• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.32-36
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• 2017

In unresectable stage IV colorectal cancer, the role of palliative surgery is not defined clearly. The palliative surgery can be categorized into two surgeries; first, palliative primary tumor resection; second, palliative metastatectomy. Several retrospective studies reported initial palliative systemic chemotherapy in unresectable stage IV colorectal cancer did not increase primary tumor related complications such as obstruction, perforation and hemorrhage, so they insisted that primary tumor resection in asymptomatic stage IV colorectal cancer should be preserved. However, in terms of overall survival and cancer-specific or progression-free survival, several retrospective studies, especially using population-based big data, reported favored survivals in palliative primary tumor resection group. And also several studies reported that palliative metastatectomy such as liver resection without resection of lung metastasis showed better overall survivals. But those results from those studies came from retrospective studies and are likely to be affected by selection bias. Prospective randomized studies are needed to define the benefit of palliative primary tumor resection and metastatectomy in unresectable stage IV colorectal cancer. However, based on the updated evidences, the dogma that palliative primary tumor resection should be preserved in asymptomatic unresectable stage IV colorectal cancer should be questioned.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제15권24호
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• pp.10967-10970
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• 2015

Objective: To analyze the efficacy and survival associated factors of gefitinib combined with cisplatin and gemcitabine for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Materials and Methods: A total of 57 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), who received platinum-based chemotherapy regimens for more than 1 cycle, were treated with gefitinib combined with cisplatin and gemcitabine until disease progression. Efficacy, survival time and adverse reactions were observed. The Kaplan-Meier method was adopted for analysis of survival and Cox regression for associated influencing factors. Results: The patients were followed up until October 31, 2013, and the median follow-up time was 19 months. Of 57 patients, there were 4 (7.0%) with complete remission (CR), 8 (14.0%) with partial remission, 31 (54.4%) with stable disease, and 14 (24.6%) with disease progression. The remission rate was 21.1% and the disease control rate was 75.4%. The median progression-free survival (PFS) time and the median overall survival time were 10 months and 15.2 months. The one-year, two-year and three-year survival rates were 47.4%, 23.3% and 10.0%. Gender and pathological types were the independent risk factors influencing PFS time (P=0.028, P=0.009). Tumor pathological type and early efficacy were independent factors for the prognosis (P=0.018, P=0.000). Adverse reactions were mostly rashes of I~II degree and diarrhea and slightly increasing level of aminopherase. The skin adverse event incidence of III degree or above was 1.8% (1/57) and brain metastasis was foudn in 31.6% (18/57). Conclusions: Gefitinib combined with cisplatin andgemcitabine, is effective for patients with IIIb~IV NSCLC who received multiple cycles of chemotherapy.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제14권7호
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• pp.4255-4259
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• 2013

Background: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a heterogeneous group of tumors, and approximately 40-50% of patients with STS develop metastatic disease. The median overall survival of those patients was 12 months and their 5-year survival rate was 8%. Therefore, study on more effective treatment, especially the targeting therapies, is urgently needed. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Endostar$^{(R)}$ combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced STS. Methods: A retrospective case-series study was conducted in Cancer Institute of PLA, Xinqiao Hospital. A total of 71 patients suffering from advanced STS (IIB - IV) were included, of whom 49 cases treated with chemotherapy alone were defined as the control group and the rest 22 cases treated with the traditional chemotherapy combined with Endostar$^{(R)}$ were defined as the test group. The short-term therapeutic effects including objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR) and safety were evaluated in the two groups. In the follow-up, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were also observed. Results: In the test and control groups, the ORR was 18.2% and 12.2%, respectively (P=0.767), and the DCR was 86.4% and 61.2%, respectively (P=0.034). The median time to progression in the test and control groups was 120 days and 70 days with significant difference (P = 0.017), while the median overall survival was 452 days and 286 days without significant difference (P=0.503). The one-year survival rate in the test group and control group was 56.2% and 35.4%, respectively, while the two-year survival rate was 30.2% and 26.5%, respectively. No significant difference in the side effects was found between the two groups. Conclusions: Endostar$^{(R)}$ combined with chemotherapy resulted in a higher DCR and longer PFS in the patients with advanced STS, and the toxicity was tolerable.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권10호
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• pp.4719-4722
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• 2016

Background: Glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) is involved in the detoxification of carcinogenic agents. DNA copy number variants of GSTM1 may be associated with cancer progression and may result in reduced survival time of various cancers. Determination of DNA copy number variants was here used to assess the association between GSTM1 copy number variant and pathological status and survival time of colorectal-cancer patients treated with 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy. Methods: One hundred thirteen Thai colorectal-cancer patients were investigated for GSTM1 copy number variant by real-time PCR. Relationships between gene copy number variants and clinico-pathological parameters were determined. Result: Associations were evident between GSTM1 copy number and stage of tumor (P = 0.026) and metastasis at diagnosis (P = 0.049), with odds ratio values of 0.2 and 0.3 respectively. Conclusions: GSTM1 copy number variant was here not related with reduced overall survival for the colorectal-cancer patients receiving 5-FU-based chemotherapy.

