Matrine has potent antitumor activities in HepG2 cells and may be used as a novel effective reagent in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

This large population-based analysis of second cancers among thyroid cancer patients suggests that there was an increase of second cancers in all sites, and the most commonly elevated second cancers were the salivary gland and kidney. Additionally, the increase in second cancers in patients with recently diagnosed thyroid microcarcinomas (<10 mm) suggests that aggressive radiation treatment of the first primary thyroid cancer, the environment, and genetic susceptibility, may increase the risk of a second cancer.

Objective Thyroid cancer incidence and diagnostic x-ray exposures, particularly CT scans and nuclear medicine examinations have increased substantially in the United States. However, very few epidemiologic studies have directly investigated their associations. Methods A population-based case-control study was conducted in Connecticut in 2010–2011 including 462 histologically confirmed incident thyroid cancer cases and 498 population-based controls. Multivariate unconditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between diagnostic x-rays and risk of thyroid cancer controlling for potential confounding factors. Results Exposure to any diagnostic x-rays was associated with an increased risk of well-differentiated thyroid microcarcinoma (tumor size ≤10 mm, OR=2.76, 95%CI: 1.31–5.81). The highest risk increase occurred with nuclear medicine examinations (excluding cardiology tests and thyroid uptake studies; OR=5.47, 95%CI: 2.10–14.23), followed by chest CT scans (OR=4.30, 95%CI: 1.66–11.14), head and neck CT scans (OR=3.88, 95%CI: 1.75–8.63), upper gastrointestinal series (OR=3.56, 95%CI: 1.54–8.21), lower gastrointestinal series (OR=3.29, 95%CI: 1.41–7.66), kidney x-rays involving dye injection into a vein or artery (OR=3.21, 95%CI: 1.20–8.54), mammograms (OR=2.95, 95%CI: 1.14–7.61), chest x-rays (OR=2.93, 95%CI: 1.37–6.29), and abdomen CT scans (OR=2.54, 95%CI: 1.02–6.30). No significant associations were found between these imaging modalities and thyroid tumors larger than 10 mm. Conclusions This study provides the first direct evidence that CT scans and nuclear medicine examinations are associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer. The novel finding that an array of diagnostic x-ray procedures are associated thyroid microcarcinomas warrants further investigation.

The effects of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroid hormones on the development of human papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) remain poorly understood. The study population consisted of 741 (341 women, 400 men) histologically confirmed PTC cases and 741 matched controls with prediagnostic serum samples stored in the Department of Defense Serum Repository. Concentrations of TSH, total T3, total T4, and free T4 were measured in serum samples. Conditional logistic regression models were used to calculate ORs and 95% confidence intervals (CI). The median time between blood draw and PTC diagnosis was 1,454 days. Compared with the middle tertile of TSH levels within the normal range, serum TSH levels below the normal range were associated with an elevated risk of PTC among women (OR, 3.74; 95% CI, 1.53-9.19) but not men. TSH levels above the normal range were associated with an increased risk of PTC among men (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.04-3.66) but not women. The risk of PTC decreased with increasing TSH levels within the normal range among both men and women ( = 0.0005 and 0.041, respectively). We found a significantly increased risk of PTC associated with TSH levels below the normal range among women and with TSH levels above the normal range among men. An inverse association between PTC and TSH levels within the normal range was observed among both men and women. These results could have significant clinical implications for physicians who are managing patients with abnormal thyroid functions and those with thyroidectomy. .

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Aim. To evaluate the clinical risk factors influencing overall survival of patients with duodenal adenocarcinoma after potentially curative resection. Methods. A series of 201 patients with primary duodenal adenocarcinoma who underwent surgery from 1999 to 2014 at Chinese Medical Academic Cancer Hospital were studied by retrospective chart review and subsequent telephone follow-up. Results. Resectional surgery was performed in 138 of the 201 patients to attempt curative treatment, while 63 patients were treated with palliative surgery. Median survival of patients who underwent resectional operation was 57 months, whereas that of patients who had palliative surgery was shorter, 7 months (p < 0.001). For patients who underwent radical resection, the overall 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 87.3, 59.1, and 44.1%, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that lymph node metastasis (HR 31.76, 2.14 to 470.8; p = 0.012) and vascular invasion (HR 3.75, 1.24 to 11.38; p = 0.020) were independent prognostic factors negatively associated with survival in patients undergoing curative resection. There was no survival difference between the groups treated by the pancreaticoduodenectomy (n = 20) and limited resection (n = 10) for early-stage duodenal adenocarcinoma (p = 0.704). Conclusions. Duodenal adenocarcinoma is a rare disease. Curative resection is the best treatment for appropriate patients. Lymph node metastases and vascular invasion are negative prognostic factors.

We conducted a population-based, casecontrol study in Connecticut women to test the hypothesis that genetic variations in Th1 and Th2 cytokine genes modify the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL