Correlation between metastatic patterns and age in patients with metastatic primary liver cancer: A population-based study.

AIM: Primary liver cancer is usually diagnosed at advanced stages with distant metastasis, underlying the high metastatic rate and mortality in patients. This study aimed to analyse the metastatic patterns and prognosis of primary liver cancer, and its relationship with age and several other factors, such as histological variants, TNM stage, and grade. METHODS: We included data from 5274 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database of the American National Cancer Institute diagnosed with primary liver cancer with metastatic disease between 2010 and 2015. The correlation between the metastatic patterns of primary liver cancer and age was evaluated. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall survival were calculated by applying univariate Cox analysis, while the correlation between the metastatic patterns and age was analysed by applying multivariate Cox analysis. We also plotted Kaplan-Meier curves to illustrate the correlation between overall survival (OS) and various factors. RESULTS: Several factors were associated with poorer prognosis, including age>60 years, histologic type of spindle cell variant, higher grade, no surgery, tumour size ≥ 1 cm, and lung metastasis. The rate of metastasis increased with age. Older patients (> 50 years) were prone to bone metastasis, while less likely to have lung metastasis compared with younger patients (< 50 years). Patients with lung metastasis had a higher risk of being diagnosed with metastasis in other locations. Furthermore, surgery significantly reduced mortality and primary site surgery in particular, mitigated the risk of bone and lung metastases. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows the correlation of prognosis and metastatic patterns with age and several other factors. The findings can hopefully provide knowledge that will allow a better diagnosis and management of elderly patients with primary liver cancer.

Programmable DNA Circuits for Flexible and Robust Exciton-Plasmon Interaction-Based Photoelectrochemical Biosensing.

DNA circuits as one of the dynamic nanostructures can be rationally designed and show amazing geometrical complexity and nanoscale accuracy, which are becoming increasingly attractive for DNA entropy-driven amplifier design. Herein, a novel and elegant exciton-plasmon interaction (EPI)-based photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor was developed with the assistance of a programmable entropy-driven DNA amplifier and superparamagnetic nanostructures. Low-abundance miRNA-let-7a as a model can efficiently initiate the operation of the entropy-driven DNA amplifier, and the released output DNAs can open the partially hybridized double-stranded DNA anchored on Fe3O4@SiO2 particles. The liberated Au nanoparticles (NPs)-cDNA can completely hybridize with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs)-cDNA-1 and result in proportionally decreased photocurrent of CdSe/ZnS QDs-cDNA-1. This unique entropy-driven amplification strategy is beneficial for reducing the reversibility of each step reaction, enables the base sequence invariant and the reaction efficiency improvement, and exhibits high thermal stability and specificity as well as flexible design. These features grant the PEC biosensor with ultrasensitivity and high selectivity. Also, instead of solid-liquid interface assembly for conventional EPI-based PEC biosensors, herein, DNA hybridization in the solution phase enables the improved hybridization efficiency and sensitivity. In addition, superparamagnetic Fe3O4@SiO2 particles further ensure the enhancement of the selectivity and reliability of the as-designed PEC biosensor. Particularly, this single-step electrode modification procedure evidently improves the electrode fabrication efficiency, reproducibility, and stability.

In Situ Generated Plasmonic Silver Nanoparticle-Sensitized Amorphous Titanium Dioxide for Ultrasensitive Photoelectrochemical Sensing of Formaldehyde.

Trace concentration of formaldehyde can damage human health and environment. Consequently, it is of great significance to develop an ultrasensitive sensor for its determination. Herein, an ingenious and efficient photoelectrochemical sensor for formaldehyde was constructed by amorphous TiO2 hollow spheres incorporated with Ag+ ions, which were brought about by silica template etching and then the exchange of Ag+/Na+ ions. The amorphous TiO2 acted the dual role of Ag+ ion probe carriers and photoelectric materials. Upon exposure to the increased concentration of formaldehyde, the Ag nanoparticles were produced in situ, and photocurrent amplification was then achieved in a proportional manner. It is attributed to the injection of hot electrons from plasmonic Ag nanoparticles into the conduction band of amorphous titanium dioxide and therefore enhanced the photocurrent. The linear relationship between 1 and 400 pmol L-1 resulted from the enhanced photocurrent and increased concentration of formaldehyde, and the detection limit was 0.4 pmol L-1. Benefiting from an in situ and unique sensitization strategy, this photoelectrochemical sensor exhibited many advantages such as sensitivity, selectivity, cost-effectiveness, convenience of fabrication, low power consumption, and stability.