ObjectiveTo detect expressions of Lgr5 and E-cadherin (E-cad) proteins in gastric cancer tissues and analyze their relationships with the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.MethodsThe expressions of Lgr5 and E-cad proteins in the 69 patients with gastric cancer and adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissues were measured by the immunohistochemical SABC method, and the relationships between the Lgr5 or E-cad protein expression in the gastric cancer tissues and the clinicopathologic characteristics and the survival of patients with gastric cancer were analyzed.ResultsThe expressions of Lgr5 and E-cad proteins were positive in 60 cases (87.0%) and 30 cases (43.5%) of gastric cancer tissues, respectively, and in 5 cases (16.7%) and 30 cases (100%) of adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissues. There was a significant difference in the positive rate of Lgr5 or E-cad protein expression in the different tissues, respectively (Lgr5 protein: χ2=45.814, P<0.001; E-cad protein: χ2=11.249, P=0.001). The positive rates of Lgr5 and E-cad protein expressions in the gastric cancer were related to the degree of differentiation and the depth of invasion. Meanwhile the positive rate of Lgr5 protein expression in the gastric cancer tissue was also related to the lymph node metastasis and Helicobacter pylori infection, while the positive rate of E-cad protein expression was not related to these (P>0.05). The 5-year total survival time had no significant difference in the patients between with positive and with negative expressions of Lgr5 protein (χ2=1.819, P=0.117), which had a significant difference in the patients between with positive and with negative expressions of E-cad protein (χ2=5.814, P=0.016). The positive expression of Lgr5 was negatively correlated with that of E-cad (rs=?0.355, P=0.003).ConclusionsLgr5 protein may get involved in the mechanism of tumor invasion, lymph nodal metastasis, and low differentiation, while no relationship between the Lgr5 protein and prognosis has been confirmed. E-cad protein may get involved in the mechanism of tumor invasion and affect the prognosis of patients.
ObjectiveTo investigate the application status of survival analysis in studies published in Chinese oncology journals, and assess their reporting quality and summarize the existing problems, so as to promote the application of survival analysis and reporting quality.
MethodsStudies that used survival analysis were collected from 1 492 studies published in Chinese Journal of Oncology, Chinese Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chinese Journal of Radiation Oncology and Chinese Journal of Cancer Prevention and Treatment in 2013. The application status of survival analysis of included studies was analysed and their reporting quality was evaluated.
ResultsA total of 242 survival analysis studies were included. Among them, the utilization rates of Kaplan-Meier method, life table method, log-rank test, Breslow test and Cox proportional hazards model were 91.74%, 3.72%, 78.51%, 0.41% and 46.28%, respectively. 112 studies did multivariate analysis through Cox proportional hazards model. A total of 396 end points and 10 different types of survival time were reported. Overall survival (OS) was reported in 233 studies (92.15%). Survival terms were defined to 158 end points (39.90%) of 103 studies (42.56%). The follow-up rates were mentioned in 155 studies (64.05%), of which 4 studies were under 80% and the lowest was 75.25%, 55 studies were 100%. The main problems of survival analysis studies published in Chinese journals were as follows:None of the studies which used Cox proportional hazards model reported the proportional hazards assumption. None of the studies used the method of parametric survival analysis. 130 studies (53.72%) did not use the method of multiple factor analysis. 139 studies (57.44%) did not define the survival terms. Only 11 of 100 studies which reported loss to follow-up had stated how to treat it in the analysis. None of the studies reported the methods of calculating sample size. None of the studies reported the censoring proportion.
ConclusionThe methods of survival analysis are used in a low rate in studies published in Chinese oncology journals, and the overall reporting quality of survival analyses is poor. So the reporting guideline of survival analysis should be developed and the authors should be encouraged to cooperate with professional statisticians, in order to improve the design, analysis and reporting quality of survival analysis studies.
ObjectiveTo provide clinical reference for the perioperative management of esophageal cancer patients with different stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) through investigating the impact of COPD on postoperative complications and survival in esophageal cancer patients undergoing oesophagectomy.MethodsThe clinical data of 163 patients who underwent radical resection of esophageal cancer in our department from January 2015 to January 2018 were retrospectively analyzed, including 124 males and 39 females, with a median age of 64 years (IQR: 23.8 years). They were divided into a COPD group (n=87) and a non-COPD group (n=76) according to the presence of COPD before operation. The clinical data were collected and the postoperative complications and 2-year survival between the two groups were compared and analyzed.ResultsThe incidence of major postoperative complications (pulmonary infection, respiratory failure, arrhythmia and anastomotic leakage) in the COPD group were higher than those in the non-COPD group (all P<0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed that the severity of preoperative COPD was positively correlated with the incidence of postoperative complications in patients with esophageal cancer (r=0.437, P<0.001). The incidence of postoperative respiratory failure and mortality in patients with severe COPD were significantly higher than those in patients without COPD and those with mild or moderate COPD. The 2-year survival rate of patients with esophageal cancer in the COPD group was lower than that in the non-COPD group (56.1% vs. 78.5.%, P=0.001), and the severity of COPD was negatively correlated to the survival rate.ConclusionCOPD significantly increases the incidence of postoperative complications in patients with esophageal cancer, which is not conducive to the prognosis of patients, and the severity of COPD is correlated with postoperative complications and 2-year survival rate.
