Aptamers are nucleic acid ligands that are generated by molecular evolution to bind with high affinities and specificities to a large variety of targets, which make them attractive tools to be applied in cancer research. In this review, we highlight the recent progress in aptamer-based applications in cancer molecular research such as cancer targeting, biomarker discovery and therapeutics. Aptamers generated from cell-systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment especially contribute to the discovery of novel membrane proteins as cancer biomarkers. Aptamer-nanoparticle conjugation could achieve higher affinity for cancer detection. Aptamer-conjugated nanocarriers deliver drugs to cancer cells with increased specificity and efficacy, as well as reduced toxicity.
Background: The present study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram based on expanded TNM staging to predict the prognosis for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the bladder (SCCB).
Methods: A total of 595 eligible patients with SCCB identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) dataset were randomly divided into training set (n = 416) and validation set (n = 179). The likelihood ratio test was used to select potentially relevant factors for developing the nomogram. The performance of the nomogram was validated on the training and validation sets using a C-index with 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and calibration curve, and was further compared with TNM staging system.
Results: The nomogram included six factors: age, T stage, N stage, M stage, the method of surgery and tumor size. The C-indexes of the nomogram were 0.768 (0.741–0.795) and 0.717 (0.671–0.763) in the training and validation sets, respectively, which were higher than the TNM staging system with C-indexes of 0.580 (0.543–0.617) and 0.540 (0.484–0.596) in the training and validation sets, respectively. Furthermore, the decision curve analysis (DCA) proved that the nomogram provided superior clinical effectiveness.
Conclusions: We developed a nomogram that help predict individualized prognosis for patients with SCCB.
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a type of epithelial cancer with poor outcomes and late diagnosis. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the promoting role of plasminogen activator, urokinase (PLAU) in several tumor types, while its function in CCA is largely unknown. The expression of PLAU in CCA was determined by data from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and further confirmed in human tissues using immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. Moreover, PLAU‐silencing CCA cell models were constructed for subsequent functional assays in vitro and in vivo. PLAU expression in CCA was significantly higher than that in normal tissues. High PLAU expression was positively correlated with poor patients' survival. PLAU knockdown remarkably suppressed proliferation and migration of CCA cells, whereas enhanced apoptosis. Consistently, tumor growth in mice injected with PLAU‐silencing CCA cells was also impaired. Furthermore, we revealed that the activation of NF‐κB signaling was required for PLAU‐induced malignant phenotypes of CCA cells. Inhibiting the high expression of PLAU in CCA may be a potential entry point for targeted therapy in CCA patient.
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