An increasing body of evidence indicates that miR-149 can both suppress and promote tumor growth depending on the tumor type. However, the role of miR-149 in the progression of gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. Here we report that miR-149 is a tumor suppressor in human gastric cancer. miR-149 expression is decreased in GC cell lines and clinical specimens in comparison to normal gastric epithelial cell and tissues, respectively. The expression levels of miR-149 also correlate with the differentiation degree of GC cells and tissues. Moreover, ectopic expression of miR-149 in gastric cancer cells inhibits proliferation and cell cycle progression by down-regulating ZBTB2, a potent repressor of the ARF-HDM2-p53-p21 pathway, with a potential binding site for miR-149 in its mRNA's 3′UTR. It is also found that ZBTB2 expression increases in GC cells and tissues compared to normal gastric epithelial cell and tissues, respectively. Silencing of ZBTB2 leads to suppression of cell growth and cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase, indicating that ZBTB2 may act as an oncogene in GC. Furthermore, transfection of miR-149 mimics into gastric cancer cells induces down-regulation of ZBTB2 and HDM2, and up-regulation of ARF, p53, and p21 compared to the controls. In summary, our data suggest that miR-149 functions as a tumor suppressor in human gastric cancer by, at least partially through, targeting ZBTB2.
MiR-27a might play important roles in multidrug resistance of esophageal cancer. The further study of the biological functions of miR-27a might be helpful for developing possible strategies to treat esophageal cancer.
BackgroundRecurrent or metastatic lung cancer is difficult to manage. This retrospective study aimed to assess the efficacy of repeated iodine-125 seed implantations combined with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for locally recurrent or metastatic stage-III/IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsEighteen previously treated stage-III/IV NSCLC patients with local or metastatic recurrences underwent 1-to-3 iodine-125 implantations. Six of these patients received palliative EBRT and six patients received combined chemotherapy using gemcitabine and cisplatin. Near-term treatment efficacy was evaluated 3 months after seed implantation by comparing changes in tumor size on computed tomography images; the evaluated outcomes were complete response, partial response, stable disease, and local tumor control rate. Long-term efficacy was assessed based on 1- and 2-year survival rates.ResultsPatients were followed up for 6 to 50 months. The overall (i.e., complete + partial) response rate was 87.4 %. The local control rates after the first, second, and third years were 94.1, 58.8 and 41.2 %, respectively.ConclusionsThe results of this study demonstrated that repeated implantation of radioactive particles combined with EBRT is a safe treatment that effectively controlled local recurrence and metastasis of stage III/IV NSCLC.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between the expression levels of excision repair cross complementing 1 (ERCC1), thymidylate synthase (TYMS), class III β-tubulin (TUBB3), ribonucleoside-diphosphate reductase (RRM1) and topoisomerase IIα (TOP2A) with the clinical characteristics of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). A total of 29 ESCC tissue samples were collected from patients that had not previously received systematic treatment. The expression levels of ERCC1, TYMS, TUBB3, RRM1 and TOP2A were determined using a microarray technique, while Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was used to determine the strength of the correlations between the expression levels of the biomarkers and the pathogenesis of esophageal cancer. High expression levels of TYMS and TOP2A were observed in 24% of the samples and high expression levels of TUBB3 and RRM1 were identified in 7% of the samples. Hierarchical clustering analysis of these biomarkers enabled the samples to be grouped. Group 1 patients exhibited low expression levels of TYMS, RRM1 and TOP2A and high expression of ERCC1 and TUBB3, while group 2 samples had low expression levels of ERCC1 and TUBB3 and high expression levels of TYMS, RRM1 and TOP2A. Analysis using Fisher’s exact test demonstrated a statistically significant difference in the severity of carcinoma invasion between the two groups (P<0.05), however, no significant differences were identified with regard to the clinical stage or lymphatic metastasis (P>0.05). Therefore, hierarchical clustering analysis indicated that the expression levels of ERCC1, TYMS, TUBB3, RRM1 and TOP2A were closely associated with the clinical characteristics of patients with ESCC.
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