No abstract

Biomarkers that can facilitate disease detection, staging and prediction of outcome are highly desirable to improve survival and to help determine optimized treatment for colorectal cancer patients. microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play a crucial role in gene regulatory networks. The deregulation of miRNA expression has been found in several types of cancer and may represent a novel class of cancer biomarkers. Our aim was to determine the miRNA signature of stage III colorectal cancer (CRC) tumors and to identify potential circulating miRNAs that may represent non-invasive biomarkers in CRC patients. Genome-wide microarray analysis of miRNA expression was performed on 12 paired tumor and non-tumor formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues from stage III CRC patients. A selection of differentially overexpressed miRNAs was validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and determined in the serum of a set of 56 individuals (30 stage III CRC patients and 26 healthy individuals). Using 1.5-fold expression difference as a cut-off level, 43 miRNAs were identified as differentially expressed in tumor versus normal tissue. Using reverse transcription and qRT-PCR, 11 miRNAs (miR-135b, miR-141, miR-18a, miR-20a, miR-21, miR-224, miR-29a, miR-31, miR-34a, miR-92a and miR-96) were confirmed as significantly overexpressed in tumor samples when compared with normal samples. We were able to detect 9 of these 11 miRNAs in serum samples from CRC patients and healthy individuals. Serum levels of miR-18a and miR-29a were significantly higher in CRC patients when compared to levels in the controls (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study identified a substantial number of miRNAs which were differentially expressed in stage III colorectal tumors. Moreover, the findings provide relevant information concerning overexpressed tumoral miRNAs as potential circulating biomarkers and highlight serum miR-18a and miR-29a as promising biomarkers for the screening and monitoring of CRC patients.

GISTs can arise anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract and present a great variety of clinical and radiologic features, depending mostly on size and location.

A multi-centre case-control study of diet and gastric cancer was carried out in 4 regions of Spain (Aragon, Castile, Catalonia and Galicia). We selected 354 cases of pathologically confirmed gastric adenocarcinoma from 15 hospitals, representative of nearly all those in the study areas. A control for each case, matched by age, sex and area of residence, was selected from the same hospital as the case. Habitual diet was investigated by the dietary history method, and past diet by means of a frequency questionnaire. The results regarding consumption of food items are presented here. With respect to habitual diet, an increase in risk was associated with consumption of preserved fish, cold cuts and oleaginous fruits. A high intake of cooked green vegetables, fresh noncitrus fruit and dried fruit showed an inverse association with the risk of gastric cancer. Simultaneous intake of 2 groups of food which increase or decrease the risk of cancer strengthens the respective individual effect. The intake of protective food items seems to neutralize the effects of food items which increase risk. With reference to past diet, a possible protective effect was observed for daily consumption of fresh fruit and green vegetables.

Our positive results are consistent with the results of recent studies; which conclude that there is a potential benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in resected gastric cancer.