In recent years, due to advancements in medical conditions and the development of scientific research, the fundamental research of TCM antitumor treatments has progressed from the cellular level to the molecular and genetic levels. Previous studies have demonstrated the significant role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in antitumor therapy through various mechanisms and pathways. Its mechanism of action is closely associated with cancer biology across different stages. This includes inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, blocking invasion and metastasis to surrounding tissues, inducing tumor cell apoptosis, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, regulating immune function, maintaining genome stability, preventing mutation, and regulating cell energy metabolism. The use of TCM for eliciting antitumor effects not only has a good therapeutic effect and low side effects, it also provides a solid theoretical basis for clinical treatment and medication. This paper reviews the mechanism of the antitumor effects of TCM based on tumor characteristics. Through our review, we found that TCM not only directly inhibits tumors, but also enhances the body\'s immunity, thereby indirectly inducing an antitumor effect. This function aligns with the TCM theory of \"strengthening the body\'s resistance to eliminate pathogenic factors\". Furthermore, TCM will play a significant role in tumor treatment in clinical settings.

BACKGROUND: Polo-like kinase 4 (PLK4) serves as a marker for tumor features and poor outcomes in cancers. This study aimed to explore the associations of tumor PLK4 protein expression with tumor characteristics and survival in endometrial cancer (EC) patients who underwent surgical resection.
METHODS: This study included 142 EC patients who underwent surgical resection. Tumor tissue samples were obtained for tumor PLK4 protein expression detection via immunohistochemistry (IHC).
RESULTS: Among EC patients, 26.1% had a PLK4 IHC score of 0, 24.6% had a score of 1-3, 27.5% had a score of 4-6, and 21.8% had a score of 7-12. Tumor PLK4 protein expression positively associated with lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.008) and Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage (P = 0.005). Disease-free survival (DFS) was not different between patients with tumor PLK4 IHC scores > 0 and ≤ 0 (P = 0.154) but was reduced in patients with scores > 3 vs. ≤ 3 (P = 0.009) and > 6 vs. ≤ 6 (P < 0.001). Similarly, overall survival (OS) was not different between patients with scores > 0 and ≤ 0 (P = 0.322) but was shorter in patients with scores > 3 vs. ≤ 3 (P = 0.011) and > 6 vs. ≤ 6 (P = 0.006). After adjustment, a tumor PLK4 IHC score > 6 (vs. ≤ 6) (hazard ratio (HR): 3.156, P = 0.008) or > 3 (vs. ≤ 3) (HR: 3.918, P = 0.026) was independently associated with shortened DFS and OS.
CONCLUSIONS: A tumor PLK4 IHC score > 6 or > 3 associates with shortened DFS and OS in EC patients who undergo surgical resection.

In recent years, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has become a rapidly advancing gene editing technology with significant advantages in various fields, particularly biomedicine. Liver cancer is a severe malignancy that threatens human health and is primarily treated with surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, surgery may not be suitable for advanced cases of liver cancer with distant metastases. Moreover, radiotherapy and chemotherapy have low specificity and numerous side effects that limit their effectiveness; therefore, more effective and safer treatments are required. With the advancement of the biomolecular mechanism of cancer, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology has been widely used in the study of liver cancer to gain insights into gene functions, establish tumor models, screen tumor phenotype-related genes, and perform gene therapy. This review outlines the research progress of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology in the treatment of liver cancer and provides a relevant theoretical basis for its research and application in the treatment of liver cancer.

