Development and validation of a risk prediction model for breast cancer-related lymphedema in postoperative patients with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) is a common post-operative complication in patients with breast cancer. Here, we sought to develop and validate a predictive model of BCRL in Chinese patients with breast cancer. METHODS: Clinical and demographic data on patients with breast cancer were collected between 2016 and 2021 at a Cancer Hospital in China. A nomogram for predicting the risk of lymphedema in postoperative patients with breast cancer was constructed and verified using R 3.5.2 software. Model performance was evaluated using area under the ROC curve (AUC) and goodness-of-fit statistics, and the model was internally validated. RESULTS: A total of 1732 postoperative patients with breast cancer, comprising 1212 and 520 patients in the development and validation groups, respectively, were included. Of these 438 (25.39%) developed lymphedema. Significant predictors identified in the predictive model were time since breast cancer surgery, level of lymph node dissection, number of lymph nodes dissected, radiotherapy, and postoperative body mass index. At the 31.9% optimal cut-off the model had AUC values of 0.728 and 0.710 in the development and validation groups, respectively. Calibration plots showed a good match between predicted and observed rates. In decision curve analysis, the net benefit of the model was better between threshold probabilities of 10%-80%. CONCLUSION: The model has good discrimination and accuracy for lymphedema risk assessment, which can provide a reference for individualized clinical prediction of the risk of BCRL. Multicenter prospective trials are required to verify the predictive value of the model.

A blood-based 22-gene expression signature for hepatocellular carcinoma identification.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and lethal malignancies. Early detection of HCC could largely reduce mortalities. Ultrasonography (US) and serum Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP) test are the screening methods that are most frequently applied to high-risk populations. Due to the poor performance of AFP testing, and the highly operator-dependent nature of US, a biomarker for HCC early diagnosis is highly sought after. We developed a method for HCC screening using a 22-gene expression signature. METHODS: Peripheral whole blood of 98 patients were processed through microarrays for the first round of feature selection via two strategies, Minimal Redundancy Maximal Relevance and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator combined with Support Vector Machine (SVM). Candidate genes were combined for further validation through qPCR in an enlarged population with 316 samples with 104 chronic hepatitis, 112 liver cirrhosis (LC), and 100 HCC. RESULTS: A 22-gene signature was established in classifying HCC and non-cancer samples with good performance. The area under curve reached 0.94 in all of the samples and 0.93 in the AFP -negative samples. CONCLUSIONS: We have established a blood mRNA signature with high performance for HCC screening. Our results show transcriptome of peripheral blood could be valuable source for biomarkers.

Ulcerative colitis complicated with colonic necrosis, septic shock and venous thromboembolism: A case report.

BACKGROUND: Severe total colonic necrosis, septic shock and venous thromboembolism secondary to ulcerative colitis (UC) are rare and life-threatening. No such severe complications have been reported in the literature. CASE SUMMARY: We report a 36-year-old woman who developed total colonic necrosis and septic shock secondary to UC. The patient was treated with emergency surgery because computed tomography showed suspicious perforations. Persistent massive ascites occurred after operation and computed tomography angiography demonstrated portal vein, mesenteric vein and splenic vein thrombosis. The patient was discharged from hospital after active treatment. CONCLUSION: Clinicians should pay attention to venous thrombosis, colonic necrosis and septic shock in UC patients. Close observation of surgical indications and timely surgical intervention are the key to reduce mortality and complications in UC.

Serum M2BPGi level is a novel predictive biomarker for the responses to pegylated interferon-α treatment in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients.

Serum Mac-2-binding protein glycosylation isomer (M2BPGi) level was found to be a useful prognostic marker for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients treated with nucleoside/nucleotide analogs (NUCs) therapy, and the aim of our study is to evaluate the clinical implementation of M2BPGi level in the prediction of antiviral responses to pegylated-interferon-α (PEG-IFN-α) treatment in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. Ninety-six CHB patients who received PEG-IFN-α treatment for at least 48 weeks were recruited. The serum M2BPGi, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), HBeAg, and HBV DNA levels at baseline, weeks 4, 12, and 24 after PEG-IFN-α treatment were determined and their associations with antiviral responses were evaluated and the virological response (VR) rate and serological response (SR) rate after 48 weeks of treatment were 65.6% and 35.4%, respectively. Baseline serum M2BPGi level was significantly different between VR and non-VR (P = 0.002) or SR and non-SR groups (P = 0.012). Multivariate analyses suggested that baseline serum M2BPGi level was independently associated with VR and SR of PEG-IFN-α treatment at week 48. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of baseline M2BPGi was 0.682 in predicting VR, which was superior to HBsAg (AUC = 0.566) or HBV DNA (AUC = 0.567). The AUC of baseline M2BPGi in predicting SR was 0.655, which was also higher than that of HBsAg (AUC = 0.548) or HBV DNA (AUC = 0.583). These results suggested that baseline serum M2BPGi level was a novel predictor of VR and SR for PEG-IFN-α treatment in HBeAg-positive CHB patients.

