[Apprenticeship system of American NCCAOM Certification of acupuncture and oriental medicine].

The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) is the only national institution for the accreditation of clinical practice of acupuncture and Oriental (Chinese) Medicine in the United States. Its qualification certificate or examination certificate is a mandatory document for 47 states and Washington, D.C. to issue the practice license. According to the latest information of the NCCAOM official website, this paper introduced the preceptor qualifications of the apprenticeship, studying hours, quality control, and the evaluation at the end of apprenticeship. The paper also discussed the enlightening and referential effects of the American system to apprenticeship policy in China.

High plasma fibrinogen is correlated with poor response to trastuzumab treatment in HER2 positive breast cancer.

Some of HER-2 positive breast cancer patients failed to trastuzumab treatment. Recent reports have indicated the correlation between plasma coagulation parameters and clinical characteristics in breast cancer. The aim of this study was to analyze the role of coagulation parameters in trastuzumab treated patients. Coagulation parameters from trastuzumab treated breast cancer patients were retrospectively studied from 2006 to 2010. The correlation between routine coagulation levels and clinical characteristics were analyzed, including prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), fibrinogen (Fib) and D-dimer (DD). The Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression hazard model were applied to assess their effect on prognosis. Totally 102 hospitalized breast cancer patients who received trastuzumab were collected and followed-up. All patients were HER-2 positive advanced breast cancer, with a median age of 45 years old. Extended PT, APTT, and TT were found in trastuzumab treatment non-effective group, as well as increased Fib and DD. But significant increase was only found in Fib. High Fib status (Fib > 2.88 g/L) was correlated with clinical characteristics, such as pathological grade, and reversely correlated with PTEN expression. More importantly, poor disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) to trastuzumab treatment were found in high Fib breast cancer patients. This retrospective study suggests high Fib status was correlated with poor treatment response to trastuzumab. Our findings indicated that Fib > 2.88 should alert physicians to consider a pretreatment for reducing Fib levels before trastuzumab treatment in HER-2 positive breast cancer patients.

Curcumin inhibits expression of inhibitor of DNA binding 1 in PC3 cells and xenografts.

Inhibitor of DNA binding 1 (Id1) plays an important role in genesis and metastatic progression of prostate cancer. We previously reported that down regulation of Id1 by small interfering RNA could inhibit the proliferation of PC3 cells and growth of its xenografted tumors. Curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric, has shown anti-cancer properties via modulation of a number of different molecular regulators. Here we investigated whether Id1 might be involved in the anti-cancer effects of curcumin in vivo and in vitro. We firstly confirmed that curcumin inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent fashion, and induced apoptosis in PC3 cells, associated with significant decrease in the mRNA and protein expression of Id1. Similar effects of curcumin were observed in tumors of the PC3 xenografted mouse model with introperitoneal injection of curcumin once a day for one month. Tumor growth in mice was obviously suppressed by curcumin during the period of 24 to 30 days. Both mRNA and protein levels of Id1 were significantly down-regulated in xenografted tumors. Our findings point to a novel molecular pathway for curcumin anti-cancer effects. Curcumin may be used as an Id1 inhibitor to modulate Id1 expression.