KIF2C/MCAK (KIF2C) is the most well-characterized member of the kinesin-13 family, which is critical in the regulation of microtubule (MT) dynamics during mitosis, as well as interphase. This systematic review briefly describes the important structural elements of KIF2C, its regulation by multiple molecular mechanisms, and its broad cellular functions. Furthermore, it systematically summarizes its oncogenic potential in malignant progression and performs a meta-analysis of its prognostic value in cancer patients. KIF2C was shown to be involved in multiple crucial cellular processes including cell migration and invasion, DNA repair, senescence induction and immune modulation, which are all known to be critical during the development of malignant tumors. Indeed, an increasing number of publications indicate that KIF2C is aberrantly expressed in multiple cancer entities. Consequently, we have highlighted its involvement in at least five hallmarks of cancer, namely: genome instability, resisting cell death, activating invasion and metastasis, avoiding immune destruction and cellular senescence. This was followed by a systematic search of KIF2C/MCAK\'s expression in various malignant tumor entities and its correlation with clinicopathologic features. Available data were pooled into multiple weighted meta-analyses for the correlation between KIF2Chigh protein or gene expression and the overall survival in breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Furthermore, high expression of KIF2C was correlated to disease-free survival of hepatocellular carcinoma. All meta-analyses showed poor prognosis for cancer patients with KIF2Chigh expression, associated with a decreased overall survival and reduced disease-free survival, indicating KIF2C\'s oncogenic potential in malignant progression and as a prognostic marker. This work delineated the promising research perspective of KIF2C with modern in vivo and in vitro technologies to further decipher the function of KIF2C in malignant tumor development and progression. This might help to establish KIF2C as a biomarker for the diagnosis or evaluation of at least three cancer entities.

Oncovascular surgery (the removal of major blood vessels infiltrated by cancer) is challenging but can be key to achieve complete cytoreduction in patient with advanced ovarian cancer. The aim of this study was to review the literature on oncovascular surgery in ovarian cancer and to report the details of all the cases performed at our institution.
We retrospectively reviewed the database of ovarian cancer patients who underwent debulking surgery at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Verona University between January 2021 and 2023. Patients with at least one major vessel resection during cytoreduction were identified. We then systematically review the literature searching Pubmed and Embase from inception to January 2023 to report all cases of surgery for ovarian cancer with concomitant major vessel resection.
Five patients with advanced/recurrent ovarian cancer underwent major vascular resection at our institution. Vascular involvement was preoperatively identified in all cases and no case of vascular resection was performed after accidental injury. The major vessels removed were the inferior vena cava (n = 2), the common iliac veins (n = 2), the external iliac arteries (n = 2), the left common iliac artery (n = 1), and the left external iliac vein (n = 1). All patients underwent other non-gynecological cytoreductive procedures prior to vessel removal and had R0 obtained. Three (60%) patients experienced one or more postoperative complications. The literature search identified a total of seven cases of major vessels resection in ovarian cancer surgery. A single or multiple major vessels were removed in two (28.6%) and five (72.4%) cases, respectively. All the seven patients underwent vascular reconstruction. Four (57.1%) patients reported postoperative complications. Overall, 66.7% of the 12 total identified patients were free from disease at the last follow-up [median 15.5 months (range 5-25)].
Oncovascular surgery is feasible in selected patients with ovarian cancer, provided that a multidisciplinary approach with customized care is available.

UNASSIGNED: Sarcopenia is defined as a decline in muscle function as well as muscle mass. Sarcopenia itself and sarcopenic obesity, defined as sarcopenia in obese patients, have been used as surrogates for a worse prognosis in colorectal cancer. This review aims to determine if there is evidence for sarcopenia as a prognostic parameter in colorectal liver metastases (CRLM).
UNASSIGNED: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and CINAHL databases were searched for articles that were selected in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). A random effects meta-analysis was conducted.
UNASSIGNED: After eliminating duplicates and screening abstracts (n = 111), 949 studies were screened, and 33 publications met the inclusion criteria. Of them, 15 were selected after close paper review, and 10 were incorporated into the meta-analysis, which comprised 825 patients. No significant influence of sarcopenia for OS (odds ratio (OR), 2.802 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.094-1.11); p = 0.4) or DFS (OR, 1.203 (95% CI, 1.162-1.208); p = 0.5) was found, although a trend was defined toward sarcopenia. Sarcopenia significantly influenced postoperative complication rates (OR, 7.905 (95% CI, 1.876-3.32); p = 0.001) in two studies where data were available.
UNASSIGNED: Existing evidence on the influence of sarcopenia on postoperative OS as well as DFS in patients undergoing resection for CRLM exists. We were not able to confirm that sarcopenic patients have a significantly worse OS and DFS in our analysis, although a trend toward this hypothesis was visible. Sarcopenia seems to influence complication rates but prospective studies are needed.

