A case report of pancreatic mucoepidermoid carcinoma responded to gemcitabine and paclitaxel.

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) typically manifests in the salivary glands, but occurrences in the pancreatic gland are exceedingly rare. Surgical resection proves effective; however, pancreatic MEC is prone to metastasis, and lacking a standardized postoperative treatment. We discussed the experience of a 51-year-old female patient with pancreatic MEC who received paclitaxel and gemcitabine as postoperative care. Within a predetermined amount of time, this regimen successfully stopped the spread of metastatic tumors and returned tumor markers to normal. A Stable Disease status was achieved within 6 months after chemotherapy. In summary, gemcitabine and paclitaxel display efficacy in treating pancreatic MEC.

PABPC1 silencing inhibits pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and EMT, and induces apoptosis via PI3K/AKT pathway.

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to manage owing to the challenges involved in its treatment and nursing. This study aimed to clarify the roles and mechanisms of action of Poly (A)-binding protein cytoplasmic 1 (PABPC1) on pancreatic cancer. The expression of PABPC1 in pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines was detected using RT-qPCR and western blotting. The effects of PABPC1 on proliferation, apoptosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in pancreatic cancer cells were further investigated using MTT assays, flow cytometry, and western blotting. The expression of PABPC1 was significantly upregulated in pancreatic cancer tissues and cells, whereas PABPC1 downregulation inhibited pancreatic cancer cell proliferation, induced apoptosis, decreased the expression of EMT-associated proteins, and exerted a regulatory effect by inhibiting the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. In addition, the findings indicated that PABPC1 over-expression significantly promoted pancreatic cancer cell proliferation, inhibited apoptosis, decreased the expression of E-cadherin, enhanced N-cadherin expression, and activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. PABPC1 silencing significantly inhibited proliferation and EMT and induced apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells. These findings provide novel insights into the role of PABPC1 in the development of pancreatic cancer. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10616-024-00626-1.

Decreased expression of SOX17 is associated with tumor progression and poor prognosis in breast cancer.

The SOX17 (SRY-related HMG-box) transcription factor is involved in a variety of biological processes and is related to the tumorigenesis and progression of multiple tumors. However, the clinical application of SOX17 for breast cancer prognosis is currently limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of SOX17 expression in human breast cancer. qPCR and western blot assays were performed to measure the expression of SOX17 in breast cancer cell lines and 30 matched pairs of breast cancer and corresponding noncancerous tissues. A SOX17 overexpression cell model was used to examine changes in cell growth in vitro. Immunohistochemical analyses were performed to retrospectively examine the prognostic impact of SOX17 expression in 187 additional breast cancer patients. Our results showed that SOX17 expression was decreased at both the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels in the breast cancer cell lines and tissues, and that SOX17 overexpression could strongly suppress cell growth in vitro. Furthermore, the lack of SOX17 protein expression was strongly correlated with higher tumor grade (P = 0.002), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001), and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage (P = 0.001) and had poorer disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to normal SOX17 expression (P = 0.002 and 0.001, respectively). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that lower SOX17 expression was an independent prognostic factor for DFS (P = 0.007; HR = 2.854; 95 % CI 1.326-6.147) and OS (P = 0.005; HR = 5.035; 95 % CI 1.648-15.385) for breast cancer. Our findings indicate that SOX17 expression is a useful prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.

Prognostic impact of gastrointestinal bleeding and expression of PTEN and Ki-67 on primary gastrointestinal stromal tumors.

