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Purpose: The overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is associated with a worse prognosis and the development of distant metastases in cervical cancer. This matched-pair analysis examined whether COX-2 expression is associated with para-aortic lymph node (PALN) recurrence in uterine cervical cancer treated with radiotherapy (RT). Methods and Materials: For this study, we matched 20 patients with PALN recurrence after definitive or postoperative RT by stage with 20 others who did not have PALN recurrence. Of the 20 patients with PALN recurrence, definitive or postoperative RT was performed in 11 and 9 patients, respectively. COX-2 expression was assessed immunohistochemically using a mouse monoclonal antibody on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor specimens taken before RT. A logistic regression model was used to predict for PALN recurrence. Results: COX-2 was expressed in 28 (70%) of the 40 patients. The staining intensity was as follows: weak in 19 (47%), moderate in 6 (15%), and strong in 3 (8%) patients. The patients with PALN recurrence had much greater expression of COX-2 (17 patients, 85%) than did the control group (11 patients, 55%; p = 0.04). Strong staining intensity of COX-2 was seen only in the PALN recurrence group. The statistically significant factors associated with PALN recurrence were positive pelvic lymph nodes (odds ratio, 7.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.55–37.37; p = 0.01) and COX-2 expression (odds ratio, 1.47; 95% confidence interval, 1.04–2.09; p = 0.03). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that COX-2 overexpression in the initial tumor tissue might be associated with PALN recurrence after RT in cervical cancer patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: We investigated the prognostic value of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression in pretreatment biopsy specimens from patients with locally advanced rectal cancer treated with preoperative chemoradiation. Methods and Materials: Pretreatment biopsy specimens from 92 patients with locally advanced rectal cancer were examined for EGFR expression by immunohistochemistry. EGFR expression was assessed by immunoreactive score (IRS). The prognostic value of EGFR expression was evaluated according to the level of EGFR expression. Results: Epidermal growth factor receptor expression was positive in 65 patients (71%). EGFR expression levels were low (IRS 0 to 5) in 83 patients (90%) and high (IRS 6 to 7) in 9 patients (10%). A high level of EGFR expression was statistically significant for shorter overall survival (p = 0.013), disease-free survival (p = 0.002), and distant metastasis-free survival (p = 0.003), as compared with a low level of expression in univariate analysis. Grouping based on positive or negative EGFR expression did not represent prognostic significance for survival. In multivariate analysis, high EGFR expression was an independent prognostic factor for decreased disease-free survival (relative risk 2.4, p = 0.041) and distant metastasis-free survival (relative risk 2.6, p = 0.04). Conclusions: Our results suggest that high level of EGFR expression in a pretreatment biopsy specimen may be a significant adverse prognostic factor for disease-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background Acacetin (5,7-dihydroxy-40-methoxyflavone), present in safflower seeds, plants, flowers, Cirisium rhinoceros Nakai, has been reported to be able to exert anti-peroxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-plasmodial, and anti-proliferative activities by inducing apoptosis and blocking the progression of cell cycles. Objective and design The objective of this study is to investigate the mechanism of acacetin-induced apoptosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line (HSC-3). Results Acacetin caused 50% growth inhibition (IC50) of HSC-3 cells at 25 μg/mL over 24 h in the MTT assay. Apoptosis was characterized by DNA fragmentation and increase of sub-G1 cells and involved activation of caspase-3 and PARP (poly-ADP-ribose polymerase). Maximum caspase-3 activity was observed with 100 μg/mL of acacetin for 24 h. Caspase-8 and -9 activation cascades mediated the activation of caspase-3. Acacetin caused reduction of Bcl-2 expression leading to an increase of the Bax:Bcl-2 ratio. It also caused a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential that induced release of cytochrome c into the cytoplasm. Pretreatment with casapse-3 (Z-DEVD-FMK), -8 (Z-IETD-FMK), and 9 inhibitor (z-LEHD-fmk) inhibited the acacetin-induced loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and release of cytochrome c. The mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) were activated by acacetin. Moreover, pretreating the cells with each of the caspase inhibitor or MAPKs specific inhibitors apparently inhibited acacetin-induced cytotoxicity of HSC-3 cells. Conclusion In conclusion, acacetin induce the apoptosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line, which is closely related to its ability to activate the MAPK-mediated signaling pathways with the subsequent induction of a mitochondria- and caspase-dependent mechanism. These results strongly suggest that acacetin might have cancer inhibition and therapeutic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine retrospectively whether levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression can predict tumor downstaging after preoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. Methods and Materials: A total of 183 patients with rectal cancer (cT3-T4 or N+) were enrolled in this study. Preoperative chemoradiotherapy consisted of 50.4 Gy of pelvic radiation with concurrent 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin bolus intravenous chemotherapy in 94 patients or oral capecitabine