Hypoxia is an important factor in tumor angiogenesis, metastasis, and resistance to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and may be an indicator of poor prognosis. The transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is the key regulator of the hypoxic state. This study was designed to evaluate the prognostic value of HIF-1α expression in small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Forty-three paraffin-embedded biopsy materials were examined using immunohistochemistry. Our results indicated that the expression of HIF-1α was high in males, and patients with poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status and metastases. To elucidate the prognostic value of HIF-1α expression, Kaplan-Meier analysis was carried out and the results showed that patients with high HIF-1α expression had a poorer prognosis than patients with low expression of HIF-1α. After adjusting clinical parameters by the Cox proportional hazards model, our results demonstrated that high HIF-1α expression is an independent prognostic factor for SCLC with a 39.2-fold risk of death (p<0.003). In conclusion, we have provided evidence that HIF-1α expression has significant value in predicting survival of patients with SCLC and is an independent prognostic factor beyond ECOG performance and metastasis status.

The results of the present study raise the possibility that soluble c-erbB-2 protein levels in serum is a useful parameter for monitoring the disease status as well as the effect of therapy on patients with OSCC.

Aluminum (Al) exposure at human dietary levels raises health concerns, yet little is known about the Al exposure from the Taiwanese diet. The amount of aluminum (Al)-containing food consumption in the Taiwanese total diet is increasing, which contributes to the total diet consumption., which raises the health concerns. In this study, we aim to assess estimated weekly intake (EWI) and the percentage of provisional tolerable weekly intake (%PTWI) of the dietary exposure to Al in different age-sex groups. We also applied probabilistic risk analyses to quantify the parameters’ uncertainty by focusing on the distribution function for the Al concentration in food, consumption rate, and body weight in specific age groups. Results indicated that the EWIs declined with increasing age after 6-years old (7–12 > 13–15 > 16–18 > 19–64 > 65+). Results indicated that the EWIs gradually declined after 6-year of age. The EWIs of Al-rich food in cake + waffle, kelp, snacks, and bread contributed 20%, 17%, 17%, and 11%, respectively, to the total EWIs, corresponding with the much higher consumption rates for these four foods. The 75th percentile of EWIs for the children aged 34–6 years had a %PTWI valued at over 100%, indicating a potential risk of Al intake via dietary exposure. Our findings show that there is a concern about the consumption of Al-rich foods for children in Taiwan.

The cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) gene plays a key role in the metabolism of various carcinogens. The CYP1B1 Leu432Val polymorphism leads to leucine to valine substitution at codon 432. A lot of studies have shown that the CYP1B1 Leu432Val polymorphism was associated with urinary system cancers, especially prostate cancer. However, the results were still inconclusive. In this meta-analysis, by searching online databases and references of related reviews, we identified 17 eligible studies to assess the relationship between CYP1B1 Leu432Val polymorphism and urinary system cancers, including 7,783 cancer cases and 7,238 controls. By pooling all eligible studies, we found that the CYP1B1 Leu432Val polymorphism was not associated with overall urinary system cancers. However, in subgroup analyses, we found that the variant 432Val allele significantly increased the risk of prostate cancer (Val vs. Leu, odds ratio (OR) = 1.064, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.981-1.154; Pheterogeneity = 0.002), while no association was found for bladder cancer (Val vs. Leu, OR = 0.942, 95% CI 0.853-1.041; Pheterogeneity = 0.504). No evidence of publication bias was found (Begg's test, P = 0.053; Egger's test, P = 0.073). In conclusion, based on 17 eligible studies, we found that the CYP1B1 Leu432Val polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, while no association of bladder cancer was observed.

The present study evaluated the prognostic value of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status, and excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) and thymidylate synthase (TS) expression following intercalated tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy and platinum- and pemetrexed-based chemotherapies (subsequent second-line treatment) for patients with adenocarcinoma non-small-cell lung cancer (AC-NSCLC). In total, 131 patients with AC-NSCLC were enrolled. The EGFR mutation status and ERCC1 and TS expression were evaluated through direct DNA sequencing and immunohistochemical analyses, respectively. The EGFR mutation status and ERCC1 and TS expression were the significant predictors of clinical outcomes. The EGFR mutation status was the main outcome predictor for overall survival (OS) benefits in the overall population. Further exploratory ERCC1 and TS expression analyses were conducted to provide additional insights. Low TS expression was predictive of improved OS of patients with negative EGFR-mutated advanced AC-NSCLC, whereas high ERCC1 expression resulted in poor OS in patients with positive EGFR-mutated advanced AC-NSCLC. TS and ERCC1 expression levels were effective prognostic factors for negative and positive EGFR-mutated AC-NSCLC, respectively. In conclusion, the present results indicate that the EGFR mutation status and TS and ERCC1 expression can be used as the predictors of OS after subsequent second-line treatments for AC-NSCLC.