A clinician's perspective on boron neutron capture therapy: promising advances, ongoing trials, and future outlook.

PURPOSE: This comprehensive review aims to provide a unique clinical perspective on the latest advances and ongoing boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) trials for various cancers. METHODS: We critically analyzed clinical data from BNCT trials for head and neck cancer, glioblastoma, melanoma, meningioma, breast cancer, and liver tumors. We investigated differences in tumor responses and normal tissue toxicities among trials and discussed potential contributing factors. We also identified the limitations of early BNCT trials and proposed strategies to optimize future trial design. RESULTS: BNCT has shown promising results in treating head and neck cancer, with high response rates and improved survival in patients with recurrent disease. In glioblastoma, BNCT combined with surgery and chemotherapy has demonstrated survival benefits compared to standard treatments. BNCT has also been successfully used for recurrent high-grade meningiomas and shows potential for melanomas, extramammary Paget's disease, and liver tumors. However, differences in tumor responses and toxicities were observed among trials, potentially attributable to variations in treatment protocols, patient characteristics, and evaluation methods. CONCLUSIONS: BNCT is a promising targeted radiotherapy for various cancers. Further optimization and well-designed randomized controlled trials are needed to establish its efficacy and safety. Future studies should focus on standardizing treatment protocols and addressing limitations to guide clinical decision-making and research priorities.

Brain metastasis from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a clinical review of 30 cases.

This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the treatment strategies and possible prognostic factors in patients with brain metastases (BMs) from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We retrospectively reviewed 30 patients with BMs from ESCC who were treated at our center between November 2011 and January 2022. Clinicopathological characteristics and clinical outcomes were analyzed. The median follow-up time was 2 (range, 0.5-33) months. The median survival time after diagnosis of BMs was 2 months. The 1-year overall survival (OS) rate was 13.6%. The OS was better in patients with intracranial benefit. Multivariate analysis showed that local treatment of BMs influenced OS. The median survival with or without local treatment of BMs was 4 and 1 month, respectively. The median time interval between the diagnosis of the primary tumor and BMs was 11 (range, 1-156) months. Among these BMs, 55.6% of the BM occurred within the first year after diagnosis of the primary tumor, 66.7% in the first 2 years, and 85.2% in the first 3 years. The median time interval from lung metastasis to BMs was 3 months, from liver metastasis to BMs 3.5 months, and from bone metastasis to BMs 0.5 months. Local treatment of BMs was an independent prognostic factor for patients with BMs from ESCC. Earlier detection followed by an aggressive local therapeutic approach for BMs had a great influence on treatment outcomes as well as the long-term prognosis and quality of life for appropriately selected patients.

Efficacy and Safety of Apatinib Treatment for Patients with Advanced Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma.

PURPOSE: Effective treatment options for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) are limited. This study was intended to explore the efficacy and safety of apatinib in advanced ICC with lymph node metastasis or distant metastasis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The efficacy and toxicity of apatinib were evaluated in patients with ICC between November 2017 and March 2020 at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Survival analysis was estimated using Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Ten patients with advanced ICC were enrolled. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 3.0 months (95% CI: 1.450-4.550). No patient achieved a complete response (CR). One patient gained partial response (PR), and 6 patients had stable disease (SD). The objective response rate (ORR) was 10%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 70%. The common treatment-related adverse events were hypertension (20%), proteinuria (30%), hand and foot syndrome (10%) or emesis (10%). No grade 3/4 toxicities occurred. Toxicities were mild and tolerable. CONCLUSION: Apatinib is potentially an effective treatment option with tolerable toxicities for patients with advanced ICC.

MicroRNA-215-3p Suppresses the Growth, Migration, and Invasion of Colorectal Cancer by Targeting FOXM1.

Previous investigations have indicated that microRNA-215-3p is dysregulated in many kinds of cancers and functions as oncogene or tumor suppressor. However, the potential role of microRNA-215-3p in the progression of colorectal cancer remains not well known. Herein, we demonstrated that microRNA-215-3p was downregulated in human colorectal cancer tissues and was reversely correlated to the lymph node metastasis of colorectal cancer. Overexpression of microRNA-215-3p inhibited the clonogenic abilities and metastasis-relevant traits of colorectal cancer cell in vitro. Consistently, upregulation of microRNA-215-3p inhibited the growth and metastasis of colorectal cancer cell in vivo. Forkhead box protein M1 was identified as a direct target of microRNA-215-3p and reexpression of forkhead box protein M1 reversed the suppressive impacts of microRNA-215-3p on the growth, mobility, and invasion abilities of colorectal cancer cell. Altogether, these results revealed the vital role of microRNA-215-3p in the tumorigenesis and metastasis of colorectal cancer.

Evaluation of efficacy and safety of apatinib treatment in advanced gastric cancer.

AIM: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of apatinib treatment and its impact on the quality of life (QOL) of patients with advanced gastric cancer (GC) who experienced failure with at least two chemotherapeutic regimens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients received apatinib at a daily dose of 500 mg for 4 weeks per cycle until it was stopped due to disease progression, intolerable toxicity. Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 and Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse events 4.0 were used to assess tumor responses and toxicities, respectively. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and QLQ-STO22 were used to assess the impact on patient's QOL. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients were enrolled, but only 24 were evaluated for therapeutic effects. After apatinib treatment, none of the patients achieved complete response (CR), one achieved partial response (PR), and eight had stable disease (SD), resulting in a disease control rate of 37.5% (CR + PR + SD). Responses to questions regarding abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, insomnia, constipation, and diarrhea in QLQ-C30 and abdominal pain and reflux in QLQ-STO22 were changed over the course of treatment (P < 0.05). The QOL score was elevated after three treatment cycles, but it was not considered statistically significant (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Results indicated that apatinib was effective in heavily pretreated patients with advanced GC who experienced failure with two or more line chemotherapies. The toxicities were tolerable or could be clinically controlled. Apatinib treatment alleviated some of the clinical symptoms but did not improve QOL significantly.

