The target region focused imaging method for scanning ion conductance microscopy.

Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) has developed rapidly and has wide applications in biomedicine, single-cell science and other fields. SICM scanning speed is limited by the conventional raster-type scanning method, which spends most of time on imaging the substrate and does not focus enough on the target area. In order to solve this problem, a target region focused (TRF) method is proposed, which can effectively avoid the scanning of unnecessary substrate areas and enables SICM to image the target area only to achieve high-speed and effective local scanning. TRF method and conventional hopping mode scanning method are compared in the experiments using breast cancer cells and rat basophilic leukemia cells as experimental materials. It was demonstrated that our method can reduce the scanning time for a single sample image significantly without losing scanning information or compromising the quality of imaging. The TRF method developed in this paper can provide an efficient and fast scanning strategy for improving the imaging performance of SICM systems, which can be applied to the dynamic features of cell samples in the fields of biology and pharmacology analysis.

Liver transplantation for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: a propensity score-matched analysis.

Liver resection (LR) is the only recommended effective curative treatment for patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), but the prognosis of patients with ICC is still poor even after curative resection. Recently, many researchers focused on the therapeutic value of LT for patients with ICC. This study aimed to identify the role of liver transplantation in patients with ICC by internally comparing with LR in ICC and externally comparing with LT in HCC. We obtained patient data from SEER database. Propensity score methods were applied to control confounders. Survival outcome was estimated using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and compared using the log-rank test. A total of 2538 patients with ICC after surgery and 5048 patients with HCC after LT between 2000 and 2019 were included in this study. The prognosis of patients with ICC after LT were better than patients with ICC after LR in both unmatched (HR 0.65, P = 0.002) and matched cohorts (HR 0.62, P = 0.009). The 5-year OS rate after LT could be improved to 61.7% in patients with local advanced ICC after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that the prognosis of patients with ICC after LT was better than patients with ICC after LR, but was still worse than patients with HCC after LT. LT with neoadjuvant chemotherapy should be considered as a treatment option for patients with locally advanced ICC, but more prospective multicenter clinical trials are needed to further confirm these results.

Prognostic nomogram for cancer-specific survival in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma after hepatectomy: A population study of 919 patients.

Background and Aims: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma has an increasing global incidence and mortality rate. Hepatectomy is still the most effective curative treatment for patients with ICC, but the prognosis of patients with ICC is still poor even after curative resection. This study aimed to incorporate important factors obtained from SEER database to construct and validate a nomogram for predicting the cancer-specific survival of patients with ICC after hepatectomy. Methods: We obtained patient data from SEER database. The nomogram was constructed base on six prognostic factors for predicting CSS rates in ICC patients. The nomogram was validated by C-index, ROC curve and calibration curves. Results: A total of 919 patients with ICC after hepatectomy between 2000 and 2018 were included in this study. A nomogram based on six independent prognostic factors (Black race, AJCC T, AJCC N, AJCC M, chemotherapy and PLNR ≥ 0.15) was developed for the prediction of CSS at 3 and 5 years. The C-index of the nomogram and AJCC stage system were 0.709 and 0.657 in the training cohort respectively. The 3- and 5-year AUCs of nomogram were 0.744 and 0.75 in the training cohort. The calibration plots indicated that there was good agreement between the actual observations and predictions. Conclusions: In conclusion, we constructed and validated a nomogram for predicting the 3- and 5-year CSS in ICC patients after hepatectomy. We have confirmed the precise calibration and acceptable discrimination power of our nomogram. The predictive power of this nomogram may be improved by considering other potential important factors and also by external validation.