• BMB Reports
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.312-317
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• 2019

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. MiR-371 has recently emerged as an important regulator in tumorigenesis, and may serve as a biomarker for malignant tumors. We transfected miR-371 or its inhibitor in two human HCC cell lines, then used 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, soft agar colony formation, and transwell migration assays to evaluate the effects on cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. We found that miR-371 was positively correlated with HCC metastasis and poor prognosis in the inflicted patients, and the high expression of miR-371 was promoted, whereas a low level of miR-371 depressed cell proliferation and invasion. We found PTEN to be a direct target of miR-371. The overexpression or knockdown of PTEN exhibited the opposite effects from those of miR-371 on cell proliferation and migration. Our study demonstrates that miR-371 promotes proliferation and metastasis in HCC by targeting PTEN.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6691-6696
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• 2015

Background: Endometrial carcinoma is the most common gynecological cancer and its treatment is still controversial, especially in its early stages. There are conflicting data about the efficacy of retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy during abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingoophrectomy treatment. Lymphadenectomy carries a risk of severe complications, especially in women with co-morbidities. Selective lymphadenectomy has been widely employed for staging evaluation of endometrial carcinoma because it is simple and seems to provide reliable data regarding nodal metastasis. This study was designed to evaluate accuracy of sentinel node sampling in detecting lymph node metastasis in primary endometrial carcinoma during staging laparotomy. Materials and Methods: Ninety-three women with endometrial carcinoma at high-risk for nodal metastasis were studied. During laparotomy, methylene blue dye was injected into sub-serosal myometrium, then retroperitoneal spaces were opened and blue lymph nodes within pelvic and para-aortic regions were removed as separate specimens for histopathological examination (sentinel lymph nodes = SLNs). Hysterectomy and selective lymphadenectomy then performed for all women included in this study. Results: Deposition of methylene dye into at least one lymph node was observed in 73.1% (68/93) of studied cases. 18.3% (17/93) of studied women had positive lymph node metastasis and 94.1% (16/17) of them had positive metastasis in SLNs. In this study, SNLs had 94.4% sensitivity and 100% specificity in prediction of lymph node metastasis. Mean number of lymph nodes removed from each case decreased when SLNs biopsy were taken. Conclusions: SLNs are the key lymph nodes in endometrial tumor metastasis and their involvement could be an indicator for whether or not complete systematic lymphadenectomy is needed during staging laparotomy.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.1274-1281
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• 2020

Objective: This case report shows symptom improvements in stage IV metastatic colorectal cancer treated with a Korean medicine-based integrative cancer treatment (ICT). Methods: A 61-year-old male patient diagnosed with colorectal cancer in November 2017 and metastasis to the lung, peritoneum, and liver in September 2020 was treated with Integrative Cancer Treatment (ICT) for abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, and anorexia for 1 month. Clinical outcomes were measured with the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event (NCI-CTCAE), a numeral rating (NRS), the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) scales. Results: After treatment, the patient's abdominal pain was improved from NRS 8 to 1, and the ECOG score of the patient was improved from grade 3 to 2. Integrative Cancer Treatment. Also the score improved on the FACT-G test, and there were no serious side effects of grade 3 or higher according to the NCI-CTCAE. Conclusion: This case study suggests that Korean medicine-based ICT may help to improve abdominal pain and quality of life in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

The abundance of multi-drug resistance ATPase binding cassette and deranged self-renewal pathways shown in cancer stem cells (CSCs) played a crucial role in tumorigenesis, tumor resistance, tumor recurrence, and tumor metastasis. Therefore, elucidation of CSCs biology can improve diagnosis, enable targeted treatment, and guide the follow up of GI cancer patients. In order to achieve chemoquiescence, seizing cancer through complete ablation of CSCs, CSCs are rational targets for the design of interventions that will enhance responsiveness to traditional therapeutic strategies and contribute in the prevention of local recurrence as well as metastasis. However, current cancer treatment strategies fail to either detect or differentiate the CSCs from their non-tumorigenic progenies mostly due to the absence of specific biomarkers and potent agents to kill CSCs. Recent advances in knowledge of CSCs enable to produce several candidates to ablate CSCs in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, especially cancers originated from inflammation-driven mutagenesis such as Barrett's esophagus (BE), Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric cancer, and colitis-associated cancer (CAC). Our research teams elucidated through revisiting old drugs that proton pump inhibitor (PPI) and potassium competitive acid blocker (p-CAB) beyond authentic acid suppression, chloroquine for autophage inhibition, sonic hedgehog (SHH) inhibitors, and Wnt/β-catenin/NOTCH inhibitor can ablate CSCs specifically and efficiently. Furthermore, nanoformulations of these molecules could provide an additional advantage for more selective targeting of the pathways existing in CSCs just like current molecular targeted therapeutics and sustained action, while normal stem cells intact. In this review article, the novel approach specifically to ablate CSCs existing in GI cancers will be introduced with the introduction of explored mode of action.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.111-116
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• 2014

