Primary thyroid smooth muscle tumour.

Not required for Clinical Vignette.

Clinical application of traditional Chinese medicine powder in the treatment of acute and chronic wounds.

This study aimed to explore the clinical application and efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) powder in the treatment of acute and chronic wounds. Eighty patients with a wound infection were randomly and equally divided into a control group and an observation group. Gauze padding containing furacilin was used to dress the infected wounds of the control group. TCM powder was used to treat the wounds of the observation group. The total response rate of the observation group was significantly higher than the control group (P = .017). The colour and exudate volume scores in the observation group were lower than the control group, and the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (P < .05). The time to the appearance of new epithelium and time to the wound healing of the burns in the observation group were shorter than the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < .05). The TCM powder absorbed a large amount of necrotic tissue and exudate from the wound surface, cleared heat and toxins, and activated blood circulation. It also resolved blood stasis, eliminated pus, and allowed for new skin growth, as well as regenerating muscle.

Correlations Between mRNA Levels of Centrosomal Protein 55 (CEP55) and Clinical Features of Patients with Lung Cancer.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic relevance of CEP55 in lung cancer (LC). MATERIAL AND METHODS LC microarray profile GSE30219 was obtained from the GEO database. The 2-sample t test was performed to clarify the difference in CEP55 expression between LC and normal lung tissue. The chi-square test and logistic regression analysis were preformed to investigate the relationship between CEP55 expression and the clinical features of LC patients. Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis were conducted to evaluate the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of LC patients. Gene set enrichment analysis was conducted to investigate the related mechanisms. RESULTS CEP55 was significantly increased in LC cells relative to normal lung tissues (P<0.0001). Univariate and multivariate correlation analyses demonstrated that CEP55 expression was associated with advanced T and N staging of LC (P<0.0001). Survival analyses indicated that CEP55 expression was an independent risk factor for DFS (HR: 1.515, 95% CI: 1.277-1.797, P<0.0001) and OS (HR: 1.436, 95% CI: 1.278-1.615). CEP55 might affect the proliferation of LC cells through Myc signaling, DNA repair, and G2M checkpoint. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicated that CEP55 was increased in LC cells and was associated with poor clinical outcomes of LC patients, and could be a prognostic biomarker for LC.

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α rs11549465 C>T and rs11549467 G>A gene polymorphisms are associated with an increased risk of digestive cancers in Asians.

OBJECTIVE: We used a meta-analysis framework to examine the correlation between HIF-1α gene polymorphisms and the susceptibility to digestive cancers. METHODS: Cochrane Library Database, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Pubmed, CINAHL, Chinese Biomedical Database and Web of Science were searched without language restrictions to identify relevant case-control studies reporting data on HIF-1α gene polymorphisms in digestive cancers. Data was extracted from the selected studies and meta-analysis was carried out using STATA 12.0 and Comprehensive Meta-analysis 2.0 softwares. Relative risk (RR) and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated. A total of 8 eligible case-control studies were included. These 8 studies contained a combined total of 1,276 patients diagnosed with various digestive cancers and 3,392 healthy controls. Two functional HIF-1α polymorphisms (rs11549465 C>T and rs11549467 G>A) were examined in these 8 studies. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrated that both rs11549465 C>T and rs11549467 G>A HIF-1α polymorphisms conferred significantly increased risk of digestive cancers. However, ethnicity-stratified analysis revealed that HIF-1α rs11549465 C>T and rs11549467 G>A polymorphisms were associated with an elevated risk of digestive cancer in Asians, but not in Caucasians. These two polymorphisms also conferred different degrees of susceptibility to various digestive cancer types. CONCLUSION: Our meta-analysis suggests that HIF-1α rs11549465 C>T and rs11549467 G>A polymorphisms influence the pathogenesis of digestive cancers in Asians.

Association between the CYP1A1 A2455G polymorphism and risk of cancer: evidence from 272 case-control studies.

A2455G is a common polymorphism in CYP1A1, showing differences in its biological functions. Case-control studies have been performed to elucidate the role of A2455G in cancer; however, the results are conflicting and heterogeneous. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate the association between cancer susceptibility and A2455G (64,593 cases and 91,056 controls from 272 studies) polymorphism in different inheritance models. We used odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals to assess the strength of the association. Overall, significantly increased cancer risk was observed in any genetic model (dominant model, odds ration [OR] = 1.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13-1.25; recessive model: OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 1.29-1.54; additive model: OR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.35-1.65) when all eligible studies were pooled into the meta-analysis. In further stratified and sensitivity analyses, the elevated risk remained for subgroups of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, hepatocellular cancer, head and neck cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, and prostate cancer, but these associations vary in different ethnic populations. In summary, this meta-analysis suggests the participation of A2455G in the susceptibility for some cancers, such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and so on. Moreover, ethnicity, histological type of cancer, and smokers seem to contribute to varying expressions of the A2455G on some cancers risk. In addition, our work also points out the importance of new studies for A2455G polymorphism in some cancer types, such as gallbladder cancer, Indians of breast cancer, and Caucasians of ovarians, because these cancer types had high heterogeneity in this meta-analysis (I(2) > 75%).

Protection of preconditioning, postconditioning and combined therapy against hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury.

OBJECTIVE: To study the protective effect of ischemic preconditioning (I-pre) and ischemic postconditioning (I-post) against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in rat's liver. METHODS: Using rat model of hepatic segmental I/R injury, rats were divided into 5 groups: Group A (sham group), Group B (I/R injury), Group C (I-pre group), Group D (I-post group) and Group E (combined treatment of I-pre and I-post). Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in hepatic tissues were determined, respectively. In addition, 7 days'survival of Groups B, C, D and E were evaluated. RESULTS: Compared with Group B, Groups C, D and E exhibited significantly decreased ALT and AST release, minimized tissue injury, suppressed values of MDA and MPO, increased activities of SOD, GSH-Px and GSH (P less than 0.05), as well as improved animal survival. The differences among Groups C, D and E were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: I-pre, I-post and combined therapy of I-pre and I-post have protective effect against hepatic I/R injury, which is correlated with its function of reducing the production of reactive oxygen species, maintaining the activities of antioxidant systems and suppressing neutrophils recruitment. No additive effect can be obtained in Group E.