Esophageal cancer (EC) is the sixth most deadly cancer, and its incidence is still increasing year by year. Although the researches on the molecular mechanisms of EC have been widely carried out and incremental progress has been made, its overall survival rate is still low. There is cumulative evidence showing that the esophageal microenvironment plays a vital role in the development of EC. In precancerous lesions of the esophagus, high-risk environmental factors can promote the development of precancerous lesions by inducing the production of inflammatory factors and the recruitment of immune cells. In the tumor microenvironment, tumor-promoting cells can inhibit anti-tumor immunity and promote tumor progression through a variety of pathways, such as bone marrow-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), tumor-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), and regulatory T cells (Tregs). The formation of extracellular hypoxia and acidic microenvironment and the change of extracellular matrix stiffness are also important factors affecting tumor progression and metastasis. Simultaneously, primary tumor-derived cytokines and bone marrow-derived immune cells can also promote the formation of pre-metastasis niche of EC lymph nodes, which are beneficial to EC lymph node metastasis. Further research on the specific mechanism of these processes in the occurrence, development, and metastasis of each EC subtype will support us to grasp the overall pre-cancerous prevention, targeted treatment, and metastatic assessment of EC.

Background: Pulmonary carcinosarcomas (PCSs) are a heterogeneous group of non-smallcell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) with aggressiveness and a poor prognosis. Although genetic mutations of some common lung cancer subtypes have been extensively studied, the molecular characteristics of PCSs and the existence of abnormal target genes are unknown. Methods: In this study, the clinical and molecular characterization in 3 pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinomas (PSCs) were presented using microscope analysis and next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis. Results: The results revealed a carcinosarcomas subtype presenting squamous cell carcinoma and sarcoma components in all 3 cases. NGS analysis showed that 182, 316 and 230 shared mutations were detected between sarcoma and lung carcinoma from 3 patients. Two identical alterations in two genes (CSMD3 and RYR3) that were all shared by the two components in 3 patients. Tumor suppressor gene TP53 (5/6, 83%) showed the highest mutation frequency for driver genes here. Additionally, we focused on an LYST mutation which was mainly present in the sarcoma components. Moreover, the clonal evolution and signature analysis confirm that lung squamous cell carcinoma and sarcoma in each PCS patient may have come from a common ancestor, and mutagenesis was possibly related to indirect effects of tobacco, age or other unknown factors. Conclusion: Our results indicate that genetic analysis and molecular targeted therapy are necessary for the identification and treatment of these rare lung tumors. CSMD3 and LYST, as common mutation genes, may be a potential therapeutic target in PCS.

OBJECTIVES To compare the perioperative and follow-up outcomes of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) receiving subxiphoid-subcostal or unilateral thoracoscopic thymectomy and to identify the factors affecting MG prognosis. METHODS From January 2013 to December 2019, a total of 137 consecutive MG patients received subxiphoid-subcostal thoracoscopic thymectomy (STT, n = 65) or conventional unilateral thoracoscopic thymectomy (UTT, n = 72). The primary outcomes of this study were perioperative complications, duration and expenses of hospitalization, VAS score and complete stable remission (CSR). RESULTS The patients receiving STT had significantly shorter drainage duration and postoperative hospital stay and lower hospitalization expenses (P < 0.01). Pain scores on postoperative Days 1, 3, 7 and 14 were significantly lower in patients undergoing STT (P < 0.01). The average follow-up was 54.3 ± 24.18 months, with a CSR rate of 30.6% and an overall effective rate of 87.3%. Through uni- and multivariable analyses, shorter symptom duration and Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America (MGFA) class I were independent predictors for CSR in MG patients receiving thymectomy. CONCLUSIONS The present study not only showed that STT was a safe and feasible technique for MG, with a potentially faster postoperative recovery, lower hospitalization expenses, less postoperative pain and equivalent remission rate, but also revealed that shorter symptom duration and MGFA class I were favourable prognostic factors for CSR.

Tumor metastasis is still an insurmountable obstacle in tumor treatment. Lung cancer represents one of the most common malignancies with high morbidity worldwide. hnRNPA1 has been reported to be involved in the regulation of tumor metastasis, while its specific role in tumor metastasis seems to be controversial and its molecular mechanism in lung cancer metastasis remains to be further elucidated. In this study, we confirmed that knockdown of the hnRNPA1 led to enhanced migration, invasion and EMT transition in lung cancer cells. Bioinformatics analysis of the GSE34992 dataset revealed that hnRNPA1 may regulate the alternative splicing (AS) of LAS1L exon 9. Further AGE assays and RIP assays revealed that hnRNPA1 can directly bind to the LAS1L pre-mRNA to inhibit the splicing of LAS1L exon 9. The RNA pull-down assays showed that hnRNPA1 can specifically bind to the two sites (UAGGGU(WT1) and UGGGGU(WT3)) of LAS1L Intron 9. Further Transwell assays indicated that the expression ratio of LAS1L-L/LAS1L-S regulated by hnRNPA1 can further promote the migration, invasion and EMT transition in lung cancer cells. Moreover, hnRNPA1 expression showed significant heterogeneity in lung cancer tissues, which may contain new research directions and potential therapeutic targets. Our results indicate that hnRNPA1 can affect the metastasis of lung cancer cells by modulating the AS of LAS1L exon 9, highlighting the potential significance of hnRNPA1 in lung cancer metastasis.

