Side population (SP) cells may play an important role in tumorigenesis and cancer therapy. We isolate and identify the cancer stem-like cells in human esophageal carcinoma (EC) cell lines, EC9706 and EC109 cells labeled with Hoechst 33342. Both the cell lines contained SP cells, and the cells that had the strongest dye efflux activity ("Tip"-SP cell) in EC9706 had higher clone formation efficiency than non-SP cells. When transplanted into nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency (NOD/SCID) mice, "Tip"-SP cells showed at least 50 times higher tumorigenicity than non-SP cells. Microarray analysis discriminated a differential gene expression profile between "Tip"-SP and non-SP cells, which is further tested using quantitative real-time RT-PCR. It is ascertained that several important stem cell-related genes (including OCT-4, SOX-2, BMI-1, and ZFX), two ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter genes (ABCG2 and ABCA5), and three Wnt and two Notch signal pathway-related genes (such as FZD10, PTGS2, KLF5, TTK, and RBM15) were upregulated in "Tip"-SP cells. Western blot showed a higher expression of beta-catenin protein in "Tip"-SP cells. All these indicated that the minority population described as "Tip"-SP cells possessed cancer stem cell character. Further understanding of tumor stem cell-specific traits will offer insights on the early stages of tumorigenesis for prevention and enhanced selectivity of antitumor therapeutics.

Background: This study observed and compared the preventive effects of ramosetron and ondansetron on gastrointestinal side effects caused by cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. Methods: Fifty patients with malignant tumors undergoing their first chemotherapy were randomly divided into two groups, and each group received 0.3 mg of ramosetron and 16 mg of ondansetron in a prospective crossover comparison study. Results: Data were collected for analysis of the therapeutic effect in 47 cases and for adverse events in 50 cases. Both drugs showed similar results in regard to chemotherapy-induced gastrointestinal side effects, emesis and appetite loss on day 1, but by day 5, ramosetron was significantly better than ondansetron in terms of controlling appetite loss. From days 3–5, ramosetron tended to be more effective than ondansetron in its antiemetic action. The incidence of headache, fatigue and constipation was the same for both drugs. Conclusions: Ramosetron is a long-lasting and safe antiemetic agent.

Background Anticancer treatment-related heart events is a major concern. However, the frequent occurrence time of cardiac death and the association between cardiac-specific mortality (CSM) and various lung lobes among non-elderly non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after chemotherapy or radiotherapy (RT) are uncertain. Methods Data of patients aged 20–59 years and diagnosed with NSCLC during 1975–2014 were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. We divided them into four groups: no chemotherapy or RT, chemotherapy-only, RT-only and chemoradiation therapy (CRT). The Fine and Gray model was applied to evaluate the risks; the cumulative curves of CSM were established by Gray’s test. Furthermore, the forest graphs delineated the hazards of different tumor subsites to CSM as the survival time prolonged. Eventually, we analyzed and elucidated the tendency of CSM decade by decade. Results We identified 121,302 patients and 3,423 died of heart diseases. In chemotherapy-only group, age, sex, race, marital status and surgery were significantly correlated to CSM while the subsite location of tumor was the key risk among RT-only patients. The hazard ratio (HR) of CSM was greatest in 2–5 years after RT (P=0.008, HR =2.30). CSMs of chemotherapy (P=0.130, HR =2.480) and CRT (P=0.028, HR =2.600) peaked in 1985–1994 and decreased sharply hereafter, whereas the CSMs of RT-only declined over time. Conclusions The risks of CSM after chemotherapy were similar to the common hazards of heart diseases; tumor in the left-lower lobe was a remarkable risk for patients receiving RT-only and the frequent occurrence of cardiac death was from the second year after RT. The CSMs of chemotherapy and CRT culminated in 1985–1994 and then descended; it declined all the time in RT-only group.

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