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BACKGROUND:It has been reported that antidiabetic drugs affect the risk of cancer and the prognosis of patients with diabetes, but few studies have demonstrated the influence of different antidiabetic agents on outcomes after anticancer therapy among patients with cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the antidiabetic drugs metformin and insulin on the prognosis of patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) plus type 2 diabetes who received first‐line chemotherapy.METHODS:Data on patients with NSCLC who had diabetes from 5 hospitals in China during January 2004 to March 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. Ninety‐nine patients were included in the final analysis. The influence of metformin and insulin on chemotherapy response rates and survival in these patients was evaluated.RESULTS:Chemotherapy with metformin (Group A) produced superior results compared with insulin (Group B) and compared with drugs other than metformin and insulin (Group C) in terms of both progression‐free survival (PFS) (8.4 months vs 4.7 months vs 6.4 months, respectively; P = .002) and overall survival (OS) (20.0 months vs 13.1 months vs 13.0 months, respectively; P = .007). Although no significant differences in the response rate (RR) were observed between these 3 groups, when groups B and C (ie, the nonmetformin group) were combined, there was a tendency for better disease control in Group A than that in nonmetformin group. No significant difference in survival was observed between chemotherapy with insulin (Group B) versus other drugs (Group C).CONCLUSIONS:The current data suggested that metformin may improve chemotherapy outcomes and survival for patients who have NSCLC with diabetes. Cancer 2011;. © 2011 American Cancer Society.

Emerging evidence indicates that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in cancer development. This study aimed to evaluate whether circulating circRNAs may serve as novel biomarkers for non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We used RNA sequencing (RNA‐seq) and quantitative real‐time PCR to explore cancer‐related circRNAs. Bioinformatics and functional analyses were performed to reveal biological effects of circRNAs on lung cancer cells. A total of 5471 distinct circRNAs were identified by total RNA‐seq, in which 185 were differentially expressed between cancerous and adjacent normal tissues. A circRNA derived from exon 5–7 of the FARSA gene, termed circFARSA, was observed to increase in cancerous tissues (P = 0.016), and was more abundant in patients’ plasma than controls (P < 0.001). Overexpression of circFARSA in A549 cell line significantly promoted cell migration and invasion. In silico analysis suggested that circFARSA might sponge miR‐330‐5p and miR‐326, thereby relieving their inhibitory effects on oncogene fatty acid synthase. Summarily, this study revealed circRNA profile of NSCLC for the first time and provided the evidence of plasma circFARSA as a potential noninvasive biomarker for this malignancy.

Background Coffee consumption has been linked to lower risk of various health outcomes. However, the biological pathways mediating the associations remain poorly understood. Objectives The aim of this study was to assess the association between coffee consumption and concentrations of plasma biomarkers in key metabolic and inflammatory pathways underlying common chronic diseases. Methods We investigated the associations of total, caffeinated, and decaffeinated coffee consumption with 14 plasma biomarkers, including C-peptide, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), IGF binding protein (IGFBP) 1, IGFBP-3, estrone, total and free estradiol, total and free testosterone, sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG), total adiponectin, high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin, leptin, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (sTNFR-2). Data were derived from 2 cohorts of 15,551 women (Nurses’ Health Study) and 7397 men (Health Professionals Follow-Up Study), who provided detailed dietary data before blood draw and were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at the time of blood draw. Multivariable linear regression was used to calculate the percentage difference of biomarker concentrations comparing coffee drinkers with nondrinkers, after adjusting for a variety of demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors. Results Compared with nondrinkers, participants who drank ≥4 cups of total coffee/d had lower concentrations of C-peptide (−8.7%), IGFBP-3 (−2.2%), estrone (−6.4%), total estradiol (−5.7%), free estradiol (−8.1%), leptin (−6.4%), CRP (−16.6%), IL-6 (−8.1%), and sTNFR-2 (−5.8%) and higher concentrations of SHBG (5.0%), total testosterone (7.3% in women and 5.3% in men), total adiponectin (9.3%), and HMW adiponectin (17.2%). The results were largely similar for caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. Conclusion Our data indicate that coffee consumption is associated with favorable profiles of numerous biomarkers in key metabolic and inflammatory pathways. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03419455.