The relationship of plasma fibrinogen with clinicopathological stages and tumor markers in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Numerous studies have shown that the blood of cancer patients are generally in hypercoagulable statement. The aim of the present research is to study the relationships of plasma fibrinogen (Fbg) levels with clinicopathological stages (CS) and tumor markers of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Baseline information, plasma Fbg levels, CS, and expression level of tumor markers were collected from medical records retrospectively. Unitary linear regression was used to analyze the relationships between continuous variables and Fbg, and multiple linear regression was used to analyze the relationships between categorical variables and Fbg. National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (Version 4) for NSCLC were adopted to evaluate CS.A total of 652 NSCLC patients were included. Compared with the females, male patients had higher mean plasma Fbg levels (P < .001). The later the N stages (P = .002), M stages (P = .002), and CS (P = .001) were, the higher the average plasma Fbg levels were. The levels of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (P = .001), carbohydrate antigen 125 (P = .041), and neuron-specific enolase (P < .001) were positively correlated with plasma Fbg concentration. The plasma level of Fbg in lung adenocarcinoma patients (P < .001) was the lowest, while that of lung squamous cell carcinoma patients (P < .001) was the highest in NSCLC patients.The plasma Fbg concentration is related to gender, CS, and tumor markers in patients with NSCLC.

Failure of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Neoadjuvant treatment has become standard care for patients with resectable esophageal cancer. However, some patients cannot undergo surgery or curative resection because of disease progression during neoadjuvant treatment. The aim of this study is to identify the pretreatment characteristics of patients in whom neoadjuvant treatment failed. The study enrolled 231 patients who underwent chemotherapy with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (CF) as neoadjuvant therapy for T1N1-3 or T2-3 any-N esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Of these patients, 201 (87.0%) underwent curative resection (R0) and 30 (13.0%) could not undergo curative resection; 19 patients (8.2%) underwent incomplete resection (R1 or R2), and 11 patients (4.8%) could not undergo surgery because of disease progression. We compared clinical characteristics and survival between patients who underwent curative resection (curative group) and those who could not undergo curative resection (noncurative group) to determine the factors predicting noncurative treatment. The noncurative group had significantly worse disease-specific survival than the curative group (P < 0.001). All patients in the noncurative group had cT3 tumors. In 141 patients with cT3 tumors, those in the noncurative group were more likely to have higher serum SCC antigen concentration (P = 0.021), location of the main tumor in the upper to the middle third of the esophagus (P = 0.071), intramural metastases (P < 0.001), advanced N category (P = 0.016), and bulky lymph node metastases (P = 0.060). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified location of the main tumor in the upper to the middle third of the esophagus (P = 0.047), intramural metastases (P = 0.002), and nodal metastases (N1, P = 0.014; N2, P = 0.015, respectively) as independent predictors of treatment failure in patients with cT3 tumors. Neoadjuvant CF therapy alone may not be effective for patients with cT3 tumors accompanied by these risk factors, and the efficacy of alternative strategies, such as triplet chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, should be evaluated.

Prophylactic vitamin D supplementation in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome: an animal study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of vitamin D in ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). METHODS: In this animal study, 28 immature female Wistar rats were divided into four groups: group 1 (control); group 2 (ovarian stimulation); group 3 (OHSS group); group 4 (OHSS + vitamin D group). All groups were killed 48 h after hCG administration and were compared in terms of vascular permeability, ovarian weight, ovarian diameter, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression (immunohistochemistry) in ovarian tissue and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) level in the serum (ELISA test) with the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. RESULTS: VEGF expression in the vitamin D group was similar to that in the OHSS group. However, the PEDF level was significantly higher in the vitamin D group (p = 0.013). CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic vitamin D supplementation is not sufficiently effective in preventing OHSS. Vitamin D effectively increases PEDF, which has an opposing effect on VEGF, which plays a key role in OHSS. Thus, the protective effect of Vitamin D on OHSS should be investigated with a vitamin D deficient model in the study group.

Oral coenzyme Q10 supplementation in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: effects on serum vaspin, chemerin, pentraxin 3, insulin resistance and oxidative stress.

