogenic tumor cell lines FBL3 (C57BL/6, H-2b) and H22 BALB/c, H-2d) were used to establish the syngeneic/allogeneic, poorly immunogenic/immunogenic mixed lymphocytes-tumor cell culture (MLTC). Our results revealed that the proportion of CD4+CD25+ T cells in MLTC of syngeneic primed splenocytes stimulated with D5 tumor cells was higher than that with H22 cells (0.43% vs 0.044%, and the similar results appeared in allogeneic splenocytes stimulated with D5 tumor cells (0.39% vs 0.04%). The splenocytes stimulated with supernatant from syngeneic MLTC of D5 tumor cells demonstrated higher proportion of CD4+CD25+ cells than that from allogeneic MLTC of D5 tumor cells, and the splenocytes stimulated with supernatant from syngeneic or allogeneic MLTC of H22 tumor cells generated lower proportion of CD4+CD25+ T cells than that of D5 tumor cells. The TGF-beta1 and Th2-oriented cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10) were dominated in supernatants of syngeneic MLTC of poorly immunogenic tumor cells. Our results provided useful information for studying the mechanisms underlying tumor immune surveillance as well as for the tumor immunotherapy.

[Expression of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase in human colorectal carcinoma and its clinical implications].

OBJECTIVE: The study was to explore the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) expression level in human colorectal carcinoma and its clinical implications. METHODS: Fifty-three patients with colorectal carcinoma were detected by immunohistochemical stain. These patients had undergone radical surgical treatment in the First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University and had been followed up for 5 years after the operation. cases Twenty-two had received 5-fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy. RESULTS: DPD expression was predominantly observed in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells, and also partly in the nucleus. The positive rate of DPD expression was 73.58% (39/53). DPD expression in patients with different histopathology was obviously different (P < 0.05). There was no significant correlation between the expression of DPD and the efficacy of chemotherapy. By Kaplan-Meier methods, the survival patients with of negative DPD expression was longer than those with positive DPD expression, and then five-year survival rates were 12.97% and 42.86%, respectively (P < 0.05). The prognosis of patients with positive DPD expression was significantly poorer outcome than that of patients with negative DPD expression. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that DPD expression might be one of the important prognostic parameters for colorectal cancer patients.

B7 molecule mRNA expression in colorectal carcinoma.

AIM: To observe the status of tumor-associated B(7) molecule mRNA expression in human colorectal cancer tissue by in situ hybridization. METHODS: The mRNA expression patterns of cancer-associated B(7-1),B(7)H(1),B(7)H(2),ICOS in 22 specimens of human colorectal cancer tissue were monitored by in situ hybridization (ISH) with digoxin-labeled oligonucleotide probes. RESULTS: B(7-1),B(7)H(1),B(7)H(2),ICOS mRNA were detected in both cancer cells and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). The mRNA expression level of these molecules in tumor cells was higher than that in TIL (0.76+/-0.54 - 1.62+/-0.82 vs 0.38+/-0.19 - 0.65+/-0.33, P<0.001). There was no relationship between expression level of tested B(7) family molecules and patients' sex, age, differentiation status of cancer and regional lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSION: Th2 cytokine predominant in tumor microenvironment might be related to the expression of B(7)H(1),B(7)H(2) co-signal molecules in tumor cells and TIL.

[Expression of thymidine phosphorylase in human colorectal carcinoma and its clinical significance].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Angiogenesis has been well known to be a factor related to the tumor growth and metastasis. Recent studies have reported that thymidine phosphorylase (TP) is identical with platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor. It not only plays a role in the induction of the tumor angiogenesis, but also enhances the chemotherapeutical sensitivity of the tumor cells to prodrug of 5-fluorouracil. However, until now, the complete identity of view about the function of TP expression in colorectal carcinoma and its prognostic significance has not been reached. The present study was to explore the TP expression level in human colorectal carcinoma and its clinical significance. METHODS: Seventy archived samples of the patients with colorectal carcinoma were detected by immunohistochemical staining. These patients had undergone radical surgical treatment at the First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University and had been followed up for 5 years after operation. RESULTS: TP expression was predominantly observed in the cytoplasm of the tumor cells. The positive rate was 57.14%(40/70). TP expression levels in the patients with different Dukes, stages and histopathological grades showed obvious difference (P=0.007 and 0.002, respectively). By Kaplan-Meier methods, the survival of TP positive expression group was shorter than that of TP negative expression group, and the five-year survival rates of TP positive expression group and TP negative expression group were 33.33% and 73.33% (P=0.000). The results indicated that the prognosis of the patients with TP positive expression was poorer than that of patients with TP negative expression. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that TP expression might be one of the important prognostic indicators for colorectal carcinoma patients, and TP detection in colorectal carcinoma patients might served as a parameter for designing therapeutic schedule and choosing prodrug of 5-fluorouracil.