CDCA5 overexpression is an Indicator of poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

BACKGROUND: Accurate and early prognosis of disease is essential to clinical decision making, particularly in diseases, such as HCC, that are typically diagnosed at a late stage in the course of disease and therefore carry a poor prognosis. CDCA5 is a cell cycle regulatory protein that has shown prognostic value in several cancers. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 178 patients with HCC treated with curative liver resection between September 2009 and September 2012 at Nanchong Central Hospital in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, China. Patients were screened for their CDCA5 expression levels and assigned to either the high or low expression group. Patient demographics, comorbidities, clinicopathologic data, such as tumor microvascular invasion status and size, and long-term outcomes were compared between the two groups. The effect of CDCA5 on the proliferation of liver cancer cells was analyzed using in vitro and in vivo assays. RESULTS: The present study found that increased CDCA5 expression was associated with increased tumor diameter and microvascular invasion in HCC. It was also found that CDCA5 overexpression may be associated with liver cancer cells. Additionally, this study confirmed that CDCA5 expression was increased in HCC tissue versus normal liver tissue, that CDCA5 expression was associated with decreased survival and that CDCA5 knockdown using shRNA led to cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that CDCA5 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

A New Sufficient & Necessary Condition for Testing Linear Separability Between Two Sets.

As a fundamental mathematical problem in the field of machine learning, the linear separability test still lacks a theoretically complete and computationally efficient method. This paper proposes and proves a sufficient and necessary condition for linear separability test based on a sphere model. The advantage of this test method is two-fold: (1) it provides not only a qualitative test of linear separability but also a quantitative analysis of the separability of linear separable instances; (2) it has low time cost and is more efficient than existing test methods. The proposed method is validated through a large number of experiments on benchmark datasets and artificial datasets, demonstrating both its correctness and efficiency.

[Analysis of multimodal ultrasound in differential diagnosis of salivary gland tumors].

PURPOSE: To explore the differential diagnosis of salivary gland tumors by multimodal ultrasound and to establish a preliminary scoring system by assigning meaningful parameters. METHODS: Seventy-seven tumors from 69 patients with salivary gland tumors were examined by two-dimensional gray-scale ultrasound, color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI), superb microvascular imaging(SMI), real time tissue elastography(RTE) and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI). Different scoring schemes were obtained for the assignment and combination of meaningful parameters. The ROC curve of each scheme was drawn, and the one with the largest area under the curve was taken as the best scoring scheme. SPSS 25.0 software package was used for statistical analysis of the data. RESULTS: There were significant differences in tumor shape, boundary, posterior echo, blood flow resistance index, RTE grade and ARFI average value between benign and malignant salivary gland tumors(P<0.05). The scoring scheme 7, which was composed of the above 6 parameters, was the best scoring scheme. When each parameter was assigned a score of 1, the total score was 6, and the area under the curve was 0.944. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of distinguishing benign and malignant salivary gland tumors with ≥4 points were 80.0%, 98.4% and 94.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Application of multimodal ultrasound and establishment of a scoring system can effectively improve the ability of ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors.

[Analysis of multimodal ultrasound in differential diagnosis of salivary gland tumors].

PURPOSE: To explore the differential diagnosis of salivary gland tumors by multimodal ultrasound and to establish a preliminary scoring system by assigning meaningful parameters. METHODS: Seventy-seven tumors from 69 patients with salivary gland tumors were examined by two-dimensional gray-scale ultrasound, color Doppler flow imaging (CDFI), superb microvascular imaging(SMI), real time tissue elastography(RTE) and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI). Different scoring schemes were obtained for the assignment and combination of meaningful parameters. The ROC curve of each scheme was drawn, and the one with the largest area under the curve was taken as the best scoring scheme. SPSS 25.0 software package was used for statistical analysis of the data. RESULTS: There were significant differences in tumor shape, boundary, posterior echo, blood flow resistance index, RTE grade and ARFI average value between benign and malignant salivary gland tumors(P<0.05). The scoring scheme 7, which was composed of the above 6 parameters, was the best scoring scheme. When each parameter was assigned a score of 1, the total score was 6, and the area under the curve was 0.944. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of distinguishing benign and malignant salivary gland tumors with ≥4 points were 80.0%, 98.4% and 94.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Application of multimodal ultrasound and establishment of a scoring system can effectively improve the ability of ultrasound in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors.

Evaluating the Ability of the New Subclassification to Prognosticate Outcomes Following Hepatectomy for Patients with HBV-Related HCC.

BACKGROUND: Recently, experts proposed subclassification for BCLC B patients. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficient of subclassification of patients with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system. METHODS: Seven hundred twenty-nine consecutive hepatitis B virus-related HCC patients with BCLC stage B classification who underwent hepatectomy in the period 2006-2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were reclassified based on the new proposed subclassification of the BCLC B stage from B1 to B4. The prognosis of subclassification was tested using Kaplan-Meier statistics analysis. RESULTS: There were 145 (19.9%), 480 (65.8%), 62 (8.5%), and 42 (5.8%) patients in B1, B2, B3, and B4, respectively. The result suggested that overall and tumor-free survival rates among the B1, B2, and B3 subclassification in the Bolondi system had significant difference (P < 0.05). However, no significant difference was found between B3 and B4 subclassifications. Cox regression showed that BCLC B subclassification, largest/smallest diameter, and anatomic liver resection were independent predictors of tumor-free survival. BCLC B subclassification and anatomic liver resection were independent predictors of overall survival. CONCLUSIONS: The subclassification of BCLC stage B can be used in patients with HBV-related HCC who underwent curative intent hepatectomy. Patients in BCLC B1 and B2 subgroups should be treated more aggressively than patients in B3 and B4 subgroups. B3 and B4 groups should be merged for patients with HBV-related HCC who underwent curative intent hepatectomy.

Comparison of Hepatectomy for Patients with Metabolic Syndrome-Related HCC and HBV-Related HCC.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a group of clinicopathological manifestations. The outcome of liver surgery in metabolic syndrome-related hepatocellular carcinoma (MetS-HCC) still needs to be evaluated. We aim to clarify the outcomes following liver resection in patients with MetS-HCC compared those with hepatitis B virus-related HCC (HBV-HCC). METHODS: All the consecutive patients undergoing hepatectomy for HCC between January 2009 and December 2012 were retrospectively considered. Patients were divided into three groups: MetS-HCC, MetS-HBV-HCC, and HBV-HCC. Data on clinical characteristics, postoperative complications, and long-term outcome were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 1352 patients were included in this study. In MetS-HCC group, the severe morbidity rate was 33.33%, which was higher than that of HBV-HCC group (15.68%). In subgroup analysis, patients with MetS-HCC in American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage I had superior DFS and OS when compared with those of the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: We should pay more attention to patients with MetS-HCC perioperatively due to the high rate of surgical complications. Nevertheless, curative treatment should be provided to patients with MetS.