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UNASSIGNED: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma (AC) are the two main pathological types of esophageal cancer (EC), which differ in molecular features, genetic variation, and treatment sensitivity. However, as a key process in tumorigenesis and development, the role of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) regulators in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is not fully understood.
UNASSIGNED: This study systematically compared the role of m6A regulators of ESCC and EAC in terms of molecular characteristics, immuno-oncology characteristics, and clinical relevance, and validated our findings in a long-term follow-up patient cohort.
UNASSIGNED: There were many differences in m6A regulators between ESCC and EAC in terms of expression patterns, genetic variation, association with tumor pathways, immune signatures, and immunotherapy sensitivity. Furthermore, VIRMA was identified as a factor with opposite functional and prognostic effects in ESCC and EAC. ESCC patients with high VIRMA expression and EAC patients with low VIRMA expression had a better prognosis. Single-center data showed that low expression of FTO may be associated with superior immunotherapy efficacy in ESCC patients.
UNASSIGNED: The results herein provide novel ideas for understanding the tumor characteristics, occurrence, and development of ESCC and EAC, and suggest new targets for the treatment and intervention of EC.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of the preoperative aminotransferase to albumin ratio (AAR) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatectomy.
METHODS: From five hospitals, a total of 991 patients with HCC admitted between December 2014 and December 2019 were included as the primary cohort and 883 patients with HCC admitted between December 2010 and December 2014 were included as the validation cohort. The X-tile software was conducted to identify the optimal cut-off value of AAR.
RESULTS: In the primary cohort, the optimal cut-off value of the AAR was defined as 0.7 and 1.6, respectively. Compared to patients with AAR 0.7-1.6, those with AAR > 1.6 showed significantly worse overall survival (OS) and RFS, whereas those with AAR < 0.7 showed significantly better OS and RFS (all p < 0.001). Pathologically, patients with AAR > 1.6 had more aggressive tumour characteristics, such as larger tumour size, higher incidence of microvascular invasion, and severe histologic activity, and higher AFP level than patients with AAR < 0.7. Consistently, the abovementioned clinical significance of AAR was confirmed in the validation cohort.
CONCLUSIONS: A high AAR was significantly correlated with advanced tumours and severe hepatic inflammation, and a worse prognosis of HCC.

Background: Histone deacetylase (HDAC) plays a crucial role in regulating the expression and activity of a variety of genes associated with tumor progression and immunotherapeutic processes. The aim of this study was to characterize HDAC pathway copy number variation (CNV) in pan-cancer. Methods: A total of 10,678 tumor samples involving 33 types of tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were included in the study. Results: HDAC pathway CNV and CNV gain were identified as prognostic risk factors for pan-cancer species. The differences of tumor characteristics including tumor mutational burden, tumor neoantigen burden, high-microsatellite instability, and microsatellite stable between HDAC pathway CNV altered-type group and wild-type group varied among the various cancer species. In some cancer types, HDAC pathway CNV alteration was positively correlated with loss of heterozygosity, CNV burden, ploidy, and homologous recombination defect score markers, while it was significantly negatively correlated with immune score and stroma score. There were significant differences in immune characteristics such as major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I), MHC-II, chemokines, cytolytic-activity, and IFN-γ between the two groups. Immune cycle characteristics varied from one cancer type to another. Conclusion: This study reveals a tumor and immune profile of HDAC pathway CNV as well as its unlimited potential in immune prognosis.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the correlation of long noncoding RNA taurine-upregulated 1 gene (lncRNA TUG1) with tumor characteristics and survival in prostate cancer patients, and the effect of lncRNA TUG1 on proliferation and apoptosis in prostate cancer cells.
METHODS: Two-hundred and eight prostate cancer patients who underwent tumor resection were continuously reviewed in this study. Tumor tissue and paired adjacent tissue were obtained and polymerase chain reaction assay was performed to detect the expression of lncRNA TUG1 in tumor tissue. PANC-1 cells were obtained and transferred with blank mimic, lncRNA TUG1 mimic, blank inhibitor, and lncRNA TUG1 inhibitor plasmids, then cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8, and cell apoptosis was evaluated by AV/PI assay.
RESULTS: LncRNA TUG1 expression was elevated in tumor tissue compared with paired adjacent tissue (P<0.001). Moreover, lncRNA TUG1 expression in tumor tissue positively correlated with pathological T stage (P=0.009) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.040). Patients with a high expression of lncRNA TUG1 had both worse disease-free survival (DFS) (P<0.001) and overall survival (OS) (P=0.003) compared with patients with a low expression of lncRNA TUG1. Multivariate Cox\'s proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that high lncRNA TUG1 expression was an independent predicting factor for both worse DFS (P=0.001) and OS (P=0.003). Moreover, CCK-8 and AV/PI assays demonstrated that lncRNA TUG1 enhanced cell proliferation and repressed cell apoptosis in PANC-1 cells.
CONCLUSIONS: A high expression of LncRNA TUG1 in tumor tissue correlates with progressive tumor condition and poorer survival in prostate cancer patients, and promotes proliferation while inhibiting cell apoptosis in prostate cancer cells.

