Abstract. BACKGROUND:The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that the number of cancer patients will increase by about 70% during the next 25 years world-wide. To deal with this problem, WHO has suggested a focus on prevention of tumor incidence and health screening for early detection of people with tumors. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the use of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1), CEA and AFP in serum to discover people with malignant tumors through health cancer screening. METHODS: Of a cohort in 486,085 people of a routine health screening at the Health Centre, Fujun 180 Hospital, Quanzhou city, China, 56,286 people were investigated according to the presence of cancer during 2009-2014. The concentration of CEA and AFP were determined by an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay from Roche Diagnostics e601GmbH and STK1 by a commercial kit based on an enhanced chemiluminescent dot blot assay. RESULTS: The cancer incident rate increased from 0.048/100,000 to 0.220/100,000. The most common types of tumors were those of the liver, cervix and lung. STK1 correlated to tumor growth rate, was more sensitive than CEA and AFP for discovering people with malignant tumors and more sensitive among people who had diagnosis of malignant tumor. STK1 was also a prognostic biomarker for death at 10-40 months follow-up, while CEA and AFP were not. A combination of these markers increased the sensitivity by about 30%. CONCLUSION: STK1 is a reliable biomarker for discovering people with malignant tumors in cancer screening.

Background/Aims: Autophagy is a cellular degradation process for the recycling of damaged or superfluous intracellular compartments to provide an alternative energy source during periods of metabolic stress for maintaining cell homeostasis and viability. Although autophagy in different contexts have been shown to use similar signaling pathways, the exact molecular regulation of autophagy has been found to be cell-type dependent. Methods: We used rapamycin to trigger autophagy and used nitric oxide (NO) to inhibit autophagy in prostate cancer cells. IWP-2 was used to inhibit β-catenin signaling. Autophagy-associated proteins were examined by Western blot. Results: We found that nitric oxide (NO), a potent cellular messenger, impaired rapamycin-induced autophagy in prostate cancer cells. Further analyses showed that NO induced nuclear accumulation of β-catenin, a key factor of Wnt signaling pathway, to inhibit autophagy in prostate cancer cells. Conclusions: We demonstrate involvement of β-catenin signaling in the regulation of autophagy of prostate cancer cells. Our results shed light on a previously unappreciated β-catenin signaling pathway for regulating autophagy in prostate cancer.

BackgroundSeverely burned children are at high risk of secondary intraabdominal hypertension and abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS). ACS is a life-threatening condition with high mortality and requires an effective, minimally invasive treatment to improve the prognosis when the condition is refractory to conventional therapy.Case presentationA 4.5-year-old girl was admitted to our hospital 30 h after a severe burn injury. Her symptoms of burn shock were relieved after fluid resuscitation. However, her bloating was aggravated, and ACS developed on Day 5, manifesting as tachycardia, hypoxemia, shock, and oliguria. Invasive mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and percutaneous catheter drainage were applied in addition to medical treatments (such as gastrointestinal decompression, diuresis, sedation, and neuromuscular blockade). These treatments did not improve the patient's condition until she received continuous renal replacement therapy. Subsequently, her vital signs and laboratory data improved, which were accompanied by decreased intra-abdominal pressure, and she was discharged after nutrition support, antibiotic therapy, and skin grafting.ConclusionACS can occur in severely burned children, leading to rapid deterioration of cardiopulmonary function. Patients who fail to respond to conventional medical management should be considered for continuous renal replacement therapy.