Establishment and validation of a prediction model for the probability of malignancy in solid solitary pulmonary nodules in northwest China.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To construct a prediction model of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs), to predict the possibility of malignant SPNs in patients aged 15-85 years in northwest China for clinical diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making. METHODS: The features of SPNs were assessed by multivariate logistic regression, followed by visualization using a nomogram. Hosmer lemeshow was applied to evaluate the fitting degree of the model. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was identified to determine the discriminative ability of the model. RESULTS: Lobulation, spiculation, pleural-tag, carcinoembryonic antigen, neuron-specific enolase, and total serum protein were independent predictors of malignant pulmonary nodules (p < .05). Lobulation (100 points) scored the highest in the nomogram, and the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistic was 0.805 (p > .05). The area under curve (AUC) of the modeling and validation groups using logistic regression were 0.859 (95% CI, 0.805-0.903) and 0.823 (95% CI, 0.738-0.890), respectively. Moreover, the AUC of our model was higher than that of the Mayo model, VA model, and Peking University (AUC 0.823 vs. 0.655 vs. 0.603 vs. 0.521). CONCLUSION: Our prediction model is more suitable for predicting the possibility of malignant SPNs in northwest China, and can be calculated using a nomogram to determine further treatments.

Curcumin inhibits AP-2γ-induced apoptosis in the human malignant testicular germ cells in vitro.

AIM: To investigate the effects of curcumin on proliferation and apoptosis in testicular cancer cells in vitro and to investigate its molecular mechanisms of action. METHODS: NTera-2 human malignant testicular germ cell line and F9 mouse teratocarcinoma stem cell line were used. The anti-proliferative effect was examined using MTT and colony formation assays. Hoechst 33258 staining, TUNEL and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining assays were used to analyze cell apoptosis. Protein expression was examined with Western blot analysis and immunocytochemical staining. RESULTS: Curcumin (5, 10 and 15 µmol/L) inhibited the viability of NTera-2 cells in dose- and time-dependent manners. Curcumin significantly inhibited the colony formation in both NTera-2 and F9 cells. Curcumin dose-dependently induced apoptosis of NTera-2 cells by reducing FasL expression and Bcl-2-to-Bax ratio, and activating caspase-9, -8 and -3. Furthermore, curcumin dose-dependently reduced the expression of AP transcription factor AP-2γ in NTera-2 cells, whereas the pretreatment with the proteasome inhibitor MG132 blocked both the curcumin-induced reduction of AP-2γ and antiproliferative effect. Curcumin inhibited ErbB2 expression, and decreased the phosphorylation of Akt and ERK in NTera-2 cells. CONCLUSION: Curcumin induces apoptosis and inhibits proliferation in NTera-2 cells via the inhibition of AP-2γ-mediated downstream cell survival signaling pathways.