Prognostic significance of pretreatment systemic immune-inflammation index in patients with prostate cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The SII (systemic immune-inflammation index) has been extensively reported to have a prognostic value in prostate cancer (PCa), despite the unconformable results. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to quantify the effect of pretreatment SII on survival outcomes in patients with PCa. METHODS: The following databases were searched: Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). For exploration of the SII's correlations with the overall survival (OS) and the progression-free survival/biochemical recurrence-free survival (PFS/bRFS) in PCa, the pooled hazard ratios (HRs) were assessed within 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: The present meta-analysis covered 10 studies with 8133 patients. Among the PCa population, a high SII was linked significantly to poor OS (HR = 2.63, 95% CI = 1.87-3.70, p < 0.001), and worse PFS/bRFS (HR = 2.49, 95% CI = 1.30-4.77, p = 0.006). However, a high SII was not linked significantly to T stage (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 0.86-3.33, p = 0.128), the metastasis to lymph node (OR = 1.69, 95% CI = 0.69-4.16, p = 0.251), age (OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 0.88-2.23, p = 0.150), or the Gleason score (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 0.88-1.96, p = 0.178). CONCLUSIONS: For the PCa sufferers, the SII might be a promising prognostic biomarker, which is applicable to the high-risk subgroup identification, and provide personalized therapeutic strategies.

Prognostic role of the systemic immune-inflammation index in biliary tract cancers: a meta-analysis of 3,515 patients.

BACKGROUND: The systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) is an inflammatory parameter calculated as platelet count × neutrophil count/lymphocyte count in the peripheral blood. In recent years, the prognostic role of the SII in patients with biliary tract cancer (BTC) has been gradually investigated. However, the results were controversial. This meta-analysis aimed to illustrate the prognostic value of the SII in BTC. METHODS: The electronic databases of PubMed, the Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were thoroughly retrieved up to April 15, 2022. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to evaluate the prognostic value of the SII for clinical outcomes. The association between the SII and overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS)/progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated. RESULTS: Thirteen studies involving 3515 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that an elevated SII was significantly associated with poor OS (HR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.47-2.14; p<0.001) and RFS/PFS (HR, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.38-1.99; p<0.001) in patients with BTC. Subgroup analysis stratified by country, sample size, and cutoff value showed similar results. The sensitivity analysis and publication bias test confirmed the reliability of our results. CONCLUSIONS: An elevated pretreatment SII was significantly associated with worse OS and RFS/PFS in patients with BTC. Our results suggest that the SII is a valuable and cost-effective prognostic parameter for the treatment of patients with BTC.

[Changes of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood and their correlation with insulin resistance in different stages of prostate cancer].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the changes of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and their association with insulin resistance in different stages of prostate cancer (PCa). METHODS: Using flow cytometry, we counted the CD4+ CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells in the PBMCs of 62 PCa patients (5 cases of TNM stage I, 16 cases of stage II, 21 cases of stage III, and 20 cases of stage IV) and 42 normal healthy controls, and calculated their proportion in the CD4+ T-lymphocytes. We determined the levels of fast blood glucose (FBG) and fast insulin (FINS) for the insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), obtained the serum IGF-1 level by ELISA, and analyzed the relationship of the count and proportion of CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells with insulin resistance by comparison between the PCa patients and normal healthy controls. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, the PCa patients showed significantly increased HOMA-IR (3.68 ± 1.42 vs 6.68 ± 1.66), decreased level of serum IGF-1 ([164.56 ± 30.58] vs [96.39 ± 21.21] ng/ml), and elevated count ([1.99 ± 0.78 ] x 10(7) vs [3.55 ± 0.29] x 10(7)) and proportion ([5.33 ± 0.65] vs [13.88 ± 0.96]%) of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 regulatory T cells in the PBMCs. The TNM stage was correlated positively with the count and percentage of CD4 + CD25+ Foxp3 + regulatory T cells and HOMA-IR, but negatively with the level of serum IGF-1. Meanwhile, the count and percentage of CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells were found to have a positive correlation with HOMA-IR (r = 0.722 and 0.689, P < 0.01) but a negative correlation with the level of serum IGF-1 (r = -0.747 and -0.896, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The count and proportion of CD4+ CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells in the peripheral blood and insulin resistance increase with the elevated stage of PCa. CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells may be involved in the occurrence and progression of PCa by regulating insulin resistance.

Research on positioning control strategy of hydraulic support pushing system based on multistage speed control valve.

The precise position control of the hydraulic support pushing system in the coal mining face is a key technical support for intelligent coal mining. At present, the hydraulic support pushing system uses the electro-hydraulic directional valve as the control element. However, the electro-hydraulic directional valve has problems such as discrete input values, low switching frequency, delay, inability to adjust flow, and large flow fluctuations during the switching process, which results in relatively low positioning control accuracy of the hydraulic support pushing system. Therefore, this study introduces a multi-stage speed control valve that is suitable for underground coal mine conditions and can achieve flow regulation. At the same time, a segmented control strategy combining Bang-Bang control and online predictive control is proposed. Bang-bang control is used for fast propulsion with large flow rate, large range, and short time. Online predictive control method is used to achieve precise positioning control with small flow rate and small range, thereby solving the problem of low positioning control accuracy caused by the imperfect characteristics of electro-hydraulic directional valves. Finally, this study verified the effectiveness of the proposed scheme through simulation and experiments. The results showed that compared with existing logic positioning control methods based on electro-hydraulic directional valves, the proposed scheme can improve the accuracy of single cylinder positioning control from 62 mm to within 10 mm.

[Expression of midkine and its relationship with HBV infection in hepatocellular carcinomas].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate expression of midkine (MK) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its relationship with HBV infection. METHODS: Expression of MK mRNA, MK protein and HBV DNA were determined in 62 cases of human HCC and 10 cases of controls with in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Positive rates of MK mRNA and MK protein in carcinoma tissue were 74.2% and 75.8% respectively, which were higher than in paratumorous liver tissue and normal controls (P < 0.01). Positive rate of HBV DNA in the nuclei of carcinoma tissue (62.9%) were higher than in paratumorous liver tissue (6.5%) (P < 0.01). There was a significant relationship between expression of MK mRNA and MK protein in the carcinoma tissue and HBV DNA in the nuclei of carcinoma tissue. CONCLUSIONS: HCC overexpresses MK at the mRNA and protein level. The overexpression of the MK protein might be correlated with the existence of HBV DNA in the nuclei of carcinoma tissue.