BACKGROUNDS AND AIMS: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver injury. Chronic exposure to oxidative stress leads to depletion of liver antioxidants and abnormal cytokine production; antioxidant therapy is one of the main therapeutic lines in NAFLD. In the current study we aimed to investigate the effect of coenzyme Q10 (coQ10) therapy on several adipocytokines and insulin resistance in patients with NAFLD. METHODS: In the current randomized double-blind placebo controlled trial 44 NAFLD patients were enrolled. After randomization into two groups, 22 patients received 100 mg/day coQ10 capsules and 22 patients received placebo daily for 4 weeks. BMI and WHR were calculated for patients at the beginning and end of the study and blood samples were obtained from the patients to measure serum concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), fasting serum glucose (FSG), insulin resistance (IR), vaspin, chemerin, pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and markers of oxidative stress including total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and malondialdehyde (MDA). RESULTS: After 4 weeks of coQ10 supplementation, waist circumference (WC) and serum AST and TAC concentrations significantly decreased in intervention group (p <0.05) but no significant changes occurred in placebo-treated group. In stepwise multivariate linear regression model, change in serum FSG was a significant predictor of changes in serum vaspin, chemerin and pentraxin 3 (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed a potential for coQ10 therapy in improving several anthropometric and biochemical variables in NAFLD. Longer studies with higher doses of coQ10 are required to further evaluate this potential benefit.

Serum vaspin concentrations are decreased after exercise-induced oxidative stress.

Elevated visceral adipose tissue-derived serpin (vaspin) serum concentrations are associated with impaired insulin sensitivity, but increase unexpectedly after long-term physical training. We therefore investigated the effect of an acute exercise bout and the effects of vitamin supplementation on chronic exercise effect and on serum vaspin concentrations. We measured serum vaspin and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) concentrations in 80 individuals before and after a 1-hour acute exercise bout and independently in 40 healthy young men who were randomly assigned to either antioxidant (vitamin C (1,000 mg/day) and vitamin E (400 IU/day)) or to no supplementation after a standardized 4-week physical training program as a post hoc analysis. Serum vaspin concentrations significantly decreased after acute physical exercise as well as after 4 weeks of training in individuals without antioxidants. Changes in vaspin serum concentration correlate with increased TBARS serum concentrations both in response to a 1-hour exercise bout (r = -0.42, p < 0.01) and to the 4-week training (r = -0.31, p < 0.05). Interestingly, supplementation with antioxidants rather increased circulating vaspin levels in response to 4 weeks of exercise. In conclusion, vaspin serum concentrations are decreased by exercise-induced oxidative stress, but not by exercise-associated improvement in insulin sensitivity.

Relationship between squamous cell carcinoma antigen and the clinical severity of allergic rhinitis caused by Dermatophagoides farinae and Japanese cedar pollen.

OBJECTIVES: Allergic rhinitis is known to be related to the Th2-type immune response, but no sensitive biomarker of severity yet exists. Serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) is clinically used as a popular tumor biomarker. We have demonstrated that SCCA is related to allergic diseases such as asthma. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the relationship between allergic rhinitis and SCCA, which had not yet been investigated. METHODS: We compared the serum SCCA levels in patients with allergic rhinitis due to Japanese cedar pollen and Dermatophagoides farinae with those in normal subjects. Thereafter, the correlations between the clinical severity of allergic rhinitis and the serum levels of SCCA were investigated. Furthermore, the influence of 8 variables (serum levels of SCCA, immunoglobulin E, eosinophil cationic protein, and eosinophils; age; gender; oral administration of antiallergic or antihistaminic agents; and use of nasal drops) in regard to the severity of allergic rhinitis was studied by a multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: The SCCA levels of the D farinae group were statistically higher than those of the control group, and they correlated with the severity of rhinitis. Among the 8 variables, only the SCCA level was found to be a predictive factor of severity on a multiple regression analysis. No relationship between SCCA level and Japanese cedar pollen allergy was demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the serum SCCA level may be a useful biomarker to evaluate the severity of allergic rhinitis caused by D farinae.