UNASSIGNED: The prognostic significance of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and its impact on the outcomes of gastric cancer (GC) is still unclear. We assessed the link between the levels of LDH and the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in GC patients.
UNASSIGNED: A comprehensive search (both electronic and manual) was carried out in PubMed via MEDLINE, Web of Science (WoS), Experta Medical Database (Embase), and CENTRAL (Cochrane Library) databases for citations that evaluated the strength of association between LDH cut-off levels and OS and/or DFS in GC. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects model, and heterogeneity was assessed.
UNASSIGNED: Eighteen studies with 5328 patients were included in our review. The overall pooled HR for OS was 1.48 (95% CI: 1.22-1.80) with high heterogeneity (I2 = 86%). Subgroup analyses showed that the link between LDH and OS was more prominent in Caucasian (HR 1.50 95% CI [0.80, 2.81], p=0.21) than in Asian cohorts (HR, 1.51 95% CI [1.21, 1.87], p=0.002). No significant overall association between LDH and OS (HR = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.76-1.65, p = 0.58) was found. Similar subgroup analyses results were reported for the association between LDH and DFS.
UNASSIGNED: In patients with GC, elevated LDH levels may correlate with worse OS and DFS, but the association is not significant. LDH is a significant predictor of OS but not of DFS. Further studies with larger sample sizes and more standardized criteria for defining elevated LDH levels are needed to confirm our findings.
UNASSIGNED: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero, identifier CRD42023412449.

Neoadjuvant short course radiotherapy (SCRT) followed by consolidation chemotherapy (CCT) is an alternative treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the tumor response and oncological outcomes of this new approach compared to conventional chemoradiotherapy (CRT). An online search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases was performed. This review included 7507 patients from 14 different cohorts. The pCR rate was higher with SCRT + CCT than that with CRT (RR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.35−1.91; p < 0.01). SCRT + CCT provided a higher ypN0 response (RR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01−1.12; p = 0.02). There were no differences in R0 resection and positive CRM rates; however, more sphincter-preservation surgeries were performed in the SCRT + CCT arm (RR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.01−1.11; p = 0.02). There was no difference in the OS and DFS between the SCRT + CCT and the CRT arms (OS: HR: 0.85, p = 0.07; DFS: HR: 0.88, p = 0.08). The compliance and toxicity were comparable between the SCRT and CRT groups. In the subgroup analysis, patients who underwent four or more cycles of CCT had better pCR and DFS events. Therefore, SCRT followed by consolidation chemotherapy might be an effective alternative treatment for LARC.

Galectins are a family of proteins with affinity for β-galactosides and their expression correlates with overall survival (OS) in several cancers. However, in breast cancer their prognostic potential is unclear. In this study we performed a meta-analysis to clarify the prognostic value of galectin expression in breast cancer and to identify sources of heterogeneity. For this purpose, we performed a search of related publications in PubMed, Central-Conchrane, Web of Science database, OVID-EMBASE, Scope and EBSCOhost until November 2021.Thirteen articles were included with a total of 2700 patients. High galectin expression was found not to correlate with OS in breast cancer (HR = 1.11, 95% CI 0.93-1.31). In the case of galectin-3, correlation with OS was observed when performing subgroup analysis by cellular localization (HR = 0.59, 95% CI 0.36-0.94 for cytoplasmic and HR = 1.82, 95% CI 1.00-3.29 for cytoplasmic plus nuclear). Galectin-7 correlates with DFS/PFS/DSS (HR = 2.43; 95% CI 1.36-4.31). Finally, galectin-3 correlates with some clinicopathological features such as lymph node metastasis, estrogen receptor expression and age. In conclusion, galectin-3 correlates with OS in breast cancer when cellular localization is considered while galectin-7 correlates with DFS/PFS/DSS. The cellular localization of galectins should be as fundamental aspect to be determined in future studies.

