LLGL2 Inhibits Ovarian Cancer Metastasis by Regulating Cytoskeleton Remodeling via ACTN1.

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignant tumor. Although debulking surgery, chemotherapy, and PARP inhibitors have greatly improved survival, the prognosis for patients with advanced EOC without HRD is still poor. LLGL2, as a cell polarity factor, is involved in maintaining cell polarity and asymmetric cell division. In the study of zebrafish development, LLGL2 regulated the proliferation and migration of epidermal cells and the formation of cortical F-actin. However, the role of LLGL2 in ovarian cancer has not been described. Our study found, through bioinformatics analysis, that low expression of LLGL2 was significantly associated with a more advanced stage and a higher grade of EOC and a poorer survival of patients. Functional experiments that involved LLGL2 overexpression and knockdown showed that LLGL2 inhibited the migration and invasion abilities of ovarian cancer cells in vitro, without affecting their proliferation. LLGL2-overexpressing mice had fewer metastatic implant foci than the controls in vivo. Mechanistically, immunoprecipitation combined with mass spectrometry analysis suggested that LLGL2 regulated cytoskeletal remodeling by interacting with ACTN1. LLGL2 altered the intracellular localization and function of ACTN1 without changing its protein and mRNA levels. Collectively, we uncovered that LLGL2 impaired actin filament aggregation into bundles by interacting with ACTN1, which led to cytoskeleton remodeling and inhibition of the invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells.

Survival impact of bowel resection in patients with FIGO stage II-IV ovarian cancer.

INTRODUCTION: To compare the effect of bowel resection vs stripping on the clinical outcomes of patients with FIGO II-IV ovarian cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed patients with FIGO II-IV ovarian cancer who suffered from bowel involvement and underwent cytoreductive surgery between January 2014 and March 2022. Patients' survival was compared by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: Four hundred and twelve patients were included. 48 patients underwent bowel resection (BR), and 364 patients underwent bowel tumor stripping (BTS). The BR group had longer operative duration, hospital stay, time to post-operative chemotherapy, and more intraoperative bleeding. The median PFS was 37 months (95% CI 12-62) in BTS compared to 25 months (95% CI 10-40) in BR among patients who achieved R0 resection (p = 0.590). Among those with R1 resection, the median PFS in BST was 23 months (95% CI 16-30) and that in BR was 15 months (95% CI 12-18, p = 0.136); moreover, a favorable median PFS was observed in BTS with residual bowel lesions (23 months, 95% CI 14-32), compared to BR (15 months, 95% CI 12-18, p = 0.144). Multivariate analysis indicated that FIGO stage, PCI, cytoreduction time and residual lesions were independent prognostic factors of PFS. CONCLUSION: For patients with FIGO stage II-IV ovarian cancer with bowel implicated, bowel resection is necessary to achieve complete removal to improve the survival. If complete resection was judged unfeasible, cautious decision of bowel resection is required. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy might reduce the ratio of bowel resection for some with mesenteric involvement.

Computed tomographic enterography (CTE) in evaluating bowel involvement in patients with ovarian cancer.

PURPOSE: To explore the utility of CTE in the evaluation of bowel invasion in patients with primary ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancer. METHODS: This observational study included 73 patients who received CTE before operation between September 2019 and December 2021. Two radiologists reviewed CTE images, focusing on the sites and depth of bowel involvement. Based on the findings during surgical exploration, we evaluated the diagnostic power, like sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), positive likelihood ratio (+ LR), and negative likelihood ratio (- LR) of CTE. Additionally, the characteristic images of bowel involvement on CTE corresponding to surgical findings were shown in the study. RESULTS: The rate of macroscopic bowel invasion in this cohort was 49.31% (36/73), of which eight patients had small bowel involvement, 17 patients had colon involvement and 27 patients had sigmoid-rectum involvement. CTE detected bowel invasion in the small intestine with a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of 87.50%, 92.31%, 58.33%, 98.36%, 91.78%; for colon, the statistics were 58.82%, 96.43%, 83.33%, 88.52%, 87.67% and for sigmoid-rectum 62.96%, 82.61%, 68.00%, 79.17%, 75.34%, respectively. CONCLUSION: CTE appeared a preferable diagnostic power on the small bowel and colon invasion in patients with primary ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancer.

Lymphadenectomy in Primary Fallopian Tube Cancer is Associated with Improved Survival.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Primary fallopian tube cancer (PFTC) shares the same diagnostic and management guidelines with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The LION trail raised concerns regarding the role of systematic pelvic and para-aortic lymphadenectomy during debulking surgery. We aimed to evaluate the significance of lymphadenectomy in PFTC survival. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed the clinical features and survival of patients with PFTC who underwent primary surgery in our center between January 2013 and October 2020. RESULTS: Sixty-one patients diagnosed with PFTC were included in the study. Twenty-five (41.0%, 25/61) were diagnosed with FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) stages I/II and 36 (59.0%, 36/61) were diagnosed with stage III/IV. Twenty-nine (47.5%, 29/61) underwent pelvic lymphadenectomy with or without para-aortic lymphadenectomy, among which 12 (41.4%, 12/29) had lymph node metastasis confirmed by postoperative pathology. The mean progression-free survival was 60.4 months in the lymphadenectomy group and 37.8 months in the no-lymphadenectomy group (p = 0.042, HR 0.374, 95% CI 0.145-0.966). CONCLUSIONS: PFTC is often diagnosed earlier and has a better prognosis than EOC. Most patients with PFTC would benefit from lymphadenectomy. However, the extent to which this association translates to a more diverse population needs to be further identified.

Online study on the co-pyrolysis of coal and corn with vacuum ultraviolet photoionization mass spectrometry.

With the aim to support the experimental tests in a circulating fluidized bed pilot plant, the pyrolysis processes of coal, corn, and coal-corn blend have been studied with an online pyrolysis photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Py-PI-TOFMS). The mass spectra at different temperatures (300-800°C) as well as time-evolved profiles of selected species were measured. The pyrolysis products such as alkanes, alkenes, phenols, aromatics, as well as nitrogen- and sulfur-containing species were detected. As temperature rises, the relative ion intensities of high molecular weight products tend to decrease, while those of aromatics increase significantly. During the co-pyrolysis, coal can promote the reaction temperature of cellulose in corn. Time-evolved profiles demonstrate that coal can affect pyrolysis rate of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin of corn in blend. This work shows that Py-PI-TOFMS is a powerful approach to permit a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the co-pyrolysis of coal and biomass.