Now solid renal tumors ≤4 cm is the most common, especially the subtype of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) of malignant kidney tumors in clinical. However, there is not specific characteristics of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) be recommended by the EFSUMB Guidelines in distinguish the essence of the kidney tumor with different sizes. Therefore, this meta-analysis aimed to assess the ability of CEUS to diagnose solid ccRCC (sccRCC) ≤4 cm. We comprehensively searched the Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science databases from their inception to 28 July 2020, for studies reporting the CEUS features of sccRCC lesions ≤4 cm. Additional articles were identified through the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database. Studies were selected independently by two investigators and the relevant data were extracted. Discrepancies were resolved via discussion with the senior author. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool, and the sensitivity and specificity of each study were determined and plotted as a receiver operating characteristic curve. Ten studies were included in this meta-analysis. Hyperenhancement showed medium sensitivity (67%-89%) and specificity (42%-75%) for diagnosing sccRCC ≤4 cm, fast-in contrast agent and heterogeneous enhancement showed high diagnostic abilities (area under curve (AUC) 0.74-0.84), but the presence of a pseudocapsule and fast-out contrast agent had poor diagnostic ability (AUC <0.70). The combination of hyperenhancement and iso-enhancement showed high sensitivity (98%) for diagnosing sccRCC ≤4 cm. Hyperenhancement, fast-in contrast agent, and heterogeneous enhancement may be specific features that could help to identify sccRCC ≤4 cm, while the presence of a pseudocapsule and fast-out of contrast agent may have low diagnostic values. The combination of multiple indexes may improve the diagnostic value of CEUS for sccRCC ≤4 cm.

BACKGROUND: The coexistence of primary hyperparathyroidism and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is common and may be associative with more aggressive PTC, with higher rates of extrathyroidal extension and multicentricity. However, it is unclear whether secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is associated with more invasive PTC in terms of morbidity, tumor pathological characteristics, and prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate and tumor characteristics of PTC in patients with SHPT.
METHODS: A total of 531 patients diagnosed with SHPT who underwent surgery from August 2013 to December 2018 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University were evaluated retrospectively. Patient demographics, surgical records, and follow-up information were recorded and analyzed. Control subjects were matched to the enrolled patients in a 1:4 ratio in terms of age, sex and pathological subtype.
RESULTS: Among the 531 patients with SHPT who underwent surgery, 34 had coexisting PTC and PTC + SHPT (6.4%). The mean tumor diameter in the PTC + SHPT group was smaller than that in the PTC group (5.57 mm vs 9.00 mm, p < 0.001). The proportion of papillary thyroid micro-carcinoma in the PTC + SHPT group was significantly higher than that in the PTC group (29 [85.29%] vs. 86[63.24%], p = 0.014). There were no statistically significant differences between groups in terms of tumor multicentricity (15 [44.12%] vs 39 [28.68%], p = 0.066), tumor bilaterality (9 [26.47%] vs. 29 [21.32%], p = 0.499), tumor extrathyroidal extension (2 [5.88%] vs. 19 [13.97%], p = 0.255), or lymph node (LN) metastasis rate (12 [35.29%] vs. 49 [36.03%], p = 1.000). However, the PTC + SHPT and PTC groups were significantly different in terms of contralateral thyroidectomy (10 [29.41%] vs. 70 [51.47%], p = 0.023) and lymph node dissection (22 [64.71%] vs. 125 [91.91%], p < 0.001).There was no significant difference between the PTC + SHPT and PTC groups in terms of prognostic staging (33 [97.06%] vs. 122 [89.71%], p = 0.309) or recurrence (mean follow-up time: 36 months vs. 39 months, p = 0.33).
CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of PTC is high in patients with SHPT; compared with PTC in the general population, most papillary thyroid carcinomas with SHPT are occult thyroid carcinomas and present no significant difference in terms of tumor pathological features and prognostic staging. It is necessary for surgeons to perform more adequate preoperative examination and be more careful during surgery to avoid missing the coexistence of PTC in patients with SHPT.