Surface-Based Falff: A Potential Novel Biomarker for Prediction of Radiation Encephalopathy in Patients With Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Radiation encephalopathy (RE) is an important potential complication in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who undergo radiotherapy (RT) that can affect the quality of life. However, a functional imaging biomarker of pre-symptomatic RE has not yet been established. This study aimed to assess radiation-induced gray matter functional alterations and explore fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) as an imaging biomarker for predicting or diagnosing RE in patients with NPC. A total of 60 patients with NPC were examined, 21 in the pre-RT cohort and 39 in the post-RT cohort. Patients in the post-RT cohort were further divided into two subgroups according to the occurrence of RE in follow-up: post-RT non-RE (n = 21) and post-RT REproved infollow-up (n = 18). Surface-based and volume-based fALFF were used to detect radiation-induced functional alterations. Functional derived features were then adopted to construct a predictive model for the diagnosis of RE. We observed that surface-based fALFF could sensitively detect radiation-induced functional alterations in the intratemporal brain regions (such as the hippocampus and superior temporal gyrus), as well as the extratemporal regions (such as the insula and prefrontal lobe); however, no significant intergroup differences were observed using volume-based fALFF. No significant correlation between fALFF and radiation dose to the ipsilateral temporal lobe was observed. Support vector machine (SVM) analysis revealed that surface-based fALFF in the bilateral superior temporal gyri and left insula exhibited impressive performance (accuracy = 80.49%) in identifying patients likely to develop RE. We conclude that surface-based fALFF may serve as a sensitive imaging biomarker in the prediction of RE.

Cytokine-induced killer cells co-cultured with dendritic cells loaded with the protein lysate produced by radiofrequency ablation induce a specific antitumor response.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) causes coagulative necrosis of tumor tissue and the production of local tumor protein debris. These fragments of tumor protein debris contain a large number of various antigens, which can stimulate a specific cellular immune response. In the present study, dendritic cells (DCs) were loaded with tumor protein lysate antigens that were produced in situ by RFA, and were used to treat murine colon carcinoma in combination with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells. Subsequent to the treatment of murine colon carcinoma by RFA, the in situ supernatant of tumor lysis was collected and the DCs were loaded with the lysate antigen to generate Ag-DCs. CIK cells induced from the spleen cells of mice were co-cultured with Ag-DCs to generate Ag-DC-CIK cells. The results revealed that the Ag-DC-CIK cells exhibited strong antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo. The morphology and immunophenotypes of these cells were determined using microscopy and flow cytometry, respectively. The cytotoxic activity of Ag-DC-CIK cells was determined using a CCK-8 assay. To establish a mouse model, mice were randomized into Ag-DC-CIK, DC-CIK, CIK and PBS control groups and monitored for tumor growth and survival time. ANOVA was used to compare the trends in the three groups for implanted tumor volumes. The log-rank test was used to compare the survival time. The present findings indicated that DCs loaded with the protein lysate antigens of tumors, produced in situ by RFA, combined with CIK cells may be a novel strategy for cancer treatment.

[Expression and clinical significance of costimulatory molecule B7-H3 mRNA and B7-H3 protein in gastric carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the expression of B7-H3 mRNA and B7-H3 protein in gastric carcinoma and their clinical significance. METHODS: The expression of B7-H3 mRNA and B7-H3 protein in gastric carcinoma and the nearby normal tissue of 38 patients was detected by real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemical assay respectively. RESULTS: B7-H3 mRNA was expressed both in gastric carcinoma and nearby normal tissue, but the expression level in gastric carcinoma was much lower than that in nearby normal tissue. There were no significant differences of B7-H3 mRNA expression among gender, age, histological type, tumor size, lymph node metastasis and invasive depth (all P >0.05). The positive rate of B7-H3 protein expressed in gastric carcinoma was 39.5%. There were no significant differences of B7-H3 protein expression among gender, age, histological type, tumor size, lymph node metastasis and invasive depth (all P >0.05), but there were significant differences among groups of clinical stage (P=0.022) and pathological grade (P=0.039). Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that disease-free survival or overall survival of the patients with positive B7-H3 expression were significantly longer than those with negative B7-H3 expression (P=0.009 and P=0.010 respectively). CONCLUSION: Detection of B7-H3 expression in gastric carcinoma will be beneficial to the judgment of the prognosis of gastric carcinoma and the choice of individualized treatment.

[Clinical observation on treatment of advanced gastric cancer by combined use of Shenqi Fuzheng injection, docetaxel, flurouracil and calcium folinate].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of Shenqi Fuzheng injection (SQFZI) combined with docetaxcl, flurouracil and calcium folinate in treating advanced gastric carcinoma, and to evaluate the action of SQFZI for enhancing therapeutic effect and alleviating adverse reaction of chemotherapy. METHODS: Sixty advanced gastric cancer patients were assigned to two groups randomly, the control group treated with chemotherapy alone and the treated group treated with SQFZI combined chemotherapy. Chemotherapy regimens (TFC) was given to all patients consisting of docetaxel 75 mg/m2 intravenous dripping on the 1st day, flurouracil (5-FU) 350 mg/m2 and calcium folinate (CF) 120 mg/m2 intravenous dripping with micro-pump continuously from day 1 to 5, for 21-28 days as a cycle. To patients in the treated group, starting from 3 days before chemotherapy, SQFZI 250 mL was dripped every day for 14 successive days. The clinic effects were evaluated after two-cycle treatment. RESULTS: The short-term effective rate was 40.0% in the treated group and 33.3% in the control group. As compared with those in the control group, patients in the treated group after treatment had a higher Karnofsky score (chi2 = 7.21, P < 0.05) and body weight (chi2 = 11.47, P < 0.05), lesser adverse reactions in decreasing of peripheral blood leucocyte, damage of peripheral nerve, adverse reaction of gastrointestinal tract, as well as better immune function. CONCLUSION: SQFZI could effectively improve the clinical symptoms induced by chemotherapy regimen TFC, alleviate the adverse reaction, raise patients' quality of life and their immune function.