BACKGROUND: Prognostic indicators for gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are under investigation. The latest risk classification criteria may still have room for improvement. This study aims to investigate prognostic factors for primary GISTs from three aspects, including clinicopathological parameters, immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of PTEN, and Ki-67 labeling index (LI), and attempts to find valuable predictors for the malignancy potential of primary GISTs. METHODS: Tumor samples and clinicopathological data from 84 patients with primary GISTs after R0 resection were obtained. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed based on tissue microarray (TMA) to estimate expression of PTEN and Ki-67 in tumor cells. RESULTS: The cut-off point of Ki-67 LI was determined as 1%, using a receiver operator characteristic test with a sensitivity of 71.7% and a specificity of 64.5%. Univariate analysis demonstrated the following factors as poor prognostic indicators for relapse-free survival (RFS) against a median follow-up of 40.25 months: gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding (P = 0.009), non-gastric tumor location (P = 0.001), large tumor size (P = 0.022), high mitotic index (P < 0.001), high cellularity (P = 0.012), tumor rupture (P = 0.013), absent or low expression of PTEN (P = 0.036), and Ki-67 LI >1% (P = 0.043). Gastrointestinal bleeding (hazard ratio, 3.85; 95% confidence interval, 1.63 to 9.10; P = 0.002) was a negative independent risk predictor in multivariate analysis, in addition to tumor size (P = 0.023), and mitotic index (P = 0.002). In addition, GI bleeding showed a good ability to predict recurrence potential, when included in our re-modified risk stratification criteria. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that GI bleeding is an independent predictor of poor prognosis for RFS in primary GISTs. Expression of PTEN and Ki-67 are correlated with high risk potential and may predict early recurrence in univariate analysis.

Laparoscopic left pancreatectomy for pancreatic sarcomatoid carcinoma: A case report and review of the literature.

Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas is extremely rare. The current report presents a case of carcinosarcoma of the pancreas in a 48-year-old male. Pre-operative computed tomography scans revealed a large complex cystic and solid mass in the tail of the pancreas; the patient underwent a laparoscopic spleen-preserving left pancreatectomy. The tumor was shown to be made of cystic and solid components, with a grossly grey/ white appearance. A histological evaluation of the tumor revealed two elements separated from each other, one component was a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the other component exhibited a sarcomatous growth pattern, composed of spindle cells and multinucleated giant cells. Immunohistochemically, the epithelial area was positive for cytokeratin (CK) and negative for vimentin, while the sarcomatoid area was negative for CK and positive for vimentin. These observations confirmed a diagnosis of pancreatic carcinosarcoma. Although the patient was treated by gemcitabine following surgery, the outcome was extremely poor and the patient succumbed to sarcomatoid carcinoma three months after the treatment.

Tissue Doppler imaging and tissue strain imaging for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

We studied the feasibility of evaluating the stages of liver fibrosis with tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and tissue strain imaging (TSI) for patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. One hundred ten patients were divided into two groups: normal adult group (n = 38) and chronic liver disease group (n = 72, patients infected with HBVs). The chronic liver disease group was divided into three subgroups on the basis of the Scheuer scoring system and clinical evidence: mild fibrosis (S0 and S1, n = 11), moderate fibrosis (S2 and S3, n = 27) and cirrhosis (S4 and clinically typical cirrhosis, n = 34) groups. TDI was performed for a chosen oblique section. Four regions of interest (ROIs), A-D, were chosen in the hepatic parenchyma based on the direction of propagation from the heart to the liver. Strain rate curves were obtained on the basis of TDI and TSI findings. Strain peak rates (SPRs) of all ROIs and the differences in times to SPRs for the four ROIs (TA-B, TB-C and TC-D) in the hepatic parenchyma were measured with TDI and TSI. Strain rate curves were analyzed for each ROI. The strain rate curves for the normal adult group were synchronous, whereas those for the chronic liver disease group were asynchronous. SPRs of the ROIs gradually decreased with the progression of liver fibrosis. The SPRs of ROI B significantly correlated with chronic liver disease severity (r = 0.991, p < 0.05). Areas under the curve (AUCs) of the ROI A and ROI B SPRs at the moderate fibrosis and cirrhosis stages were 0.86 ± 0.06, 0.81 ± 0.56 and 0.90 ± 0.65, 0.92 ± 0.04, respectively. The AUC of the SPRs of ROIs A and B correlated better than the platelet/age/phosphatase/α-fetoprotein/aspartate aminotransferase (PAPAS) index for advanced fibrosis. The differences in time to SPRs among the peaks of the four ROIs (TA-B, TB-C and TC-D) gradually increased with the progression of liver fibrosis. TDI and TSI with quantitative measurements using tissue Doppler analysis software (TDIQ, GE Medical Systems, Horten, Norway) provided reliable information for evaluating non-invasive liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B.