• 대한약침학회지
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.13-19
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• 2008

Objectives To investigate the therapeutic effects of intravenous cultivated wild ginseng(Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) pharmacopuncture(CWGP) in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). Design Prospective case series. Setting This study was conducted at the East-West Cancer Center of Dunsan Oriental Hospital, Daejeon University. Patients Two non-small cell lung cancer patients. Intervention Two non-small cell lung cancer patients were injected CWGP(20mL/day) mixed with 0.9% normal saline(100mL) intravenously. Each patient received a total of 16 and 9 cycles, respectively. One cycle is composed of 14 days. Outcome Measures The effect of intravenous CWGP was measured by scanning with computed tomography(CT) after every 2 cycle and Positron emission tomography- computed tomography(PET/CT) after every 6 cycles. Response and progression was evaluated using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors(RECIST) Committee classification of complete response(CR), partial response(PR), progressive disease(PD) and stable disease(SD). Results They were treated with intravenous CWGP for 8 and 5 months respectively. time later, each tumor remains stable disease(SD). Conclusion These cases may give us a possibility that intravenous CWGP offers potential benefits for non-small cell lung cancer patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권18호
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• pp.8599-8604
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• 2016

Ovarian cancer is the main cause of mortality in gynecological malignancy and extensive studies have been conducted to study the underlying molecular mechanisms. The BRCA2 gene is known to be an important tumor suppressor in ovarian cancer, thereby BRCA2 alterations may lead to cancer progression. However, the BRCA2 gene is rarely mutated, and loss of function is suspected to be mediated by epigenetic regulation. In this study we investigated the methylation status and gene expression of BRCA2 in ovarian cancer patients. Ovarian cancer pateints (n=69) were recruited and monitored for 54 months in this prospective cohort study. Clinical specimens were used to study the in situ expression of aberrant BRCA2 proteins and the methylation status of BRCA2. These parameters were then compared with clinical parameters and overall survival rate. We found that BRCA2 methylation was found in the majority of cases (98.7%). However, the methylation status was not associated with protein level expression of BRCA2 (49.3%). Therefore in addition to DNA methylation, other epigenetic mechanisms may regulate BRCA2 expresison. Our findings may become evidence of BRCA2 inactivation mechanism through DNA methylation in the Indonesian population. More importantly, from multivariate analysis, BRCA2 expression was correlated with better overall survival (HR 0.32; p=0.05). High percentage of BRCA2 methylation and correlation of BRCA2 expression with overall survival in epithelial ovarian cancer cases may lead to development of treatment modalities specifically to target methylation of BRCA genes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.1003-1008
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• 2016

Breast cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Cancer progression is driven not only by cancer cell intrinsic alterations and interactions with tumor microenvironment, but also by systemic effects. Integration of multiple profiling data may provide insights into the underlying molecular mechanisms of complex systemic processes. We performed a bioinformatic analysis of two public available microarray datasets for breast tumor stroma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, featuring integrated transcriptomics data, protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and protein subcellular localization, to identify genes and biological pathways that contribute to dialogue between tumor stroma and the peripheral circulation. Genes of the integrin family as well as CXCR4 proved to be hub nodes of the crosstalk network and may play an important role in response to stroma-derived chemoattractants. This study pointed to potential for development of therapeutic strategies that target systemic signals travelling through the circulation and interdict tumor cell recruitment.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• 제16권8호
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• pp.3425-3428
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• 2015

Objective: To explore the association of serum tumor abnormal protein (TAP) with other serological biomarkers e.g. carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) and its clinical application in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Methods: Patients (N=98) were enrolled into this study with histologically or cytologically confirmed CRC. Using a test kit, the level of TAP was determined, while chemiluminescence was used to measure the levels of some other common serological biomarkers e.g. CEA, CA125 and CA19-9. Results: The area of TAP condensed particulate matter decreased after chemotherapy compared with before chemotherapy when CT or MRI scans showed disease control. In contrast, it increased with disease progression (P<0.05). Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was confirmed in monitoring of TAP and common serological biomarkers e.g. CEA and CA19-9 (p<0.05). Conclusions: Detecting TAP in CRC patients has high sensitivity and specificity and can be used as a new independent indicator for clinically monitoring CRC patients in the course of chemotherapy.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• 제21권1호
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• pp.10-20
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• 2013

Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent non-skin related cancers. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among males in most Western countries. If prostate cancer is diagnosed in its early stages, there is a higher probability that it will be completely cured. Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) is a non-specific phosphomonoesterase synthesized in prostate epithelial cells and its level proportionally increases with prostate cancer progression. PAP was the biochemical diagnostic mainstay for prostate cancer until the introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) which improved the detection of early-stage prostate cancer and largely displaced PAP. Recently, however, there is a renewed interest in PAP because of its usefulness in prognosticating intermediate to high-risk prostate cancers and its success in the immunotherapy of prostate cancer. Although PAP is believed to be a key regulator of prostate cell growth, its exact role in normal prostate as well as detailed molecular mechanism of PAP regulation is still unclear. Here, many different aspects of PAP in prostate cancer are revisited and its emerging roles in other environment are discussed.

• Experimental and Molecular Medicine
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• 제50권12호
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• pp.10.1-10.11
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• 2018

Cancer growth and progression are associated with immune suppression. Cancer cells have the ability to activate different immune checkpoint pathways that harbor immunosuppressive functions. Monoclonal antibodies that target immune checkpoints provided an immense breakthrough in cancer therapeutics. Among the immune checkpoint inhibitors, PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 inhibitors showed promising therapeutic outcomes, and some have been approved for certain cancer treatments, while others are under clinical trials. Recent reports have shown that patients with various malignancies benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. However, mainstream initiation of immune checkpoint therapy to treat cancers is obstructed by the low response rate and immune-related adverse events in some cancer patients. This has given rise to the need for developing sets of biomarkers that predict the response to immune checkpoint blockade and immune-related adverse events. In this review, we discuss different predictive biomarkers for anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4 inhibitors, including immune cells, PD-L1 overexpression, neoantigens, and genetic and epigenetic signatures. Potential approaches for further developing highly reliable predictive biomarkers should facilitate patient selection for and decision-making related to immune checkpoint inhibitor-based therapies.