OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the disease burden of lung cancer attributable to particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in China from 1990 to 2019.
METHODS: Data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 were used to estimate the disease burden of tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer attributed to PM2.5 over time in China.
METHODS: Joinpoint regression models were applied to disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to assess the time trends and estimate the impact of PM2.5 on the overall disease burden of lung cancer. Furthermore, age-period-cohort models were conducted to assess the relationships between lung cancer DALYs attributed to PM2.5 exposure and age, calendar period and birth cohort trends in China from 1990 to 2019.
RESULTS: Lung cancer DALYs attributable to household air pollution from solid fuels decreased with an average annual percent change (AAPC) of 2.9 % per 100,000 population, while those attributable to ambient particular matter pollution (APE) increased (AAPC: -4.7 % per 100,000 population) over the past 30 years. The burden of lung cancer in terms of DALYs in males was higher than in females, and it demonstrated an age-dependent increase. The period and cohort effects also had significant impacts on the DALYs rates of lung cancer attributable to APE, indicating an overall increase in lung cancer DALYs for all age groups in each year.
CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the need for effective strategies to reduce PM2.5 exposure in China, particularly from outdoor sources. Gender differences and age, period and cohort effects observed in the study provide valuable insights into long-term trends of lung cancer burden attributed to PM2.5.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to assess, compare, and identify factors of importance for long-term overall (OS) and disease-free (DFS) survival after conventional (cAPE) and extralevator abdominoperineal excision (ELAPE) on a nationwide basis.
METHODS: This was a database study based on data from a nationwide colorectal cancer database. Patients undergoing surgery for rectal cancer in the period January 1, 2009 to August 31, 2012 were examined. Factors of importance for disease-free and overall survival were identified by multivariate Cox regressions.
RESULTS: Five hundred patients were included in the final population. Two hundred seventy-six were operated by ELAPE and 224 by APE. Disease-free and overall survival did not differ between groups (4-year DFS 67 and 66 % after cAPE and ELAPE, respectively, (log-rank p = 0.82); 4-year OS 74 and 77 % after cAPE and ELAPE, respectively, (log-rank p = 0.59)). In Cox regression, the type of procedure did not affect DFS or OS. Factors of importance for DFS included increasing age, ypN-positive disease and neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy. Factors of importance for OS included increasing age, circumferential resection margin (CRM) positivity, fixation of the tumor, blood transfusion, and increasing American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score.
CONCLUSIONS: In this nationwide study, we did not find any differences in DFS or OS after extralevator versus conventional abdominal perineal excision, and the type of procedure did not affect survival after adjusted analyses.

BACKGROUND: The thioredoxin system maintains redox balance through the action of thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase. Thioredoxin regulates the activity of various substrates, including those that function to counteract cellular oxidative stress. These include the peroxiredoxins, methionine sulfoxide reductase A and specific transcription factors. Of particular relevance is Redox Factor-1, which in turn activates other redox-regulated transcription factors.
METHODS: Experimentally defined transcription factor binding sites in the human thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase gene promoters together with promoters of the major thioredoxin system substrates involved in regulating cellular redox status are discussed. An in silico approach was used to identify potential putative binding sites for these transcription factors in all of these promoters.
CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis reveals that many redox gene promoters contain the same transcription factor binding sites. Several of these transcription factors are in turn redox regulated. The ARE is present in several of these promoters and is bound by Nrf2 during various oxidative stress stimuli to upregulate gene expression. Other transcription factors also bind to these promoters during the same oxidative stress stimuli, with this redundancy supporting the importance of the antioxidant response. Putative transcription factor sites were identified in silico, which in combination with specific regulatory knowledge for that gene promoter may inform future experiments.
CONCLUSIONS: Redox proteins are involved in many cellular signalling pathways and aberrant expression can lead to disease or other pathological conditions. Therefore understanding how their expression is regulated is relevant for developing therapeutic agents that target these pathways.