Meta-Analysis of Circulating Endothelial Cells and Circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells as Prognostic Factors in Lung Cancer.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the prognostic implications of pretreatment circulating endothelial cells (CECs) and circulating endothelial progenitor cells (CEPCs) for the survival of patients with lung cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Relevant literature was identified using Medline and EMBASE. Patient clinical characteristics, overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) together with CEC and CEPC positive rates before treatment were extracted. STATA 12.0 was used for our analysis and assessment of publication bias. RESULTS: A total of 13 articles (8 for CEC and 5 for CEPC, n=595 and n=244) were pooled for the global meta-analysis. The odds ratio (OR) for OS predicted by pretreatment CECs was 1.641 [0.967, 2.786], while the OR for PFS was 1.168 [0.649, 2.100]. The OR for OS predicted by pretreatment CEPCs was 12.673 [5.274, 30.450], while the OR for PFS was 4.930 [0.931, 26.096]. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to clinical staging. Odds ratio (OR) showed the high level of pretreatment CECs only correlated with the OS of patients with advanced lung cancer (stage III-IV). CONCLUSIONS: High counts of CECs seem to be associated only with worse 1-year OS in patients with lung cancer, while high level of pretreatment CEPCs correlate with both worse PFS and OS.

The upregulation of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase in liver is involved in acquired resistance to 5-fluorouracil.

BACKGROUND: Acquired resistance to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the important reasons for failure in 5-FU-based chemotherapy. The upregulation of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) in tumours was reported as an important factor for acquired 5-FU resistance. The aim of this study is to examine whether intra-hepatic DPD was involved in acquired 5-FU resistance. METHODS: HT-29 human colorectal xenograft tumours were established in nude mice. After long-term exposure to 5-FU, some of the tumour became "resistant" and the others remained "sensitive" to 5-FU. DPD expression levels in the livers and tumours of "resistant", "sensitive" or untreated mice were examined, and pharmacokinetics of 5-FU in rats' plasma were investigated. Gimeracil, a DPD inhibitor, was checked whether it could reverse the reduced bioavailability of 5-FU. RESULTS: DPD expression was upregulated obviously in tumours of "resistant" mice as reported previously. Importantly, DPD expression was also upregulated significantly in livers of "resistant" mice, compared with those of "sensitive" or untreated mice. Furthermore, the upregulation of DPD expression in livers led to accelerated metabolism of 5-FU. Gimeracil was found to reverse the reduced serum 5-FU concentration. The cultured tumour cells from 5-FU treated mice showed relative sensitivity to higher concentration of 5-FU, even the "resistant" tumour cells. CONCLUSION: Our study suggested that the upregulation of DPD in liver may be involved in acquired resistance to 5-FU, and DPD inhibitors or increasing 5-FU dosage may have potential application in overcoming 5-FU acquired resistance.

Different combination schedules of gemcitabine with endostar affect antitumor efficacy.

PURPOSE: Antiangiogenic drugs inhibit tumor growth by decreasing blood supply and causing transient "normalization" of the tumor vasculature, thereby improving the delivery of systemic chemotherapy. A higher dose of antiangiogenic drugs may lead to a more marked decrease in intratumoral blood flow but may concomitantly cause a decrease in delivery of chemotherapeutic agents. The purpose of this study was to define an optimal schedule for the combination of gemcitabine with a recombinant endostatin, endostar. METHODS: We evaluated the antitumor effects with different schedules of gemcitabine combined with or without endostar. The changes of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in tumor extracts and sera after gemcitabine treatment were examined. Endostar was also assessed for its abilities to inhibit the increase in VEGF levels. Apoptotic cells and microvessel density within tumor tissue were also examined. RESULTS: Endostar administered simultaneously with or following gemcitabine improved the inhibition of tumor growth, compared with gemcitabine alone. VEGF levels decreased immediately after gemcitabine treatment, but increased in the following several days. Endostar administered simultaneously with or following gemcitabine could inhibit the increase in VEGF levels, thereby cause a decreased vessel density and an increased apoptosis in tumor tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding suggested that endostar given simultaneously with or following gemcitabine might be optimal to enhance the antitumor effect.

Comparative proteomic analysis of irinotecan-sensitive colorectal carcinoma cell line and its chemoresistant counterpart.

In this study, we used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and MALDI-Q-TOF-MS/MS analysis to examine the global protein expression of a pair of colorectal carcinoma cell lines, SW620 and irinotecan-resistant SW620. Of the 30 spots identified as differentially expressed proteins (±over twofold, P<0.05) between the two cell lines, 26 spots (corresponding to 26 unique proteins) were positively identified by MALDI-Q-TOF-MS/MS analysis. These proteins could be grouped into main classes including metabolism (15.38%), cell SSproliferation/differentiation (11.53%), molecular chaperone (11.53%), mRNA splicing (11.53%), and so on. The proteins, which might be involved in the development of tumor drug resistance, such as α-enolase, cofilin, and thioredoxin-dependent peroxide 1, have been validated by western blot analysis and have been discussed. The proteins identified in this study may be useful in showing the mechanisms underlying irinotecan resistance.

