Short-term clinical effects of photodynamic therapy with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid for facial acne conglobata: an open, prospective, parallel-arm trial.

BACKGROUND: Acne conglobata is hardly curable and easily leads to scar formation after treatment using traditional methods. AIM: To develop a novel way to treat acne conglobata. METHODS: Seventy-five patients with facial acne conglobata were included in this clinical study and divided into either a treatment group (n = 35) to receive photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical 5% 5-aminolevulinic acid and red light once every 10 days for a month or a control group (n = 40) to receive a Chinese herbal medicine mask plus red light once per week for the same duration. Patients in both groups were given oral viaminate capsules, doxycycline, zinc gluconate, and topical metronidazole. Efficacy was evaluated with respect to symptom score, cure rate, and response rate up to 2 weeks following the final treatment, and time points for assessment included baseline (D0 ), the visit before each treatment (D10 and D20 for the treatment group, and D7 , D14 , and D21 for the control group), and 2 weeks after treatment (D34 for the treatment group and D35 for the control group). Safety was assessed by recording adverse effects. RESULTS: Treatment with PDT significantly improved acne lesions and reduced scar formation. The treatment group had a significantly lower symptom score, a higher cure rate, and response rate than the control group. No systemic side effects occurred. CONCLUSION: The treatment of acne conglobata with PDT is associated with a high cure rate, short treatment period, few side effects, and reduced scar formation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the treatment of acne conglobata with PDT.

[Retracted] P21 activated kinase 2 promotes pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.3892/ol.2019.10040.].

Erratum: P21 activated kinase 2 promotes pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3892/ol.2019.10040.].

P21 activated kinase 2 promotes pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis.

Pancreatic cancer has an overall 5-year survival rate of only 9%, due to its rapid metastasis and poor prognosis. To combat this disease, novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers are required. In this study, immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of P21 activated kinase 2 (PAK2) protein in the tissues of cancer and the paired adjacent normal tissues. The association between PAK2 and the clinicopathologic features of patients with pancreatic cancer was subsequently analyzed. The results indicated that PAK2 was overexpressed in the cancer tissues, which indicated high pTNM stage, poor tumor grade, lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion. In addition, the results demonstrated evidence of a close association between PAK2 expression and poor prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer. The results also suggested that PAK2 may promote pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and migration in vitro through clone formation, MTT, wound healing and Transwell assays. The present study further identified that PAK2 could stimulate pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis in mice. Decreased expression of proliferation marker protein Ki-67 and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in response to PAK2 knockdown further verified the role of PAK2 in promoting cell proliferation by western blot analysis. In addition, the expression levels of matrix metallopeptidase (MMP) 2 and MMP9 were decreased in PANC1 and BxPC3 cell lines transfected with PAK2-short hairpin RNA as indicated in western blot analysis, suggesting a function of PAK2 in promoting cell invasion. Collectively, these findings revealed a critical role for PAK2 in the development of pancreatic cancer and may have important implications for the management of this disease.