IntroductionCurrently in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), the correlation between lymph node positivity (LN+) and patient’s age at diagnosis is still inconclusive. The aim of this study was to investigate whether younger PTC patients had higher LN+ rates.Patients and methodsFrom the 1998–2013 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we analyzed PTC patients with at least 1 LN examined. The patients were divided into 5 groups by age separately for each T stage: ≤30; 31–40; 41–50; 51–60; >60 years.ResultsA total of 46,077 PTC patients were identified, including 8,386 (18.2%) patients aged ≤30 years, 10,971 (23.8%) patients aged 31–40 years, 11,646 (25.3%) patients aged 41–50 years, 8,596 (18.7%) patients aged 51–60 years, and 6,478 (14.1%) patients aged >60 years. In each T stage, LN+ rates were inversely associated with age at diagnosis, which was validated by multivariate logistic regression analysis (p<0.001). In addition, the subset of patients 30 or younger had the highest lymph node ratio compared with other subsets (p<0.001).ConclusionWe identified that younger PTC patients have an increased predisposition for LN+ regardless of T stage. This finding could help surgeons to select the optimal treatment for younger PTC patients.

BackgroundDysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in the development of human cancers. LncRNA GAPLINC has been reported to be increased in gastric cancer (GC) tissues.MethodsReal-time PCR assays were used to measure expressions of GAPLINC, miR-378, and MAPK1 mRNA. Western blot assays were employed to examine MAPK1 protein expression. Cell proliferation and cell cycle were measured by CCK-8 and propidium iodide-detection assays, respectively. The interaction between GAPLINC and miR-378 was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis and luciferase assays. Luciferase assays were also used to study whether GAPLINC was able to act as a molecular sponge of miR-378 to modulate MAPK1 expression.ResultsThe lncRNA GAPLINC expression was upregulated and positively correlated with MAPK1 expression in gastric cancer tissues and cells. Additionally, lncRNA GAPLINC promoted the expression of MAPK1 and the enhancement of GC cell proliferation and cell cycle progression by LncRNA GAPLINC was dependent on MAPK1 in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, we found that miR-378 expression was inversely correlated with GAPLINC expression in GC tissues and cells. miR-378 could directly bind to GAPLINC and decreased GAPLINC expression, thus reducing MAPK1 expression. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-378 inhibited MAPK1 expression, cell proliferation, and cell cycle progression of gastric cancer cells, while these effects were abrogated by upregulating lncRNA GAPLINC expression.ConclusionTaken together, lncRNA GAPLINC promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation by acting as a molecular sponge of miR-378 to modulate MAPK1 expression.

Triple negative breast cancer lacking estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor and Her2 account for account for the majority of the breast cancer deaths, due to the lack of specific gene targeted therapy. Our current study aimed to investigate the role of miR-544 in triple negative breast cancer. Endogenous levels of miR-544 were significantly lower in breast cancer cell lines than in human breast non-tumorigenic and mammary epithelial cell lines. We found that miR-544 directly targeted the 3'-untranslated region (UTR) on both Bcl6 and Stat3 mRNAs, and overexpression of miR-544 in triple negative breast cancer cells significantly down-regulated expressions of Bcl6 and Stat3, which in turn severely inhibited cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Employing a mouse xenograft model to examine the in vivo function of miR-544, we found that expression of miR-544 significantly repressed the growth of xenograft tumors. Our current study reported miR-544 as a tumor-suppressor microRNA particularly in triple negative breast cancer. Our data supported the role of miR-544 as a potential biomarker in developing gene targeted therapies in the clinical treatment of triple negative breast cancer.

ObjectiveThis study was to evaluate the risk factors of survival in patients with columnar cell variant (CCV) and encapsulated variant (ECV).Materials and methodsThe Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1988–2013) was used to compare the characteristics of CCV and ECV with those of classic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Survival was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method, the log-rank test, and Cox multivariate regression. Multivariate logistic regression was used to further analyze lymph node metastases and distant metastasis. There were 765 CCV, 529 ECV, and 39,035 PTC patients. ECV tumors were similar to PTC in terms of overall survival, disease-specific survival, age, sex, and distant metastasis.ResultsCompared with PTC, CCV tumors tended to be larger, with a higher incidence rate among males and in patients ≥65 years of age. CCV was associated with higher rates of extrathyroidal extension, multifocality, lymph node examinations, and lymph node and distant metastases (p<0.0001). Significant differences were found in 10-year overall survival (97.14% vs 89.15%, p<0.0001) and disease-specific survival (99.08% vs 93.07%, p<0.0001) between PTC and CCV. In CCV, distant metastasis (hazard ratio 5.125, p<0.0001) and lymph nodal metastasis (hazard ratio 2.152, p=0.032) predicted a poor prognosis. After adjustment, distant metastasis was independently associated with age ≥65 years, and lymph nodal metastasis was independently associated with female sex (odds ratio [OR] 0.341 [0.234–0.496]), extrathyroidal extension (OR 2.453 [1.368–4.397]), multifocality (OR 2.168 [1.318–3.569]), size >20 mm, ≤40 mm (OR 1.851 [1.170–2.928]), and size >40 mm (OR 1.847 [1.088–3.136]).ConclusionECV appears to have a similar prognosis to PTC, while CCV has a worse prognosis than classic PTC. Treatment with external beam radiotherapy and radioactive implants should be conducted carefully in patients with CCV.