Analysis of the efficacy of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in high-risk neuroblastoma.

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the efficacy of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for high-risk neuroblastoma in China. Methods: The data of 90 high-risk neuroblastoma patients treated with the CCCG-NB 2015 regimen were reviewed. The baseline clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were analyzed and compared. In addition, the prognoses of tandem autologous stem cell transplantation and single autologous stem cell transplantation groups were compared. Results: The results of survival analysis showed that autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation based on this pretreatment regimen significantly improved the prognosis of children in the high-risk group. The 3-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) rates for the transplantation group and the nontransplantation group were 65.5% vs. 41.3% (p=0.023) and 77.1% vs. 57.9% (p=0.03), respectively. There was no difference in the distribution of baseline clinical case characteristics between the single transplantation group and the tandem transplantation group (p>0.05), and there was no significant difference in EFS and OS between the two groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: Based on this pretreatment programme, autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is safe and tolerable and significantly improves the prognosis of children in the high-risk group. The value of tandem autologous stem cell transplantation is worthy of further discussion, which should consider various aspects such as the transplantation medication regimen and the patient's state.

Latex derived from Ficus carica L. inhibited the growth of NSCLC by regulating the caspase/gasdermin/AKT signaling pathway.

Previous studies reported the latex from the fruit of Ficus carica L. (fig) has anti-tumor and antioxidant activities in animal models. However, its active constituents, mechanism of action, and safety remain unknown. The alcohol-precipitated fraction of fig fruit latex (AFFL) was purified and prepared for testing against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). UPLC-TOF-MS/MS was used to examined the components of AFFL. We validated efficacy by researching antitumor phenotypes in vitro and constructing subcutaneous grafts of nude mice with NSCLC, as well as showing the underlying mechanism at the protein level. The results showed that 11 components of AFFL were screened. AFFL significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion, and clonogenesis of NSCLC cells, promoted cell apoptosis, inhibited tumor growth in A549 xenograft mice, but induced no obvious damage to normal mouse tissues (liver or kidney). Molecular mechanism studies revealed that AFFL could increase Caspase-1 expression in cancer cells by activating the cleavage of Caspase-3 and Caspase-9, inhibiting the activity of Bcl-2, and promoting tumor cell apoptosis. These processes cause gasdermin proteins (GSDMD and GSDME) to be cleaved, releasing N-terminal domain proteins to accumulate and perforate the cell membrane, and promoting tumor cell pyroptosis. In conclusion, our findings suggested that AFFL may promote tumor cell apoptosis and pyroptosis via the Caspase/Gasdermin/AKT signaling pathway and inhibit NSCLC growth in vitro and in vivo, demonstrating that fig latex can be developed as a functional food and drug with anti-NSCLC properties.