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Background This study aimed to investigate prognostic genes in ovarian cancer (OC) and to explore their potential underlying biological mechanisms through a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis. Methods Common differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in 3 OC datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (GSE26712, GSE18520, and GSE14407) were screened out. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed by Metascape. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DEGs was constructed using the STRING database. The prognostic value of DEGs were determined using the Kaplan-Meier plotter. The ONCOMINE and Human Protein Atlas databases were used to verify the expression levels of prognostic genes in OC. Genomic analysis of prognostic genes were also investigated by cBio Cancer Genomics Portal (cBioPortal) database, UCSC Xena browser and UALCAN. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to predict the possible pathways and biological processes of the prognostic genes. Results Integration of the 3 datasets have found 879 common DEGs. A high expression of structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 4 (SMC4) was revealed in the Kaplan-Meier plotter analysis to be meaningful for the prognosis of OC and was verified at both the mRNA and protein levels. The results from cBioPortal showed that SMC4 alterations accounted for 7 to 18% of genetic alterations in OC, and the majority alterations were copy number amplifications. Finally, the GSEA results showed that samples with SMC4 overexpression were mainly enriched in the cell cycle, spliceosome, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis, and adherens junctions. Conclusions High SMC4 expression is linked with a poor prognosis in patients with OC and might serve as a prognostic biomarker for the disease.

To estimate whether adjuvant radiotherapy is necessary for patients with stage IA1-IIA1 cervical cancer after laparoscopic hysterectomy, 221 patients were retrospectively analyzed. Sixty-two of them were treated with laparoscopic hysterectomy and adjuvant radiotherapy (group A), 115 underwent open surgery (group B) and 44 received laparoscopic hysterectomy alone (group C). Results showed that the 3-year local recurrence-free survival (LRFS) rates of group A, B and C were 98.4%, 97.4% and 86.4%, respectively. The LRFS rates of group A and B surpassed C (A vs. B, p=0.634; A vs. C, p=0.011; B vs. C, p=0.006). The inter-group differences of 3-year overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis free survival (DMFS) were not statistically significant. In subgroup analysis of stage IB disease, the 3-year LRFS rates of group A, B and C were 100%, 98.8% and 83.1%, the 3-year OS rates of group A, B and C were 100%, 98.9% and 91.5%, respectively. The 3-year LRFS and OS rates of group A and B were significantly superior to group C (p

Objective: To investigate the risks of patients with stage IA1-IIA1 cervical cancer after laparoscopic hysterectomy, and whether adjuvant radiotherapy is necessary.Patients and Methods: From January 2013 to December 2016, we retrospectively analyzed 221 patients with cervical cancer of stage IA1-IIA1. Sixty-two patients were treated with laparoscopic hysterectomy and adjuvant radiotherapy (group A), 115 patients only underwent open surgery (group B) and 44 patients received laparoscopic hysterectomy alone (group C). Local recurrence-free survival（LRFS) was the primary outcome, distant metastasis free survival (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were secondary outcomes in the study.Results: The median follow-up time was 58.33 months (range, 56.91-59.76 months) for all the patients. Three groups were balanced in terms of baseline characteristics. The 3-year LRFS rates were 98.4% in group A, 97.4% in group B, and 86.4% in group C, respectively. The LRFS rates of group A and B surpassed group C ( group A vs. B, p=0.634; group A vs. C, p=0.011; group B vs. C, p=0.006). In subgroup analysis of stage IB1-IB3 disease, the 3-year LRFS was 100% in group A , 98.8 % in group B and 83.1% in group C, the 3-year OS rates were 100% in group A, 98.9% in group B, 91.5% in group C. The 3-year LRFS and OS rates on group A and B were significantly superior to group C ( pConclusions: There is a risk of local failure in laparoscopic hysterectomy for early stage cervical cancer. Adjuvant radiotherapy can reduce the risk of recurrence and improve local control for women with early cervical cancer and bring survival benefits for patients with stage IB disease after minimally invasive hysterectomy.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S) To explore the impact of dose distribution on the parameter and predictive ability of equivalent uniform dose (EUD) model. MATERIALS/METHODS The brains of 103 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients receiving IMRT were divided into left and right half-brains to create small-size virtual brains with similar dose distribution to brains. Difference of relative VD between brain and half-brain was analyzed by independent sample t-test. EUDs for different dose distributions were calculated in different VD (EUDVD). Predictive ability of EUDVD for radiation-induced brain injury was assessed by receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC). The optimal volume-effect parameter a of EUD was selected when AUC was maximal (mAUC). The correlations between mAUC, a and D (specific dose of VD) were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis to evaluate the impact of dose distribution. Paired samples t-test was used for comparisons of both mAUCs and parameters between brain and half-brain to evaluate the role of size. The optimal DV and VD points were calculated for a simple comparison. RESULTS Average-DVH curves of left half-brains, right half-brains and brains overlapped almost exactly, and the differences of relative VD were less than 0.01% (P > 0.5). The mAUC of EUDVD increased with D, and reached maximum when D was around 55 Gy. When D≤55 Gy, mAUC was linearly dependent on D. The optimal a was correlated with D strongly, and it decreased from 22 to 1 as D increased. The difference of mAUC/a between brain and half-brain was not significant. In the a range of 1 to 22, AUCs of EUDV55 Gy in brain/half-brain (0.830-0.857/0.830-0.845) were always larger than those of whole-volume EUD (0.681-0.819/0.691-0.821). AUCs of EUDV55 Gy (a = 1, equal to mean dose) and DV55 Gy/2 (dose delivered to V55 Gy/2, equal to median dose,) were larger than those of DV and VD (0.845/0.844 vs. 0.818/0.827 in half-brain). CONCLUSION Volume-effect parameter of EUD is variable and depends on dose distribution rather than volume size. Before using an empirical parameter, dose distributions (especially the gradients) should be similar. Critical-dose-volume EUD could improve the predictive ability (no matter what the a is) and has a stable volume-effect parameter. Mean dose may be the case in which critical-dose-volume EUD has the best predictive ability, while median dose, as a simple dose/volume point, is a convenient alternative.

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of CXC subfamily ligands in stage I-III patients with colorectal cancer, in order to find a new predictor for CRC patients.MethodsWe used Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to collect the gene expression of CXC subfamily ligands and corresponding clinical data. The survival analysis was performed by "survival" package of Rsoftware. The CRC patients' DFS and the relationship between the expression levels of CXC subfamily ligands were evaluated by the univariate Cox regression analysis.ResultsBy using microarray data, there were 14 CXC subfamily ligands identified from dataset GSE39582. Seven CXC subfamily ligands were significantly correlated with DFS in CRC patients. (pConclusionThere were seven CXC subfamily ligands were significantly correlated with DFS in CRC patients. Different expression level of four CXC subfamily ligands (CXCL9, CXCL10, CXCL11, and CXCL13) and Three CXC subfamily ligands (CXCL10, CXCL11, and CXCL13) were related to CRC patients' DFS and OS. There are still needs more experiments to confirm our conclusions. Next step we will make animal experiment about the genes in order to verified the predictive value of the CXC subfamily ligands.