Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are associated with poor prognosis in numerous human cancers and play important roles in tumor progression. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contributes to invasion and metastasis in cancer. However, the associations between TAMs and EMT are not clear in gastric cancer (GC). The present study was designed to investigate the effects of TAMs on EMT in human GC.TAMs marker CD68 and EMT-related proteins were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in human GC tissues and their clinical significance were evaluated.A high level of infiltration of TAMs was associated with aggressive characteristics of tumor and an independent poor prognostic factor in human GC tissues. Infiltration of TAMs was also associated with EMT-related proteins in human GC tissues.Our findings suggest that the high level of infiltration TAMs was associated with aggressive features of GC and is an independent poor prognostic factor in GC patients. TAMs are associated with EMT induction in human GC tissues. The level of TAMs infiltration may be used as a prognostic factor and even a therapeutic target in GC.

Breast cancer generally shows poor prognosis because of its invasion and metastasis. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) induces and aggravates cancer invasion and metastasis by activating its downstream signal pathways. RhoA/ROCK/MMP signaling was found one of the LPA-induced pathways, which may be involved in invasion of breast cancer. Furthermore, we investigated whether this pathway was involved in curcumin's effect against LPA-induced invasion. LPA incubation was used to enhance invasion of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. RhoA expression was knocked-down by siRNA technique. MTT assay was used to evaluate the proliferation. Transwell assay was utilized to investigate the invasion ability of MCF-7 cells. Real-time PCR and Western blotting were used to assess the expressions of RhoA, ROCK1, ROCK2, MMP2 and MMP9 at both translational and transcriptional levels. The RhoA and ROCK activities were also evaluated. LPA incubation significantly boosted invasion rate of MCF-7. RhoA silencing by siRNA dramatically inhibited LPA-enhanced invasion. Concurrently, RhoA and ROCK activities and expression levels of RhoA, ROCK1, ROCK2, MMP2 and MMP9 were down-regulated by RhoA siRNA transfection. In order to avoid influence of cytotoxicity of curcumin, concentrations below 45 μmol/L were selected to further investigate the mechanism of curcumin's anti-invasion effect. Invasion of LPA-incubated MCF-7 cells was impaired by curcumin in a concentration-dependent manner. Concurrently, RhoA and ROCK activities and expression levels of RhoA, ROCK1, ROCK2, MMP2 and MMP9 were down-regulated by curcumin in a concentration-dependent manner. In conclusion, RhoA/ROCK/MMPs pathway activation is involved in LPA-induced invasion in MCF-7 cells; curcumin inhibited LPA-induced invasion in MCF-7 cells by attenuating RhoA/ROCK/MMPs pathway.

The results indicate that FTIR may be used in clinical diagnosis.

Invasion and metastasis are the major causes of tumor-related mortality in lung cancer. It is believed that curcumin is an effective drug possessing anti-invasive and anti-metastatic activities in the treatment of cancer. However, the specific mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether the PKCα/Nox-2/ATF-2/MMP-9 signaling pathway is involved in the invasive behavior of lung cancer and whether curcumin could inhibit invasion by modulating this pathway. The cytotoxic effect of curcumin was evaluated by MTT assay and the capacity of invasion was assessed by Transwell assay. siRNA and plasmid transfection techniques were used to study the function of targeted genes. Real-time PCR and western blot analysis were used to evaluate the expression levels of PKCα, Nox-2, MMP-9 and the phosphorylation of ATF-2. The results showed that curcumin inhibited the proliferation and invasion of A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Overexpression of MMP-9 enhanced the invasion of A549 cells. However, inhibition of MMP-9 by siRNA or curcumin suppressed cell invasion. Moreover, we also demonstrated the catalytic role of PKCα in expression of MMP-9 and cellular invasion in A549 cells, which was dependent on the expression of Nox-2 and phosphorylation of ATF-2. Finally, we also showed that curcumin dose-dependently reduced the expression of PKCα, P47phox, Nox-2 and phosphorylated ATF-2, as well as intracellular ROS generation, suggesting the inhibitory effect of curcumin on the activation of the PKCα/Nox-2/ROS/ATF-2 pathway. In conclusion, the PKCα/Nox-2/ROS/ATF-2/MMP-9 signaling pathway is activated in lung cancer A549 cells, which could be modulated by curcumin to inhibit cell invasiveness.

Triple receptor-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) generally have poor prognoses because of the loss of therapeutic targets. As lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor signaling has been shown to affect breast cancer initiation and progression, we try to evaluate the potential roles of LPA receptors in TNBCs. We examined mRNA and protein expressions of LPA receptors 1-3, using quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemical analyses in normal (n = 37), benign disease (n = 55), and breast cancer tissues (n = 82). Carcinomas expressed higher levels of LPA2 and LPA3 mRNAs (0.17 ± 0.070 and 0.05 ± 0.023, respectively) than did normal breast tissue (0.13 ± 0.072 and 0.02 ± 0.002, respectively). Enhanced immunohistochemical staining for LPA2 and LPA3 protein was also consistently observed in carcinomas. The LPA3 overexpression was associated with lymph node metastases, and absence of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 expression. TNBC tissues and cell lines showed the highest LPA3 expression compared with luminal-type A and B breast cancers. Suppression of LPA3 by shRNA did not influence cell growth in breast cancer cells. However, the migration and invasion of TNBC cells were significantly inhibited by LPA3-shRNA or inhibitor, which had no or less effect on normal and non-TNBC breast cells. In conclusion, our data indicated that the expression of LPA receptor 3 was increased in human TNBCs and is associated with tumor metastatic ability, and this implies that LPA3 is a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of TNBCs.

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Rap1GAP is a crucial tumor suppressor, but its role in gastric cancer (GC) is little investigated. In this study, we found that the expression of Rap1GAP was decreased in GC. Low expression of Rap1GAP was positively correlated with advanced pTNM stage, Borrmann types, tumor diameter and poor prognosis in patients with GC. Low expression of Rap1GAP correlated with loss of E-cadherin expression, and anomalous positivity of MMP2 expression. Multivariate analysis showed that low expression of Rap1GAP was an independent prognostic factor. Ectopic expression of Rap1GAP impaired cell migration and invasion, promoted the expression of E-cadherin and decreased the expression of MMP2. These results suggest that Rap1GAP functions as a novel suppressor of EMT and tumor metastasis in GC, and loss of Rap1GAP predicts poor prognosis in GC.

Diffusion-weighted imaging-T2WI can improve diagnostic performance in comparison with DWI alone. Meanwhile, DWI-T2WI performs better than DCE-MRI in predicting myometrial invasion of endometrial cancer. It may be an alternative for DCE-MRI in presurgical staging of endometrial cancer.