[Seasonal Variation and Source Analysis of the Water-soluble Inorganic Ions in Fine Particulate Matter in Suzhou].

A total of 87 daily PM2.5 samples were collected in the urban area of Suzhou city during 2015, representing spring, summer, autumn, winter, respectively. Mass concentration of PM2.5 was analyzed gravimetrically. Water-soluble inorganic ions, including F-, Cl-, NO3-, SO42-, Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+and Ca2+, were determined by ion chromatography. The average mass concentration of PM2.5 was (74.26±38.01) µg·m-3. The seasonal variations of PM2.5 concentrations decreased in the order of winter > spring > autumn > summer. The average total mass concentrations of 9 ions was (43.95±23.60) µg·m-3, and the order of concentration of ions was NO3- > SO42- > NH4+ > Na+ > Cl- > K+ > Ca2+ > F- > Mg2+. Seasonal variation of ion concentrations was significant, with the highest concentration observed in winter and the lowest in summer. The secondary inorganic species, including SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ (SNA) were the major components of the water-soluble ions in PM2.5. SNA's correlations with each other were significant. SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ were probably in the form of NH4NO3 and (NH4)2SO4. The [NO3-]/[SO42-] ratio approaching to 1 implied that mobile sources were as important as stationary sources. Ion balance calculations indicated strong correlations between anion and cation equivalents. The PM2.5 was acidic. Industrial emission, combustion process, secondary formation and fugitive dust were the major sources of the water-soluble ions in PM2.5..

Promoter methylation of DAPK gene may contribute to the pathogenesis of nonsmall cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

We performed a meta-analysis of cohort studies to determine whether promoter methylation of the death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) gene contributes to the pathogenesis of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A range of electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE (1966 ∼ 2013), the Cochrane Library Database (Issue 12, 2013), EMBASE (1980 ∼ 2013), CINAHL (1982 ∼ 2013), Web of Science (1945 ∼ 2013), and the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM; 1982 ∼ 2013) without any language restrictions. Meta-analysis was conducted using the STATA 12.0 software. Crude odds ratio (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) was calculated. Our meta-analysis integrated results from 12 clinical cohort studies that met all inclusion criteria with a total of 1,027 NSCLC patients. We observed that the frequency of DAPK gene methylation in cancer tissues were significantly higher than that in the adjacent normal and benign tissues (cancer tissues vs. benign tissues: OR=8.50, 95 % CI=5.88 ∼ 12.28, P<0.001; cancer tissues vs. adjacent tissues: OR=5.95, 95 % CI=4.11 ∼ 8.60, P<0.001; cancer tissues vs. normal tissues: OR=4.75, 95 % CI=3.28 ∼ 6.87, P<0.001; respectively). Subgroup analysis by ethnicity demonstrated that DAPK gene methylation was closely associated with the development and progression of NSCLC among both Asians and Caucasians (all P<0.05). Furthermore, we conducted a subgroup analysis based on sample source and discovered that DAPK gene methylation was implicated in the pathogenesis of NSCLC in both blood and tissue subgroups (all P<0.05). Our results suggest that DAPK promoter methylation may be involved in NSCLC carcinogenesis. Thus, the detection of aberrant DAPK methylation may be helpful in the diagnosis and prognosis of NSCLC.

Detection of methylation of the RAR-ß gene in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The aim of this study was to detect methylation of the RAR-ß gene in tissues from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The methylation of the RAR-ß gene in DNA from 80 cases with NSCLC and corresponding non-malignant tissues was tested using methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR; MSP). The results showed that the total frequency of RAR-ß methylation was significantly higher in lung cancer tissues compared to the corresponding non-malignant tissues (57.5 vs. 17.5%) (P<0.01). However, no significant difference was found in various clinical stages and types of lung cancer (P>0.05). A significant difference was observed in the various pathological types (P<0.05). RAR-ß gene methylation is closely correlated with the development process of NSCLC, particularly squamous cell carcinoma.

A comparative study: diffusion weighted whole body imaging with background body signal suppression and hybrid Positron Emission Computed Tomography on detecting lesions in oncologic clinics.

OBJECTIVE: To compare diffusion weighted whole body imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) with hybrid Positron Emission Computed Tomography (HPET/CT) on clinical value in oncology. METHODS: 43 patients with oncological diseases were enrolled in our hospital from October, 2008 to April, 2010. All the cases underwent DWIBS and HPET/CT within 14 days. Combined with other imagings, lesions detected by both modalities were evaluated. Lesions were confirmed by pathology, cytology or clinical diagnosis (needed no less than 6 months and three times follow-up). RESULTS: The overall detection rate of the DWIBS and HPET/CT were 90.3% (261/289), 86.6% (251/289), concordant ratio of the two modalities was 88.2% (255/289). There was no statistical difference between DWIBS and HPET/CT on detecting lesions (P>0.05). HPET/CT was significantly more sensitive in detecting lesions in lung (P<0.05), whereas DWIBS was more sensitive in identifying lesions in brain and bone (P<0.05). With regard to finding lesions in liver and lymph node, the two procedures had no significant difference (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: DWIBS and HPET/CT have a certain degree of consistency in terms of identifying lesions. However, they have advantages and disadvantages in some organs or tissues, which should be taken into full consideration in clinical practice.