LncRNA AC093850.2 predicts poor outcomes in patients with triple-negative breast cancer and motivates tumor progression by sponging miR-4299.

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence displays that non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are involved in the progression of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This study aimed to investigate the role of lncRNA AC093850.2 in TNBC. METHODS: The AC093850.2 levels were compared using RT-qPCR in TNBC tissues and corresponding normal tissues. The Kaplan-Meier curve method was conducted to assess the clinical significance of AC093850.2 in TNBC. Bioinformatic analysis was used to predict potential miRNA. Cell proliferation and invasion assays were carried out to explore the function of AC093850.2/miR-4299 in TNBC. RESULTS: lncRNA AC093850.2 expression is raised in TNBC tissues and cell lines, which is related to the shorter overall survival of patients. AC093850.2 is directly bound to miR-4299 in TNBC cells. Downregulation of AC093850.2 reduces tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion abilities, while miR-4299 silence attenuated AC093850.2 silencing induced inhibition of cellular activities in TNBC cells. CONCLUSION: In general, the findings suggest that lncRNA AC093850.2 was closely related to the prognosis and progression of TNBC by sponging miR-4299, which might be a prognosis predictor and potential target for treating TNBC patients.

Technical Note: A new method to rapidly identify benign and malignant breast lumps through bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of Bioelectrical Impedance Spectroscopy (BIS) in order to rapidly distinguish malignant vs benign breast masses. METHODS: A total of 622 breast masses from 489 patients were collected from January 2015 to June 2017. Every specimen was evaluated by a breast tissue bioimpedance analyzer (MScan1.0B) followed by morphological examination by pathologists. The results from BIS were compared with the morphological results from pathology (as a gold standard). The specificity and sensitivity of BIS were evaluated and the consistency test was performed. RESULTS: Compared with the pathology standard, BIS had good sensitivity (92.4%), specificity (96.0%), false positive rate (3.96%), and false negative rate (7.58%). The positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, positive predictive value, and negative predictive values of BIS were 23.36, 0.0789, 73.49%, 99.07%, respectively. The kappa value of BIS was 0.794 ± 0.038 in the consistency test. CONCLUSION: Compared with the pathology standard, the BIS is an effective, convenient, and economical detection method to quickly differentiate benign and malignant breast masses with high accuracy. It may serve as a potential supplement of intraoperative pathological examinations.