Serum WFA+ -M2BP levels for evaluation of early stages of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Accurate evaluation of liver fibrosis is crucial for predicting progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. We assessed the utility of a novel fibrosis glycobiomarker Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2-binding protein (WFA+ -M2BP) for evaluating liver fibrosis and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection. METHODS: We enrolled 774 patients with chronic HBV infection, with or without fibrosis, diagnosed by liver biopsy/FibroScan. Patients who underwent liver biopsy (n = 297) were divided into training (n = 221) and validation (n = 76) groups. Serum WFA+ -M2BP values were measured and compared with FIB-4 index, aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio (APRI) and AST-to-alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR) using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. RESULTS: Serum WFA+ -M2BP levels increased significantly with fibrosis progression (P < 0.0001). Area under the ROC curve of WFA+ -M2BP for diagnosing significant fibrosis was higher than that of FIB-4 (P = 0.198), APRI (P = 0.017) and AAR (P < 0.001), with sensitivity and specificity in the training set of 60.5% and 79.8% and validation set of 59.5% and 82.1%, respectively. Serum WFA+ -M2BP levels were significantly correlated with FibroScan values (P < 0.0001) and improved the accuracy of FibroScan in assessing significant fibrosis. Changes in WFA+ -M2BP levels were parallel with those in FibroScan values during nucleot(s)ide analogues therapy in patients with chronic HBV infection. CONCLUSIONS: WFA+ -M2BP is an accurate serum indicator for assessing early stages of liver fibrosis and may monitor regression of fibrosis during the treatment of chronic HBV infection. WFA+ -M2BP provides a simple and reliable alternative or complementary method to liver biopsy and FibroScan.

[Outcomes and related factors of C5 nerve root palsy after cervical posterior single open-door laminoplasty].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical outcomes and related factors of C5 palsy following cervical laminectomy in treating multi-segments cervical spondylotic myelopathy. METHODS: From January 2010 to June 2014, 80 patients with spondylotic myelopathy underwent C3-C6 open-door laminoplasty(group A) and 80 patients C4-C6 open-door laminoplasty (group B). The mean age was (68.4±9.2) years (44 males and 36 females) in group A and the mean age was (66.8±8.9) years (48 males and 32 females) in group B. Japanese Orthopaedic Association(JOA) score, Visual Analogue Score, incidence of C5 palsy, time of onset, grade of muscle weakness, other accompanying cervical nerve root palsies, recovery time were used to evaluate clinical effects before operation and at last follow-up. Radiographically, changes of Cobb angle of sagittal plane from C2-C7, cervical range of motion, minimal spinal cord diameter on MRI were analyzed before operation and at last follow-up. RESULTS: All the patients were followed up from 6 to 15 months with an average of (12.4±3.2) months. No obvious differences were observed between change of VAS of cervical and upper limb, JOA, Cobb angle, cervical range of motion, minimal spinal cord diameter on MRI. C5 nerve root palsy occurred in 7 cases (8.75%) in group A, including 4 cases of upper limb pain, 3 cases of upper limb pain, and 2 cases of residual upper limb pain and sensory loss at the last follow-up. C5 nerve root palsy occurred in 5 cases (7.5%) in group B, 3 cases of upper limb pain, 2 cases of upper limb sensory loss, and all patients recovered normal radiation pain and sensory loss at the last follow-up. There was no significant difference in the incidence of C5 nerve root palsy between the two groups. C5 nerve root palsy, deltoid muscle, accompanied by neurological symptoms, recovery time were(2.3±1.0) N, 30 cases (37.5%), (11.4±1.0) weeks in group A, (2.8±0.8) N, 23 cases (28.8%), (8.2±0.8) weeks in group B, there was no significant difference on deltoid muscle decreased between the two groups, accompanied by neurological symptoms and the recovery time in group A was worse than the group B. CONCLUSIONS: Comparison of the two kinds of operation, the probability of postoperative C5 nerve root palsy was equal, but the C5 nerve root palsy in patients with C4-C6 open-door laminoplasty showed lighter symptom and faster recovery.