Impact of comorbid subthreshold depressive symptoms on cancer-related fatigue and complications in adults with leukemia.

BACKGROUND: Patients not only experience symptoms caused by cancer but also suffer from the accompanying psychological pain. Therefore, these patients do not have high quality of life. According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of leukemia in China in 2020 was 5.1/100000, the mortality rate was 3.3/100000, and the prevalence rate was 16.7/100000. Therefore, it is important to examine the influence of comorbid subthreshold depressive symptoms on leukemia patients. AIM: To determine the impact of comorbid subthreshold depressive symptoms on cancer-related fatigue and complications in leukemia patients, thereby providing a basis for early diagnosis and treatment in clinical practice. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted among leukemia patients admitted to a tertiary hospital in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, from August 2022 to December 2023. Patients with a score > 16 on the Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders (CCMD-3) and a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score of 8-17 were classified as the subthreshold depressive group (n = 95), while 100 leukemia patients admitted during the same period were classified as the control group. Data were collected using Epidata 3.1 software, and comparisons were made between the two groups regarding general clinical data, the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Numeric Rating Scale for pain assessment, laboratory indicators, and the occurrence of complications. RESULTS: In this survey, 120 leukemia patients with depression were preliminarily screened, 95 patients with subthreshold depression were ultimately selected as the subthreshold depression group, and 100 leukemia patients admitted during the same period were enrolled as the normal group. Comparison of basic clinical data between the two groups revealed no significant differences in age, sex, body mass index, cognitive function, or comorbidity with other chronic diseases. However, there were statistically significant differences in the use of radiotherapy and regular exercise between the two groups (P < 0.05). Comparisons of scales and laboratory indicators revealed no significant differences in albumin or PSQI scores between the two groups, but there were statistically significant differences in pain scores, PSQI scores, PFS scores, hemoglobin levels, and C-reactive protein levels (P < 0.05). Spearman's correlation analysis indicated that cancer-related fatigue was correlated with age, hemoglobin levels, C-reactive protein levels, pain, and regular exercise among leukemia patients with subthreshold depression. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that advanced age, combined radiotherapy, pain, and low hemoglobin levels were risk factors for cancer-related fatigue in leukemia patients with comorbid subthreshold depression, while regular exercise was a protective factor against cancer-related fatigue. Follow-up comparisons revealed a significantly lower overall incidence of complications in the control group (4%) than in the depressive group (24.21%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Leukemia patients with comorbid subthreshold depressive symptoms experience more severe cancer-related fatigue and a higher incidence of complications. These findings may be related to advanced age, combined radiotherapy, pain, and low hemoglobin levels, while regular exercise may effectively alleviate symptoms.

[Distribution Characteristics and Source Analysis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Salinized Farmland Soil from the Oil Mining Area of the Yellow River Delta].

Eighty-nine soil samples were collected from the Binzhou oil mining area of the Yellow River Delta (including 83 farmland soil samples and 6 soil samples from an oil extraction area). A total of 16 US-EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) were employed to investigate potential source apportionment of PAHs in the farmland soil. The total PAH concentrations ranged from 31.5 µg·kg-1 to 1399.4 µg·kg-1 (dry weight) with an arithmetic mean concentration of 119.4 µg·kg-1. The characteristics of PAHs showed that 4- to 6-ring PAHs were slightly dominant in this study area, and most of the PAHs were significantly correlated (P<0.01), which indicates that the sources of the PAHs had some similarities in this sampling area. Source apportionment results derived from two different models were similar, indicating that the sources of PAHs were coal combustion, biomass combustion, fossil fuel combustion, and diesel combustion. The results of the PMF were more detailed, with the following four factors being identified:gasoline combustion (24.05%), diesel combustion (6.17%), low-temperature pyrolysis processes (60.67%), and coal combustion (9.11%).

Reactivation of Syk gene by AZA suppresses metastasis but not proliferation of breast cancer cells.

Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is reported to be involved in the suppression of proliferation and invasion of breast cancer. Methylation-mediated Syk gene silencing is found in a subset of breast cancer. In this study, we used a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (AZA), to restore Syk expression of breast cancer cells. Surprisingly, we found that AZA treatment could reestablish the expression of Syk, but not affect the proliferation of breast cancer cells. Moreover, tumor formation in situ by MDA-MB-435s treated with (+) or without (-) AZA in a nude mice MFP (Mammary fat pad) model did not show significant difference, too. Interestingly, pulmonary metastasis was still significantly suppressed in MDA-MB-435s(+) group (1/9 vs. 7/9). Our findings suggested Syk may be more correlated to metastasis rather than proliferation. This study implied a potential use of Syk methylation as a valuable biomarker to detect high metastatic potential cancerous lesions and the prospect of AZA to join the arsenal of drug candidates to be developed as a new reagent for management of advanced breast cancer.

Correlation of tumor-positive ratio and number of perigastric lymph nodes with prognosis of patients with surgically-removed gastric carcinoma.

AIM: To evaluate the tumor-positive ratio and number of perigastric lymph nodes as prognostic factors of gastric carcinoma in surgically-treated patients. METHODS: The postoperative survival of 169 patients with gastric cancer who were performed D2 curative gastrectomy was analyzed with regard to its lymph node metastasis ratio and number. Meanwhile correlation of tumor-positive ratio and number of perigastric lymph nodes with pathological parameters of these patients was studied. RESULTS: The overall 5-year survival rate of all the patients studied was 29.6%. The 5-year cumulative survival rate in patients with 1%-20% and more than 20% of tumor-positive lymph nodes was 70.6% and 12.0% respectively, and 46.6% and 17.4% in those with 1-5 and more than 5 of tumor-positive lymph nodes respectively, which were significantly decreased with the increment of involved lymph nodes assessed by either numbers or ratio (P<0.05). Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that both the positive ratio and number of tumor-involved lymph nodes were sensitive prognostic factors in these surgically-treated patients, which were also significantly correlated with tumor size and depth of submucosal invasion (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Tumor-positive ratio and number of perigastric lymph nodes are associated with cancer progression and five-year survival rate, and may serve as valuable prognostic factors of gastric cancer in surgically-treated patients.