Tumor vasculogenic mimicry predicts poor prognosis in cancer patients: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) is the formation of vascular channels by tumor cells or tumor cell-derived, trans-differentiated cells in highly aggressive, solid tumors. However, the disease features and prognostic value of VM for overall survival of cancer patients remain controversial. METHOD: To systematically investigate the roles of VM in cancer progression and its prognostic values, we performed a meta-analysis based on 36 studies (33 eligible articles) including 3609 patients. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CIs) were used to assess the relationship between VM and overall survival in cancer patients. RESULTS: Vasculogenic mimicry was significantly associated with cancer differentiation, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage. The prognostic value of VM was significant in overall survival (HR 2.16; 95 % CI 1.98-2.38; P < 0.001). Analyses stratified by confounders, such as cancer type, ethnicity, VM detection methods, sample size, and Newcastle-Ottawa quality score, found similar significant results. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of VM predicts poorer survival outcomes in cancer patients.

Using multiple cytokines to predict hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence in two patient cohorts.

BACKGROUND: Cytokines are tightly linked to the carcinogenesis, development and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We determined the prognostic value of 39 circulating cytokines in HCC patients after radical resection and then developed a novel cytokine-based prognostic classifier (CBPC) for the prediction of patient prognosis. METHODS: A total of 179 patients were divided into two cohorts based on the date of radical resection. Thirty-nine cytokines were simultaneously analysed in patient serum samples using multiplex bead-based Luminex technology. Support vector machine-based methods and Cox proportional hazard models were used to develop a CBPC from the training cohort, which was then validated in the validation cohort. RESULTS: Among seven cytokines significantly correlating with the disease-free survival (DFS) in the training cohort, six of them were validated to be significant prognostic factors to predict DFS and overall survival (OS) in the validation cohort, namely fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2), growth-regulated oncogene (GRO), interleukin 8 (IL-8), interferon gamma-induced protein 10 (IP-10), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and interferon alpha-2 (IFN-α2). By integrating six cytokines and three clinical characteristics, we developed a CBPC to predict the recurrence and 3-year OS of HCC patients (sensitivity, 0.648; specificity, 0.918). In the validation cohort, the CBPC were confirmed to have significant predictive power for predicting tumour recurrence and OS (sensitivity, 0.585; specificity, 0.857). Interestingly, IFN-α2 was the only cytokine being independent prognostic factor in both patient cohorts. CONCLUSION: Our study verifies the presence of specific cytokine-phenotype associations with patient prognosis in HCC. The CBPC developed include multiple circulating cytokines and may serve as a novel screening approach for identifying HCC patients with a high risk of post-resection recurrence and shorter OS. These individuals may also be suitable for cytokine-targeted therapies.

Flavonoids, Antioxidant Activity and Aroma Compounds Analysis from Different Kinds of Tartary Buckwheat Tea.

The rutin, quercetin concentrations, antioxidant activity, and aroma compounds in different commercial tartary buckwheat tea were analyzed in our study. Results revealed that the materials and the processing protocol affected the chemical composition and activity of tartary buckwheat tea. Rutin and quercetin concentrations, antioxidant activity were significantly different in various kinds of tartary buckwheat tea, where the whole bran tea and the whole plant tea had the lower rutin, but higher quercetin concentrations and higher antioxidant activity. The whole embryo tea had the converse results. There was strong correlation between quercetin concentration and antioxidant activity (r>0.98, P<0.05). Meanwhile, Twenty eight different aroma compounds in tartary buckwheat tea were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Those compounds were mainly composed of pyrazine, aldehydes, fatty acids and ketones. The main type of aroma compounds in different tartary buckwheat tea were similar, but their relative contents were different. The implications to the quality control of buckwheat tea were extensively discussed.