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Aims: To investigate the functional role of serum Human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) in prediction of lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer patients.Materials and methods: Serum samples were pre-operational collected from 86 patients with gastric cancer from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from March 2016 to August 2016. The serum of APE1 was measured by ELISA development kit and other CA242, CA724, CA199 and CEA levels by electrochemiluminescence assay.Results: The total of 86 patients with gastric cancer was classified into two groups (lymph node positive and negative groups). Using ELISA assay, we found out that the concentration of serum APE1 was higher in lymph node positive group than that of lymph node negative group. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to analyze, indicating that area under the ROC curve of serum APE1 were better than those of each regular markers (CEA+CA199+CA242+CA724) or combination of these markers. Additionally, the APE1 overexpression was uncovered in tissue of gastric cancer patients with lymph nodes metastases, which is correlation with results of serum APE1.Conclusion: Serum APE1 was identified as a valuable marker for prediction of lymph node metastases in patients with gastric cancer.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of most lethal cancers and is projected to be the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States by 2030. The lack of effective treatment and increased incidence in PDAC encourage a deeper knowledge of PDAC progression. By analyzing a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) dataset, we found that increased LINC00941 expression led to poor outcomes in PDAC patients. Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo experiments revealed that LINC00941 promoted PDAC cancer cell growth by enhancing aerobic glycolysis. Mechanistically, LINC00941 was found to interact with mammalian STE20-like protein kinase 1 (MST1), which facilitated the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A)-mediated dephosphorylation of MST1, resulting in Hippo pathway activation and consequently, enhanced glycolysis in PDAC. These results suggest that LINC00941 plays a key role in regulating PDAC tumorigenesis, potentially highlighting novel avenues for PDAC therapy.

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Obesity is a major epigenetic cause for colorectal cancer (CRC). Leptin is implicated in obesity-associated CRC, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The current study identified over-expression of metallopanstimulin-1 (MPS-1) in CRC patients through microarray and histological analysis, especially in obese CRC patients. MPS-1 was correlated with advanced tumor stage, suggesting its association with CRC progression. In addition, MPS-1 over-expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS) in obese CRC patients, but not in their non-obese counterparts, suggesting its potential as a prognostic marker of obese CRC patients. MPS-1 expression was positively associated with circulating leptin levels in CRC patients, especially in obese cases. Functional experiments demonstrated that MPS-1 silencing inhibited tumor proliferation and colony formation, and induced apoptosis of CRC cells in vitro. Converse results were obtained from the experiments with MPS-1 over-expression. Mechanistically, MPS-1 executed its action through induction of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/c-Jun pathway. Moreover, the promotion effect of MPS-1 on CRC progression was modulated by leptin. In vivo studies demonstrated that MPS-1 silencing suppressed tumor growth of CRC via inhibiting JNK/c-Jun signaling. Collectively, this study indicates that MPS-1 promotes leptin-induced CRC via activating JNK/c-Jun pathway. MPS-1 might represent a potent candidate for the treatment and prognostic prediction of obesity-associated CRC.

Circulating leukocytes are an important part of the immune system. The aim of this work is to explore the role of preoperative circulating leukocytes in serous ovarian carcinoma and investigate whether they can be used to predict survival prognosis. Routine blood test results and clinical information of patients with serous ovarian carcinoma were retrospectively collected. And to predict survival according to the blood routine test result the decision tree method was applied to build a machine learning model.The results showed that the number of preoperative white blood cells (p = 0.022), monocytes (p < 0.001), lymphocytes (p < 0.001), neutrophils (p < 0.001), and eosinophils (p < 0.001) and the monocyte to lymphocyte (MO/LY) ratio in the serous ovarian cancer group were significantly different from those in the control group. These factors also showed a correlation with other clinicopathological characteristics. The MO/LY was the root node of the decision tree, and the predictive AUC for survival was 0.69. The features involved in the decision tree were the MO/LY, differentiation status, CA125 level, neutrophils (NE,) ascites cytology, LY% and age.In conclusion, the number and percentage of preoperative leukocytes in patients with ovarian cancer is changed significantly compared to those in the normal control group, as well as the MO/LY. A decision tree was built to predict the survival of patients with serous ovarian cancer based on the CA125 level, white blood cell (WBC) count, presence of lymph node metastasis (LNM), MO count, the MO/LY ratio, differentiation status, stage, LY%, ascites cytology, and age.

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