Patients with early gastric cancer who received H. pylori treatment had lower rates of metachronous gastric cancer and more improvement from baseline in the grade of gastric corpus atrophy than patients who received placebo. (Funded by the National Cancer Center, South Korea; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02407119 .).

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Statins, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors could be associated with the risk reduction of colorectal cancer. We previously demonstrated that simvastatin inhibits NF-jB signaling in human intestinal epithelial cells and ameliorates acute murine colitis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of simvastatin on the apoptotic pathways related to NF-jB signaling in colon cancer cells, and on anticancer effects in 2 different animal models. We treated cell lines (COLO 205 and HCT 116) with simvastatin or vehicle and determined apoptosis by cell cycle analysis, Annexin V-FITC staining, caspase-3 activity assay and confocal microscopy. We assessed the expression of antiapoptotic factors by RT-PCR and Western blotting. In the colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC) model, we induced colonic tumors in C57/BL6 mice by azoxymethane and dextran sulfate sodium administration, and evaluated simvastatin's effect on tumor growth. In the xenograft model, we evaluated its effect on the inoculated tumor growth. In both cell lines, simvastatin caused dose-and time-dependent cell death. Annexin V staining significantly increased after simvastatin treatment. It augmented caspase-3 activity and downregulated the expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, cIAP1 and cFLIP. In the CAC model, simvastatin significantly reduced tumor development. In the xenograft model, tumors from animals treated with simvastatin had smaller volumes, larger necrotic areas, lower expression of VEGF and higher apoptotic scores. In conclusion, simvastatin inhibited colon cancer development by induction of apoptosis and suppression of angiogenesis. These results suggest that simvastatin could be a potential chemopreventive and therapeutic agent of CAC as well as de novo colon cancer. ' 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: simvastatin; apoptosis; colon cancer cells; tumor xenograft; colitis-associated colon cancer Statins are 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl coenzyme A (HMGCoA) reductase inhibitors that reduce cholesterol synthesis by preventing conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate. Besides their lipid-lowering effect, increasing evidence suggests that statins have therapeutic effects in a wide variety of diseases including cancer. [1][2][3][4] Statins suppress inflammation, 5,6 modulate angiogenesis, 7-9 and inhibit the growth of a wide spectrum of cell lines. [1][2][3][10][11][12] Moreover, statins are associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). 13 The mechanisms for all of those effects, however, remain unclear.We recently demonstrated that simvastatin inhibits NF-jB signaling in human intestinal epithelial cells and ameliorates acute murine colitis. 6 Moreover, NF-jB activation plays a critical role in the development of colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC) and inflammation-driven tumor progression in other mouse models. 14,15 Because NF-jB as a transcription factor has been linked to tumorigenesis, apoptosis, inflammation and angiogenesis, 16 we hypothesized that simvastatin may mediate their anti-CRC effects by modulating NF-jB pathway.In our study, we evalua...

The ComX pheromone is an extracellular signaling molecule that stimulates natural competence in response to crowding in the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The pheromone is formed by isoprenylation of an inactive precursor peptide, but its precise structure is not known. Here we report the structure of the ComX pheromone, showing that addition of a geranyl group to a tryptophan residue results in the formation of an unusual ring structure.

Endoscopic resection may be an optimal alternative to surgery for gastric cancers that meet the expanded indication criteria, because of a comparable long-term overall survival rate.

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Despite early experiences, RATG was shown to be comparable with LATG in terms of surgical and oncologic outcomes. However, no apparent benefit is associated with RATG to date.

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