Baseline Association between Healthy Eating Index-2015 and Health-Related Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients Enrolled in a Randomized Trial.

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) represents one of the most concerning aspects for cancer patients. The Healthy Eating Index (HEI) is an a priori diet quality index directly associated with health outcomes and HRQoL in cancer survivors in North American populations. We evaluated, in a Mediterranean population, the baseline associations between HEI-2015 and HRQoL in 492 women with breast cancer recruited in a DEDiCa lifestyle trial. Dietary data were obtained from 7-day food records; HRQoL was assessed through the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ C30) and the C30 Summary Score (SumSc). Analysis of variance and multivariable linear and log-gamma regression models were performed. Mean and standard deviation for HEI-2015 score was 68.8 ± 11.2; SumSc was 81.5 ± 12.9. Women with lower HEI-2015 score had higher BMI, were more frequently exposed to tobacco smoke and had fewer years of education. Patients with a HEI-2015 score greater than 68.7 (median value) showed a significant increase in SumSc of 4% (p = 0.02). HEI-2015 components also associated with SumSc were beans and greens (ß = 1.04; p = 0.02). Weak associations were found for total vegetables and saturated fats. Higher diet quality in breast cancer survivors was associated with higher overall HRQoL in this cross-sectional analysis.

Role of Oral Microbiota Dysbiosis in the Development and Progression of Oral Lichen Planus.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease of the oral cavity with malignant potential affecting 1.01% of the worldwide population. The clinical patterns of this oral disorder, characterized by relapses and remissions of the lesions, appear on buccal, lingual, gingival, and labial mucosa causing a significant reduction in the quality of life. Currently, there are no specific treatments for this disease, and the available therapies with topical and systemic corticosteroids only reduce symptoms. Although the etiopathogenesis of this pathological condition has not been completely understood yet, several exogenous and endogenous risk factors have been proposed over the years. The present review article summarized the underlying mechanisms of action involved in the onset of OLP and the most well-known triggering factors. According to the current data, oral microbiota dysbiosis could represent a potential diagnostic biomarker for OLP. However, further studies should be undertaken to validate their use in clinical practice, as well as to provide a better understanding of mechanisms of action and develop novel effective intervention strategies against OLP.

Methylation­sensitive restriction enzyme­droplet digital PCR assay for the one­step highly sensitive analysis of DNA methylation hotspots.

DNA methylation is an epigenetic modification that plays a key role in several cellular processes mediating the fine regulation of gene expression. Aberrant DNA methylation is observed in a wide range of pathologies, including cancer. Since these DNA modifications are transferred to the cell progenies and are stable over the time, the analysis of DNA methylation status has been proposed for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in cancer. Currently, DNA bisulfite conversion is the gold standard method for the high­throughput analysis of DNA methylation alterations. However, bisulfite treatment induces DNA fragmentation affecting its quality for the downstream analyses. In this field, it is mandatory to identify novel methods to overcome the limits of conventional approaches. In the present study, the Methylation­Sensitive Restriction Enzyme­droplet digital PCR (MSRE­ddPCR) assay was developed as a novel sensitive method for the analysis of DNA methylation of short genomic regions, combining the MSRE assay with the high­sensitivity ddPCR and using an exogenous methylation sequence as control. Setup and validation experiments were performed analyzing a methylation hotspot of the Solute Carrier Family 22 Member 17 in DNA samples derived from melanoma cell lines as well as from tissues and serum samples obtained from patients with melanoma and healthy controls. Compared with the standard MSRE approaches, the MSRE­ddPCR assay is more appropriate for the analysis of DNA methylation (methDNA) in samples with low amounts of DNA (up to 0.651 ng) showing a greater sensitivity. These findings suggested the potential clinical application of MSRE­ddPCR paving the way to the analysis of other methDNA hotspots in different tumors.