Preoperative Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, and CEA as the Potential Prognostic Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer.

Background: This study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and to identify the potential and easily accessible prognostic biomarkers for CRC. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed altogether the records of 330 CRC patients according to inclusion criteria. The clinical characteristics include age at diagnosis, body mass index (BMI), preoperative CEA level, neutrophil , lymphocyte, and platelet count, tumor primary site and size, clinical pathological TNM stage, and survival status were recorded through the review of medical records. The overall survival (OS) was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for the univariate and multivariate analysis to evaluate the prognostic factors of CRC. Results: A total of 330 patients were finally included in the current study. The mean follow-up duration was 32.8 ± 19.1 months (range, 0.1-67.7). Compared with the median OS, preoperative high NLR, PLR, and CEA, and low BMI had lower median OS. The NLR and PLR value rise indicates lower median OS in stage I-II CRC; however, the NLR value and CEA level rise indicates lower median OS in stage III-IV CRC. Preoperative high NLR, PLR, and CEA level and low BMI have poorer OS by univariate analysis. By multivariate analysis, the age, sex, N, M stage, and BMI demonstrated independently influence the OS of CRC. NLR was an independent predictor of stage I-II CRC, and the CEA level was an independent predictor of stage III-IV CRC. Conclusions: Our results show that preoperative high NLR, PLR, CEA, and low BMI had poorer OS, NLR was an independent predictor of stage I-II CRC, and the CEA level was an independent predictor of stage III-IV CRC.

Mechanism of Curcumin Alone and in Combination with Other Drugs Against Laryngeal Carcinoma： A Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

Curcumae Longae Rhizoma is a traditional Chinese medicine with the efficacy of activating blood and moving Qi. Curcumin， a polyphenolic substance extracted from the rhizome of plant Curcuma longa， possesses multiple pharmacological activities like anti-tumor， anti-oxidation， anti-bacteria， and anti-inflammation. Laryngeal carcinoma （LC） is a common malignant tumor， whose incidence in recent years has been on the rise， and the 5-year survival rate has continuously decreased. Considering the specific location of larynx， researchers are actively exploring diverse treatment modalities for laryngeal organ preservation. Many studies have shown that curcumin has an inhibitory effect on the development of LC. By virtue of multiple pharmacological effects， curcumin deserves to be thoroughly explored. However， most of the current research is limited to in vitro exploration， and the partial mechanism of curcumin remains unclear， indicating that there is still a long way to go before curcumin becomes a Chinese medicinal preparation for the clinical treatment of LC. This paper reviewed the physicochemical properties of curcumin and the methods for its extraction from plants， the efficacy of curcumin in inducing cell apoptosis and protective autophagy， reversing cell drug resistance， inhibiting cell proliferation， migration， and invasion and tumor angiogenesis， the action mechanism of curcumin in combination with resveratrol， platinum drugs， 3-methyladenine， taxols， and 5-fluorouracil against LC， as well as the bioinformatics analysis concerning curcumin and LC. This paper is expected to provide reference for relevant researchers to clarify the mechanism and important targets of curcumin against LC and promote its clinical application.

Spatial and temporal expression of germ cell nuclear factor in murine epididymis / 亚洲男科学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>AIM</b>To investigate the spatial and temporal expression of germ cell nuclear factor (GCNF) in mouse and rat epididymis during postnatal period.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The epididymal sections from different postnatal days were stained for GCNF by the indirect immunofluorescence technique and digital photographs were taken by a Carl Zeiss confocal microscope.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>GCNF was first detected on day 12 in mouse epididymis and day 14 in rat epididymis. The highest expression of GCNF was observed on day 35 in both mouse and rat epididymis. In adults, GCNF exhibited a region-specific expression pattern, i.e., it was expressed predominantly in the initial segment, caput and proximal corpus of rat epididymis and was abundant in the proximal corpus of mouse epididymis. GCNF could be found in the nuclei of the principal, apical, narrow, clear and halo cells.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>GCNF may play an important role in epididymal differentiation and development and in sperm maturation.</p>