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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.

In the past 10 years, preeminent achievements and outstanding progress have been achieved on sodium‐ion capacitors (SICs). Early work on SICs focussed more on the electrochemical performance. While it is easy to confirm which specific electrodes exhibit excellent properties, it is difficult to understand the mechanisms which are most promising for the next generation of SICs. From the early research in supercapacitors iterations to the present well‐developed Na‐ion batteries, the evolution of the controversial pseudocapacitive mechanism for SICs has been full of breakthroughs and back tracing steps. Moreover, as the research has progressed and the interests have changed, different emphases on the different subdisciplines (cell configurations, flexible devices, and presodiation technologies) have increased. In this review, first, the electric double layer mechanism, battery‐type mechanism, and the controversial pseudocapacitance mechanism are systematically analyzed and compared. Subsequently, mechanism‐oriented SICs cell configurations with different cathode and anode mechanisms are discussed. Moreover, the characteristics and features of electrode materials in different SICs cell configurations are summarized. Finally, key technologies and possible future developments are discussed. This review summarizes SICs from a broad and macro perspective from mechanisms to cell configurations, from cathodes to anodes, and from history to future, and offers a deep understanding of SICs devices.

A thin hydroxyapatite (HA) layer was coated on a microarc oxidized titanium (MAO-Ti) substrate by means of the sol-gel method. The microarc oxidation (anodizing) enhanced the biocompatibility of the Ti, and the bioactivity was improved further by the sol-gel HA coating on the anodized Ti. The HA sol was aged fully to obtain a stable and phase-pure HA, and the sol concentration was varied to alter the coating thickness. Through the sol-gel HA coating, the Ca and P concentrations in the coating layer increased significantly. However, the porous morphology and roughness of the MAO-Ti was altered very little by the sol-gel treatment. The proliferation and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of the osteoblast-like cells on the MAO/HA sol-gel-treated Ti were significantly higher than those on the MAO-Ti without the HA sol-gel treatment.

Sunitinib, a novel oral multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor, has a good prospect for clinical application and is being investigated for the potential therapy of other tumors. We observed the phenomenon that drinking tea interfered with symptom control in an mRCC patient treated with sunitinib and speculated that green tea or its components might interact with sunitinib. This study was performed to investigate whether epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major constituent of green tea, interacted with sunitinib. The interaction between EGCG and sunitinib was examined in vitro and in vivo. (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) were used to analyze the interaction between these two molecules and whether a new compound was formed. Solutions of sunitinib and EGCG were intragastrically administered to rats to investigate whether the plasma concentrations of sunitinib were affected by EGCG. In this study, we noticed that a precipitate was formed when the solutions of sunitinib and EGCG were mixed under both neutral and acidic conditions. (1)H-NMR spectra indicated an interaction between EGCG and sunitinib, but no new compound was observed by MS. Sticky semisolid contents were found in the stomachs of sunitinib and EGCG co-administrated mice. The AUC(0-∞) and C (max) of plasma sunitinib were markedly reduced by co-administration of EGCG to rats. Our study firstly showed that EGCG interacted with sunitinib and reduced the bioavailability of sunitinib. This finding has significant practical implications for tea-drinking habit during sunitinib administration.