Retracted: Antiproliferative and apoptotic activity of glycyrrhizinic acid in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and evaluation of its effect on cell cycle, cell migration and m-TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.5114/aoms.2018.79429.].

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists for ovarian protection during breast cancer chemotherapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

IMPORTANCE: The increasing trend of delaying childbirth means that more women are being diagnosed with breast cancer before having given birth to their desired number of children. Although chemotherapy can significantly improve the prognosis of this population, it also causes ovarian damage, including premature ovarian insufficiency and infertility. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) have shown promising fertility protective activity in premenopausal women, but their clinical usage remains controversial. OBJECTIVE: Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of GnRHa when administered concurrently with chemotherapy that included cyclophosphamide in the prevention of chemotherapy-induced ovarian damage in premenopausal women. EVIDENCE REVIEW: An extensive literature search was performed using the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were determined. FINDINGS: Eleven randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,219 participants were included in the analyses. A significantly higher number of women treated with GnRHa experienced the resumption of ovarian function after chemotherapy than those who did not receive this treatment (OR, 3.04; 95% CI, 1.87-4.94; P < 0.001). Regarding spontaneous pregnancy, a statistically significant difference was observed only in hormone receptor-negative participants (OR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.03-4.11; P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: When treating premenopausal women with breast cancer, the administration of GnRHa concurrently with chemotherapy appeared to improve the resumption rate of ovarian function; however, the spontaneous pregnancy rate only improved in hormone receptor-negative patients. Thus, the use of GnRHa during chemotherapy may represent a feasible strategy for preserving ovarian function in women with breast cancer.

Platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with higher aggressiveness and mortality than hormone-positive breast cancer because of the lack of approved therapeutic targets. Patients with TNBC who attain a pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy have improved survival. Platinum-based agents show promising activity in TNBC; however, their use remains controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the role of platinum-based agents in neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with TNBC. METHODS: We performed an extensive literature search of the Pubmed, Embase, and Cochrane databases. We calculated pooled odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the identified studies. RESULTS: Eight randomized controlled trials with 1345 patients were included in the analysis. The addition of platinum-based agents improved pCR compared with neoadjuvant therapy based on anthracyclines, cyclophosphamide, taxanes, and fluorouracil (49.1% vs. 35.9%; OR: 1.87, 95% CI: 1.23-2.86). Hematological adverse events were similar in both groups, except for more thrombocytopenia in the platinum-based group (OR: 7.96, 95% CI: 3.18-19.93). CONCLUSION: The addition of platinum-based agents to neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved pCR rates in patients with TNBC, with a slight increase in hematological toxicities. Platinum-based agents might thus be an accessible and economically viable option in patients with TNBC.

Antiproliferative and apoptotic activity of glycyrrhizinic acid in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and evaluation of its effect on cell cycle, cell migration and m-TOR/PI3K/Akt signalling pathway.

INTRODUCTION: Glycyrrhizinic acid is a natural product of pharmacological relevance and its anticancer activity against breast cancer cell lines has not been evaluated. Therefore the main purpose of the present study was to investigate the anticancer effects of glycyrrhizinic acid in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The MTT assay was used to evaluate the anticancer effects while a clonogenic assay was used to study its effects on colony formation tendency. Flow cytometry was used to study the effects on cell cycle phase distribution and apoptosis. Western blot assay was used to study changes in protein expression of the m-TOR/PI3K/Akt pathway. RESULTS: The results indicated that glycyrrhizinic acid caused significant (p < 0.01). The growth inhibitory effects MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. The growth inhibitory effects of glycyrrhizinic acid exhibited concentration-dependent as well as time-dependent growth inhibitory trend. Different doses of glycyrrhizinic acid had a tendency to significantly (p < 0.01) inhibit the colony formation tendency of MCF-7 cells. As compared to the control group, glycyrrhizinic acid-treated cells showed a high percentage of apoptotic cells. Cells treated with a 10, 50 and 100 µM dose of glycyrrhizinic acid led to a 24.3%, 41.5% and 82.1% increase in the sub-G1 phase (apoptotic) cells. Glycyrrhizinic acid also led to significant (p < 0.01) inhibition of cell invasion along with downregulation of m-TOR/PI3K/Akt protein expression. CONCLUSIONS: Glycyrrhizinic acid inhibited MCF-7 human breast cancer cell growth and therefore may prove essential lead molecule in the treatment of breast cancer.

Polymorphisms in the telomerase reverse transcriptase promoter are associated with risk of breast cancer: A meta-analysis.

AIMS: Recently, the relationship between telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) polymorphisms and breast cancer risk has been investigated in several publications. However, the results were inconclusive. In this study, we examined the association between TERT polymorphisms and breast cancer risk by meta-analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE databases were searched independently by two investigators to retrieve relevant studies published to March 21, 2015. The strength of the association was calculated with the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). All statistical tests were used by the RevMan 5.1 software (Nordic Cochrane Center, Copenhagen, Denmark). RESULTS: We observed a statistically significant association between rs2736109 polymorphism and breast cancer risk (OR = 1.13; 95% CI: 1.00-1.28; P = 0.04). In addition, rs2736109 polymorphism was associated with breast cancer risk in Caucasian population (OR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.00-1.38; P = 0.04). We also found rs2853669 and rs2736098 polymorphisms were significantly associated with breast cancer risk (OR = 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63-0.90; P = 0.002 and OR = 0.79; 95% CI: 0.72-0.87; P < 0.00001), respectively. Furthermore, rs10069690 polymorphism was showed to be associated with breast cancer risk (OR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.11-1.22; P < 0.00001). In the subgroup analysis, this polymorphism might be associated with estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.16; 95% CI: 1.12-1.21; P < 0.00001) and breast cancer risk in Caucasian population (OR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.14-1.23; P < 0.00001). One single nucleotide polymorphism, rs2735940, was not significantly associated with breast cancer risk (OR = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.66-1.11; P = 0.24). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis suggested that TERT rs2736109, rs2853669, rs2736098, and rs10069690 polymorphisms were associated with increased risk of developing breast cancer.