Objective
To analyze the clinical features and survival of lung cancer with pleural effusions.
Methods
A total of 982 consecutive patients with a newly diagnosed lung cancer from January 2008 to December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. To analyze the clinical features and survival differences, the total patients were divided into the following two groups: with (n=204) or without (n=778) pleural effusions.
Results
Lung cancer comprised 682 (69.5%) males and 300 (30.5%) females, with an average age of 59.74 years (19–93 years). There were 487(49.6%) squamous carcinoma, 254 (25.9%) adenocarcinoma and 166 (16.9%) small cell lung cancer; 113 (11.5%) lung cancer at early stage (Ⅰ–Ⅱ), 247 (25.2%) cases at stage Ⅲ and 567 (57.7%) at stage Ⅳ. The median survival time of all patients was 12 months. Patients with pleural effusions had a worse prognosis compared to patients without (median survival time: 11 vs.12 months, P=0.003), the median survival time could be reduced by 1 month in males (P=0.004), 3 months in elder patients over 60 years (P<0.001), 4 to 8 months in carcinoma and small cell lung cancer (P≤0.001), and 2 to 3 months in advanced lung cancer (stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ) (P<0.05). Any or combined treatment of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapy was associated with an improved overall survival of about 2 months (P=0.009), and targeted therapy could even improve the median survival time by 1 to 8 months (P=0.002).
Conclusions
About 20.8% of the patients developed pleural effusion at the same time during the course of lung cancer. Pleural effusion is a poor prognostic factor of lung cancer.
Survival data include the occurrence and duration of an event. As most survival data are distributed irregularly, the Kaplan-Meier method is often used in survival analysis; however, studies usually only report the Kaplan-Meier curve and median survival time and do not provide the original survival data, which creates issues for subsequent secondary research. This study introduced a systematic method whereby image processing software and R software were used to process and extract survival data from published Kaplan-Meier curves. It also introduced the specific steps required to obtain survival data using an example to show the accuracy and feasibility of the extraction method and provided references for the effective secondary use of survival data.
ObjectiveTo investigate the prognostic factors for inflammatory breast cancer based on the data from West China Hospital with a relatively large sample.
MethodsClinical data of 41 patients with histopathologically confirmed inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) who received treatment at West China Hospital Oncology Center of Sichuan University between January 2009 and December 2014 were collected and analyzed. Log-rank test and Cox regression model were used for statistical analysis.
ResultsIn the study, negative estrogen receptor, negative progestrone receptor and positive human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 were identified in 58.5%, 61.0% and 34.2% of the inflammatory breast cancer tissues, respectively. Progress free survival (PFS) were between 2 and 60 months, with a median of 35 months. Univariate analysis showed that Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stage (P=0.016) and therapeutic effect (P=0.002) influenced the survival. Multivariate analysis showed that TNM stage (P=0.006), therapeutic effect (P=0.002), and anthracycline-taxane based chemotherapy (P=0.041) were the significant prognostic factors.
ConclusionTNM stage is the major prognostic factor for IBC. Preoperative chemotherapy with paclitaxel-epirubicin combination can improve the PFS of IBC. Comprehensive treatment mode with operation is recommended for the treatment of IBC.
ObjectiveTo explore the risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and construct a nomogram survival prediction model.MethodsThe patients with MBC from 2010 to 2013 were collected from surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database, then were randomly divided into training group and validation group by R software. SPSS software was used to compare the survival and prognosis of MBC patients with different metastatic sites in the training group by log-rank method and construct the Kaplan-Meier survival curve. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyze the factors of 3-year overall survival, then construct a nomogram survival prediction model by the independent prognostic factors. The C-index was used to evaluate its predictive value and the calibration curve was used to verify the nomogram survival prediction model by internal and external calibration graph.ResultsA total of 3 288 patients with MBC were collected, including 2 304 cases in the training group and 984 cases in the validation group. The data of the two groups were comparable. The median follow-up time of training group and validation group was 34 months and 34 months, respectively. In the training group, the results of Cox proportional hazards model showed that the older, black race, higher histological grading, without operation, ER (–), PR (–), HER-2 (–), and metastases of bone, brain, liver and lung were the risk factors of survival prognosis (P<0.05) and constructed the nomogram survival prediction model with these independent prognostic factors. The nomogram survival prediction showed a good accuracy with C-index of 0.704 [95%CI (0.691, 0.717)] in internal validation (training group) and C-index of 0.691 [95%CI (0.671, 0.711)] in external validation (validation group) in predicting 3-year overall survival. All calibration curves showed excellent consistency.ConclusionNomogram for predicting 3-year overall survival of patients with MBC in this study has a good predictive capability, and it is conducive to development of individualized clinical treatment.