and leucovorin in 89 patients. EGFR expression in pretreatment paraffin-embedded tumor biopsy specimens was assessed by immunohistochemistry. EGFR expression was determined from the intensity and extent of staining. Tumor downstaging was defined as a reduction of at least one T-stage level. Results: Tumor downstaging occurred in 97 patients (53%), and the tumors showed a pathologic complete response in 27 patients (15%). Positive EGFR expression was observed in 140 (76%) of 183 patients. EGFR expression levels were low in 113 patients (62%) and high in 70 patients (38%). On logistic regression analysis, the significant predictive factor for increased tumor downstaging was a low level of EGFR expression and preoperative chemotherapy using oral capecitabine (odds ratio, 0.437; p = 0.012 vs. odds ratio, 3.235; p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: A high level of EGFR expression may be a significant predictive molecular marker for decreased tumor downstaging after preoperative chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Needle entry site localization remains a challenge for procedures that involve lumbar puncture, for example, epidural anesthesia. To solve the problem, we have developed an image classification algorithm that can automatically identify the bone/interspinous region for ultrasound images obtained from lumbar spine of pregnant patients in the transverse plane. The proposed algorithm consists of feature extraction, feature selection and machine learning procedures. A set of features, including matching values, positions and the appearance of black pixels within pre-defined windows along the midline, were extracted from the ultrasound images using template matching and midline detection methods. A support vector machine was then used to classify the bone images and interspinous images. The support vector machine model was trained with 1,040 images from 26 pregnant subjects and tested on 800 images from a separate set of 20 pregnant patients. A success rate of 95.0% on training set and 93.2% on test set was achieved with the proposed method. The trained support vector machine model was further tested on 46 off-line collected videos, and successfully identified the proper needle insertion site (interspinous region) in 45 of the cases. Therefore, the proposed method is able to process the ultrasound images of lumbar spine in an automatic manner, so as to facilitate the anesthetists' work of identifying the needle entry site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasound imaging was used to detect the anatomic structure of lumbar spine from the transverse view, to facilitate needle insertion in epidural anesthesia. The interspinous images that represent proper needle insertion sites were identified automatically with image processing and pattern recognition techniques. On the basis of ultrasound video streams obtained in pregnant patients, the image processing and identification procedure in a previous work was tested and improved. The test results indicate that the pre-processing algorithm performs well on lumbar spine ultrasound images, whereas the classifier is not flexible enough for pregnant patients. To improve the accuracy of identification, we propose a cascading classifier that successfully located the proper needle insertion site on all of the 36 video streams collected from pregnant patients. The results indicate that the proposed image identification procedure is able to identify the ultrasound images of lumbar spine in an automatic manner, so as to facilitate the anesthetists' work to identify the needle insertion point precisely and effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Lab simulation of selected biosurfactant-producing bacteria, good candidates for bioremediation. • Report semiquantitative data for C 14 –C 35 n -alkanes during biodegradation. • Reveal the very different biodegradation behaviors of the three bacteria. • Found that the biodegradation rates of n -alkanes follow first-order kinetics under the experimental conditions. • Clarify that bacteria simultaneously biodegrade C14–C35 n -alkanes at various ratios and rates. In this study, aerobic biodegradation of crude oil was simulated using Pseudomonas aeruginosa XJ16, Bacillus cereus XJ20, and Acinetobacter lwoffii XJ19 bacteria for 90 days, for semi-quantitative calculation of concentration, demonstrating that n -alkanes (C 14 –C 35) were biodegraded by the three strains at different ratios and rates. P. aeruginosa XJ16 showed the highest biodegradative potential for n -alkanes, with total biodegradation ratio of 98.2% in 10 days. In comparison, the total biodegradation ratio by B. cereus XJ20 increased gradually and achieved 98.8% after 90 days; whereas that by A. lwoffii XJ19 was much lower even after 90 days (29.3%). In addition, P. aeruginosa XJ16 and B. cereus XJ20 exhibited stronger biodegradation efficiencies for C 18 –C 32 n -alkanes (95.4%–99.7%) than A. lwoffii XJ19 (9.05%–73.0%). However, all three bacterial strains exhibited comparably good biodegradation efficiencies for C 33 –C 35 n -alkanes (60.2%–86.4%). Moreover, the biodegradation rate constants and biodegradation rates were of the decreasing order: P. aeruginosa XJ16 > B. cereus XJ20 > A. lwoffii XJ19. P. aeruginosa XJ16 and B. cereus XJ20 biodegrade n -alkanes with relatively low carbon numbers more easily than those with high carbon numbers. However, A. lwoffii XJ19 is more likely to biodegrade n -alkanes with relatively high carbon numbers. On day 10, surface tension (mN·m−1) declined from 70.6 to 35.9 by treatment with P. aeruginosa XJ16, to 31.3 with B. cereus XJ20, and to 34.1 with A. lwoffii XJ19. As biosurfactant-producing and hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, these three strains have the potential to be used for bioremediation of hydrocarbon pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]