Purpose: The standard surgical procedure recommended to treat gastric cancer in advanced cases is dissection of D2 lymph nodes (LNs). However, the optimum number of LNs that should be retrieved in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) remains debatable. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the optimum number of retrieved LNs and determine the clinical implications of retrieved LN numbers on the treatment of AGC. Materials and Methods: Of 575 AGC patients reviewed, 369 who underwent open curative gastrectomy with D2 or more extensive LN dissection at our institution were analyzed according to their clinicopathologic characteristics and number of LNs retrieved. Results: Multivariate regression analysis revealed that tumor size (P=0.006), depth of invasion (P=0.000), LN metastasis (P=0.000), and stage (P=0.000) were independent variables with predictive value. The 5-year survival rates were differed significantly according to the numbers of LNs retrieved ([1] 15~25 vs. >25 and [2] 15~39 vs. ${\geq}40$) in patients with differentiated carcinoma. Conclusions: Tumor size, depth of invasion, LN metastasis, and stage were independent predictive factors for survival. The number of retrieved LNs was significantly associated with a long-term survival benefit in patients with differentiated carcinoma. Therefore, our data suggest that the retrieval of a minimum of 15 LNs may not be sufficient to warrant a recommendation for further curative surgery and that extensive LN dissection should be considered in advanced carcinoma of the differentiated type.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7255-7260
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• 2015

Background: Recent reports have shown that DLC-1 is widely expressed in normal tissues and is down-regulated in a wide range of human tumors, suggesting it may act as a tumor suppressor gene. We conducted a meta-analysis to determine the correlation between DLC-1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics in cancers. Materials and Methods: A detailed literature search was made for relevant publications from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library databases, Web of Science, CNKI. The methodological quality of the studies was also evaluated. Analyses of pooled data were performed and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated and summarized. Results: Final analysis was performed of 1,815 cancer patients from 19 eligible studies. We observed that DLC- 1 expression was significantly lower in cancers than in normal tissues. DLC-1 expression was not found to be associated with tumor differentiation status. However, DLC-1 expression was obviously lower in advance stage than in early-stage cancers and was more down-regulated in metastatic than non-metastatic cancers. Conclusions: The results of our meta-analysis suggested that DLC-1 expression is significantly lower in cancers than in normal tissues. Aberrant DLC-1 expression may play an important role in cancer genesis and metastasis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.373-377
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• 2018

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be a notorious type of cancer due to its aggressive metastatic potential and poor prognosis. Recent evidence suggests that BLT2, a low-affinity $LTB_4$ receptor is critically associated with the phenotypes of TNBC cells, including invasion, metastasis, and survival. Furthermore, in a group of 545 breast cancer patients with metastasis, we observed that the high-BLT2 subgroup had a lower disease-free-survival rate than the low-BLT2 subgroup. Thus, we theorized that anti-BLT2 strategies could facilitate the development of new therapies used for TNBC. This review focuses on recent discoveries regarding BLT2 and its roles in as a novel prognostic biomarker in TNBC.

• BMB Reports
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• v.51 no.7
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• pp.319-326
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• 2018

Increasing evidence suggests that cancer stem cell (CSC) theory represents an important mechanism underlying the observed failure of existing therapeutic modalities to fully eradicate cancers. In addition to their more established role in maintaining minimal residual disease after treatment and forming the new bulk of the tumor, CSCs might also critically contribute to tumor recurrence and metastasis. For this reason, specific elimination of CSCs may thus represent one of the most important treatment strategies. Emerging evidence has shown that CSCs have a different metabolic phenotype to that of differentiated bulk tumor cells, and these specific metabolic activities directly participate in the process of CSC transformation or support the biological processes that enable tumor progression. Exploring the role of CSC metabolism and the mechanism of the metabolic plasticity of CSCs has become a major focus in current cancer research. The targeting of CSC metabolism may provide new effective therapies to reduce the risk of recurrence and metastasis. In this review, we summarize the most significant discoveries regarding the metabolism of CSCs and highlight recent approaches in targeting CSC metabolism.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.270-276
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• 2007

1. Objectives We introduced a case of postoperation stomach cancer patient with metastasis to peritoneum and colon who suffered from repetitive diarrhea and abdominal pain. 2. Methods Stomach cancet is the most common cancer in Korea. Eventhough the 5-year survival rate of stomach cancer is increasing recently, metastasized stomach cancer does not show good prognosis, especially when the surgical operation is not applicable. After partial resection of stomach, most of patients experienced gastrointestinal disorders like dyspepsia, reduced meal size, abdominal discomfort, loose stool, and constipation. 3. Results and Conclusions Taeumjowi-tang, a Sasang Constitutional Medicine, improved the diarrhea and abdominal pain.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2919-2923
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• 2013

Esophageal cancer (EC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, and the incidence of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is highest in China. Early diagnosis and effective monitoring are keys to comprehensive treatment and discovering tumor metastases and recurrence in time. The aim of this study was to confirm serum peptidome pattern utility for diagnosis of ESCC, and assessment of operation success, postoperative chemotherapy results, tumor metastasis and recurrence. Serum samples were collected from 61 patients treated with surgery and chemotherapy and 20 healthy individuals. Spectral data generated with weak cationic-exchanger magnetic beads (WCX-MB) and MALDI-TOF MS by a support vector machine (SVM), were used to construct diagnostic models and system training as potential biomarkers. A pattern consisting of 11 protein peaks, separated ESCC (m/z 650.75), operated (m/z 676.61, 786.1, 786.58), postoperative chemotherapy (m/z 622.77, 650.66, 676.46) and tumor metastasis and recurrence (m/z 622.63, 650.56, 690.77, 676.12) from the healthy individuals with a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 100.0%. These results suggested that MALDITOF MS combined with MB separation yields significantly higher sensitivity and specificity for the detection of serum protein in patients with EC patients treated with surgery and chemotherapy.