Background: Understanding the genomic landscape of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) may provide new insights into the molecular evolution in the early stages of LUAD. Methods: Through sequencing of 79 spatially distinct regions from 37 patients with ground glass opacities (GGOs), we provided a comprehensive mutational landscape of GGOs, highlighting the importance of ancestry differences. Results: Our study had several interesting features. First, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), BRAF (v-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1), and ERBB2 (Erb-B2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinase 2, also known as HER2) were more frequently mutated in our study, which supports the notion that EGFR is considered to be a major driver and tends to drive the occurrence of LUAD. Second, Signature 1, Signature 3, and Signature 6 were identified in patients with GGOs. Our results further suggested that Signature 1 was more prominent among early mutations. Third, compared with LUADs, GGOs exhibited significantly lower levers of arm-level copy number variation (CNV)-which alter the diploid status of DNA, and lower focal CNVs.Conclusions: In our study, 79 samples of patients were included to analyze the GGO gene profile, revealing the genetic heterogeneity of GGO in East Asian population, and providing guidance for prognosis analysis of GGO patients by comparison with LUAD. Our study revealed that GGOs had fewer genomic alterations and simpler genomic profiles than LUADs. The most commonly altered processes were related to the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)/Ras/phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathways in GGOs, and EGFR alterations were the dominant genetic changes across all targetable somatic changes.

Background. Glycolysis is closely associated with tumor progression, but the roles of lncRNAs in glycolysis have not been comprehensively investigated in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). This study is aimed at studying the possible mechanisms of glycolysis-related lncRNAs in tumor development and providing a guidance for targeted therapy. Methods. Unsupervised consensus clustering was used to identify molecular subtypes. Gene enrichment analysis was applied to screen important pathways involved in tumor progression. A series of immune analysis was performed to assess immune infiltration. Critical transcription factors (TFs) interacting with lncRNAs were selected by Pearson correlation analysis. A first-order partial correlation analysis was implemented to identify critical lncRNAs with prognostic significance. Results. Three molecular subtypes (C1, C2, and C3) were identified with distinct overall survival. Three subtypes showed differential immune infiltration, and C3 subtype was the optimal for immunotherapy treatment. Ten lncRNA-TF pairs among four glycolysis-related lncRNAs (FTX, LINC00472, PSMA3-AS1, and SNHG14) and six TFs (FOXP1, SP1, MYC, FOXM1, HIF1A, and FOS) were involved in tumor progression. We identified four critical glycolysis-related lncRNAs significantly associated with prognosis. Conclusions. This study identified three molecular subtypes that could guide personalized therapy. The four-lncRNA prognostic model can serve as an indicator for predicting prognosis or early screening of lung adenocarcinoma patients. The current results improve the understanding of the relation between lncRNAs and glycolysis.

The survival rate of patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is low. This study analyzed the correlation between the expression of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and epigenetic alterations along with the investigation of the prognostic value of these outcomes for LUAD. Differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified based on multiomic data and positively related genes using DESeq2 in R, differentially histone-modifying genes specific to LUAD based on histone modification data, gene enhancers from information collected from the FANTOM5 (Function Annotation Of The Mammalian Genome-5) (fantom.gsc.riken.jp/5) human enhancer database, gene promoters using the ChIPseeker and the human lincRNAs Transcripts database in R, and differentially methylated regions (DMRs) using Bumphunter in R. Overall survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier, comparisons were performed among groups using log-rank tests to derive differences between sample subclasses, and epigenetic lncRNAs (epi-lncRNAs) potentially relevant to LUAD prognosis were identified. A total of seven dysregulated epi-lncRNAs in LUAD were identified by comparing histone modifications and alterations in histone methylation regions on lncRNA promoter and enhancer elements, including H3K4me2, H3K27me3, H3K4me1, H3K9me3, H4K20me1, H3K9ac, H3K79me2, H3K27ac, H3K4me3, and H3K36me3. Furthermore, 69 LUAD-specific dysregulated epi-lncRNAs were identified. Moreover, lncRNAs-based prognostic analysis of LUAD samples was performed and explored that seven of these lncRNAs, including A2M-AS1, AL161431.1, DDX11-AS1, FAM83A-AS1, MHENCR, MNX1-AS1, and NKILA (7-EpiLncRNA), showed the potential to serve as markers for LUAD prognosis. Additionally, patients having a high 7-EpiLncRNA score showed a generally more unfavorable prognosis compared with those which scored lower. Seven lncRNAs were identified as markers of prognosis in patients with LUAD. The outcomes of this research will help us understand epigenetically aberrant regulation of lncRNA expression in LUAD in a better way and have implications for research advances in the regulatory role of lncRNAs in LUAD.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been demonstrated as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases. Previous studies have unveiled the carcinogenic role of circRNA_102399 (circCNN2) in lung cancer. Through the UALCAN database, it was found that CNN2, the parent gene of circCNN2, was specifically highly expressed in human lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) cells, but the regulatory mechanism of circCNN2 in LUSC is unclear. In this study, circCNN2 expression in LUSC cells was examined via RT-qPCR, and its effects on LUSC progression was verified through functional assays. The subcellular localization of circCNN2 was identified via FISH assay, and the underlying mechanism of circCNN2 on the activation of MAPK signaling pathway was determined through mechanism experiments. Results demonstrated that circCNN2 was upregulated in LUSC cells, and it promoted LUSC cell proliferation and invasion. Besides, circCNN2 acted as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to sponge miR-184 to upregulate E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) expression. Furthermore, it was verified that circCNN2 activated the generic mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathway through E2F1 and thus promoting LUSC progression. In a word, this study indicated that circCNN2 activated MAPK signaling pathway through the miR-184/E2F1 axis to promote proliferation and invasion of LUSC cells.