β-catenin is a key component of Wnt signalling, which plays a crucial role in CRC progression. Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to assess the prognostic value of β-catenin expression in CRC patients. PubMed and Web of Science were searched for relevant publications referring to the association between β-catenin expression and outcome of CRC patients. Review Manager version 5.4 was employed to analysis data from 28 eligible studies (containing 5475 patients). Of these, 6 provided data on DFS, 6 provided data on CSS and 18 reports provided data on OS. High nuclear β-catenin expression was significantly associated with poorer DFS, CSS and OS in patients with CRC whereas, low membranous β-catenin expression was associated to poor OS. In conclusion, β-catenin has prognostic value and potential as a biomarker to stratify patients with CRC. However, further work with high quantity tissue cohorts and patient data is required to confirm this conclusion.

Background and objective The incidence of post-surgical complications (PSCs) after curative resection of non-metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is very widespread and evident. Some studies suggest that PSCs often predict poor long-term oncological outcomes. However, the available data on the topic is often controversial. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to study the effect of postoperative complications (POCs) on long-term oncological outcomes following curative resection of non-metastatic (stage I-III) CRC. Methods A comprehensive search of MEDLINE® and Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE) databases was performed via the Ovid platform, by using controlled vocabulary as well as natural language terms for POCs, outcomes, and CRC. Two authors independently screened the studies and extracted data. Conflicts were resolved by discussion among authors and also independently with the help of a third author. Meta-analysis was performed using a random-effects model (REM) to calculate pooled estimates for overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall recurrence. Results Overall, 3,836 studies were initially screened, and 16 studies involving 37,192 patients were ultimately selected for final inclusion in the analysis. Meta-analysis of these studies showed that PSCs following non-metastatic CRC surgery predicted worse OS rates [hazard ratio (HR): 1.36; 95% CI: 1.15-1.61; p<0.00001], DFS (HR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.11-1.80; p<0.00001), and overall recurrence (HR: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.04-1.37; p=0.01). Conclusion Based on our findings, PSCs predict poor OS rates, DFS, and overall recurrence following curative resection of non-metastatic CRC.

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia is a characteristic of many solid tumours and results in an increase in expression of HIF-1α. Many studies have investigated the prognostic value of HIF-1α expression in breast cancer (BC), however, the prognostic value remains unclear. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to determine the prognostic value of HIF-1α in BC patients.
METHODS: The electronic databases PubMed and Web of science were systematically searched to identify relevant papers. The clinical outcomes included disease-free survival (DFS), recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in BC patients. Review Manager version 5.4 was employed to analysis data from 30 eligible studies (containing 6201patients).
RESULTS: High expression of HIF-1α was associated with poorer DFS and OS. There was an effect of survival analysis, study region, antibodies used, scoring and threshold methods on HIF-1α expression.
CONCLUSIONS: HIF-1α overexpression was significantly associated with poorer DFS and OS in breast cancer patients.

Introduction  The lymph node ratio (LNR) is defined as the ratio of the number of positive lymph nodes to the total number of nodes retrieved. LNR has recently emerged as a prognostic factor in rectal cancer. The objective of our study was to pool eligible studies to elucidate the prognostic role of LNR on overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in rectal cancer patients using a meta-analysis. Methods A systematic database search was performed in MEDLINE and Embase for relevant studies that reported LNR in rectal cancer. Two authors independently screened the relevant articles for selection and data extraction. As a result, a list of such studies and references, published in English up to December 2019, was obtained, and a total of 4,486 node-positive patients in 18 studies were included in this meta-analysis. RevMan software 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration, the Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen) was used for conducting all statistical analyses. Results A higher LNR was significantly correlated with worse OS [hazard ratio (HR): 2.60; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.21-3.06; p≤.00001] and DFS (HR: 2.43; 95% CI: 2.11-2.80; p≤.00001) in node-positive rectal cancer patients. Besides, LNR is an independent predictive and prognostic marker of OS and DFS (HR: 2.52; 95% CI: 2.17-2.94; p≤.00001 with I2=0%; p=.32 and HR: 2.63; 95% CI: 2.17-3.18; p≤.00001 with I2=0%; p=.63 respectively, irrespective of lymph nodal harvest). Conclusions Our present study demonstrates that LNR is an independent predictor of survival in rectal cancer. LNR should be considered as a parameter in future oncological staging systems. Further well-designed randomized control trials to prospectively assess LNR as an independent predictor of rectal cancer survival are necessary before its application in daily practice.