Interleukin-15 enhances T-cell responses by stimulation with dendritic cells.

INTRODUCTION: Cytokines play important roles in regulating immune responses. Interleukin-2 (IL-2) has usually been used as an adjuvant to enhance antitumour immune responses. However, its crucial role in activation-induced cell death, inhibition of homeostatic proliferation of CD8+ memory T cells and its notable biological side effects impair its prospect of application. IL-15 has several similar functions to IL-2 and shows potential advantages over IL-2, and is being investigated to enhance antitumour dendritic cell (DC) vaccine strategies in our ongoing studies. OBJECTIVE: In this preliminary study, we evaluated the ability of IL-15, compared with IL-2, to act as an adjuvant to enhance T-cell responses activated by DCs in vitro. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Bone marrow-derived DCs (BMDCs) were pulsed with tumour antigens and used to stimulate lymphocyte responses in the presence of IL-15 or IL-2. The activated T lymphocytes were examined by flow cytometric analysis, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) enzyme-linked immunospot and cytotoxicity assays. RESULTS: IL-15 was observed to activate lymphocytes with comparable phenotype characteristics of activated/memory CD8+ lymphocytes, compared with IL-2. Both in primary and secondary stimulation with DCs, when using IL-15 as an adjuvant, activated lymphocytes showed higher proportions of IFN-γ-secreting subsets. In secondary stimulation with BMDCs in the presence of IL-15, the activated lymphocytes showed a stronger cytotoxicity to antigen-specific tumour target cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that IL-15 might be a prospective adjuvant for a DC vaccine strategy against cancers. The further observation that IL-15 acts as an adjuvant for an antitumour DC vaccine strategy is worth investigating.

Prognostic influence of metformin as first-line chemotherapy for advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes.

BACKGROUND: It has been reported that antidiabetic drugs affect the risk of cancer and the prognosis of patients with diabetes, but few studies have demonstrated the influence of different antidiabetic agents on outcomes after anticancer therapy among patients with cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the antidiabetic drugs metformin and insulin on the prognosis of patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) plus type 2 diabetes who received first-line chemotherapy. METHODS: Data on patients with NSCLC who had diabetes from 5 hospitals in China during January 2004 to March 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. Ninety-nine patients were included in the final analysis. The influence of metformin and insulin on chemotherapy response rates and survival in these patients was evaluated. RESULTS: Chemotherapy with metformin (Group A) produced superior results compared with insulin (Group B) and compared with drugs other than metformin and insulin (Group C) in terms of both progression-free survival (PFS) (8.4 months vs 4.7 months vs 6.4 months, respectively; P = .002) and overall survival (OS) (20.0 months vs 13.1 months vs 13.0 months, respectively; P = .007). Although no significant differences in the response rate (RR) were observed between these 3 groups, when groups B and C (ie, the nonmetformin group) were combined, there was a tendency for better disease control in Group A than that in nonmetformin group. No significant difference in survival was observed between chemotherapy with insulin (Group B) versus other drugs (Group C). CONCLUSIONS: The current data suggested that metformin may improve chemotherapy outcomes and survival for patients who have NSCLC with diabetes.

Interaction of green tea polyphenol epigallocatechin-3-gallate with sunitinib: potential risk of diminished sunitinib bioavailability.

Sunitinib, a novel oral multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor, has a good prospect for clinical application and is being investigated for the potential therapy of other tumors. We observed the phenomenon that drinking tea interfered with symptom control in an mRCC patient treated with sunitinib and speculated that green tea or its components might interact with sunitinib. This study was performed to investigate whether epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major constituent of green tea, interacted with sunitinib. The interaction between EGCG and sunitinib was examined in vitro and in vivo. (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) were used to analyze the interaction between these two molecules and whether a new compound was formed. Solutions of sunitinib and EGCG were intragastrically administered to rats to investigate whether the plasma concentrations of sunitinib were affected by EGCG. In this study, we noticed that a precipitate was formed when the solutions of sunitinib and EGCG were mixed under both neutral and acidic conditions. (1)H-NMR spectra indicated an interaction between EGCG and sunitinib, but no new compound was observed by MS. Sticky semisolid contents were found in the stomachs of sunitinib and EGCG co-administrated mice. The AUC(0-∞) and C (max) of plasma sunitinib were markedly reduced by co-administration of EGCG to rats. Our study firstly showed that EGCG interacted with sunitinib and reduced the bioavailability of sunitinib. This finding has significant practical implications for tea-drinking habit during sunitinib administration.