Gastrodin inhibits prostate cancer proliferation by targeting canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway.

Prostate cancer is an epithelial malignant tumor occurring in the prostate and is the most common malignant tumor in the male genitourinary system. In recent years, the incidence of prostate cancer in China has shown a trend of sudden increase. The search for new and effective drugs to treat prostate cancer is therefore extremely important.The canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway has been shown to be involved in the regulation of tumor proliferation, migration and differentiation. Activation of the canonical Wnt/ß-Catenin signaling pathway in the prostate has oncogenic effects. Drugs targeting the canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway have great potential in the treatment of prostate cancer. In this study, we found that Gastrodin could significantly inhibit the proliferation of prostate cancer cell line PC3 and DU145. Oral administration Gastrodin could significantly inhibit the tumor growth of PC3 cells subcutaneously injected. Gastrodin has an inhibitory effect on canonical Wnt/ß-Catenin signaling pathway in Prostate cancer, and this inhibitory effect can be abolished by Wnt/ß-Catenin agonist LiCl. These findings raise the possibility that Gastrodin can be used in the treatment of Prostate cancer by targeting canonical Wnt/ß-Catenin signaling pathway.

Detection of metastatic cancer cells in mesentery of colorectal cancer patients.

AIM: To detect the existence of isolated cancer cells in the mesentery of colorectum (named as Metastasis V), and investigate its clinical significance in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. METHODS: Sixty-three CRC patients who received radical excision between January 2012 and September 2015 were included. All the patients underwent laparoscopy-assisted radical colorectomy or proctectomy [with complete mesocolic excision (CME) or total mesorectal excision (TME)] with R0 dissections at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The location and size of the primary lesions were recorded immediately after the tumor was removed, with the surrounding mesenterium completely separated along the intestinal wall. Each dissected mesentery sample was analyzed for hematoxylin-eosin staining and immunohistochemistry using cytokeratin 19 antibody. Image Pro Plus Software 6.0 (Media Cybernetics, CA, United States) was used to semi-quantitatively measure the concentration of the cytokeratin 19 immunohistochemistry. The correlation between metastasis found in mesentery and clinicopathological characteristics was examined. The prognosis of patients was also evaluated by preoperative serum CEA level. RESULTS: Metastasis V was detected in 14 of 63 (22.2%) CRC patients who underwent laparoscopy-assisted radical colorectomy or proctectomy (with CME or TME) with R0 dissection in our hospital between January 2012 and September 2015. There was no significant difference in age, gender, tumor size, and tumor location in patients with Metastasis V (P > 0.05). Metastasis V was more likely to occur in poorly differentiated tumor (5/11; 45.5%) than moderately (8/46; 17.4%) and well- differentiated one (1/6; 16.7%). The Metastasis V in N2 stage (9/14; 64.3%) was more frequent that in the N0 stage (3/35; 8.6%) or N1 stages (2/14; 14.3%). In addition, Metastasis V was positively related to the tumor invasive depth (T1:0/1, 0%; T2:1/12, 8.3%; T3:7/39, 17.9%; T4:6/11, 54.5%). Furthermore, preoperative serum CEA level in Metastasis V-positive patients was significantly higher than in Metastasis V-negative patients (4.27 ng/mL vs 3.00 ng/mL). CONCLUSION: Metastasis V might be associated with a poor prognosis of CRC patients.