ObjectiveTo investigate the expression and clinical significance of HOXB7 mRNA and protein in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues.MethodsThe expressions of HOXB7 mRNA were evaluated in 6 cases of adjacent colorectal mucosal (ACRM) tissues and 6 cases of CRC tissues by using RT-PCR. The HOXB7 protein expressions were evaluated in 30 cases of ACRM tissues and 98 cases of CRC tissues by using immunohistochemistry. The correlations between the expression of HOXB7 protein, and the clinicopathologic factors or the patient’ survival were analyzed.ResultsRT-PCR results showed that expression level of HOXB7 mRNA in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that of ACRM tissues (P=0.003). Immunohistochemistry results showed that significantly higher positive-expression rate of HOXB7 protein in CRC tissues compared with ACRM tissues (P<0.05). Positive expression of HOXB7 protein was associated with depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, and the TNM stage (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that positive expression of HOXB7 protein was not inversely correlated with survival of CRC patients (P=0.865).ConclusionPositive expression of HOXB7 protein is a novel biomarker for estimating the progression of CRC, but remains of textual research may be to confirm the significance of HOXB7 protein for prognosis evaluation.
ObjectiveTo explore the expression of chloride intracellular channel protein 1 (CLIC1) protein in the matched colorectal normal mucosa tissue, colorectal adenoma tissue， and colorectal cancer tissue, and its relationship with tumorigenesis, tumor progression， and prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer . MethodsThe expression of CLIC1 protein was detected in 150 cases of colorectal normal mucosa tissues, 62 cases of colorectal adenoma tissues, and 187 cases of colorectal cancer tissues by using immunohistochemistry tissue microarray, and the relationships between the expression of CLIC1 protein and clinicopathologic features, and the survival rate of patients with colorectal cancer were analyzed. ResultsThe positive rate of CLIC1 protein expression in normal mucosa tissues (26.00%, 39/150), colorectal adenoma tissues (66.13%, 41/62), and colorectal cancer tissues (82.89%, 187/155) increased in turn and the difference was statistically significant (Plt;0.001). The expression of CLIC1 protein was related to TNM staging (P=0.007), but it was not related to gender (P=0.553), age (P=0.206), tumor diameter (P=0.185), tumor differentiation (P=0.062), and tumor location (P=0.598). The median survival time after surgery in patients with CLIC1 protein positive expression was 80 months, and it was 111 months in patients with CLIC1 protein negative expression. The survival rate of patients with CLIC1 protein positive expression was lower than that with CLIC1 protein negative expression by log-rank test (66.40% vs. 80.00%, P=0.031). ConclusionsThe expression of CLIC1 protein is related to the tumorigenesis and progression of colorectal cancer as well as the survival of patients with colorectal cancer. CLIC1 is a potential tumor biomarker.
Abstract： Objective To evaluate surgical outcomes of patients with Marfan syndrome （MFS） complicated by type A aortic dissection （AAD） during follow-up. Methods We retrospectively reviewed clinical data of 44 patients with MFS complicated by AAD who were admitted to Wuhan Asia Heart Hospital from January 2006 to January 2012. There were 31 male patients and 13 female patients with their age of 12-54 （33.0±9.8） years. Twenty-three patients underwent Bentall procedure at different time after the onset of AAD， while the other 21 patients received conservative treatment in stead of surgery because of economical or other reasons. COX regression with time-varying covariates was performed to analyze related factors， using primary end point， primary end point＋secondary end point as the outcome variables respectively， to compare postoperative outcomes and quality of life between the surgical treatment patients and conservative treatment patients. Results Postoperatively 1 patient died of multiple organ failure， and the other 22 patients survived the surgery. All the 43 patients were followed up from 1 to 75 months. The 3-year survival rate of the 22 surgical treatment patients was 95.7%， and they all had a good quality of life during follow-up. The survival condition and quality of life of the 21 conservative treatment patients was poor， and 13 patients （61.9%） died with the 3-year survival rate of only 31.7%. The main causes of their death included acute cardiac tamponade， aortic dissection rupture， acute myocardial infarction andcardiogenic shock. COX regression with time-varying covariates showed that the treatment outcomes of the surgical treatment patients were statistically different from those of the conservative treatment patients after modifying the influence caused by different operating time （OR of T_COV_ =0.088， P=0.028） . The risk of death of surgical treatment was only 8.8% of that of conservative treatment. Conclusion The prognosis of patients with MFS complicated by AAD is very poor. Therefore， all these patient， both in acute stage and chronic stage， should undergo surgical treatment as early as possible. The short-term and follow-up outcomes of surgical treatment are satisfactory.
