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Objectives: To develop a nomogram for the local tumor progression (LTP) in patients with early‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after computed tomography‐guided percutaneous microwave ablation (CT‐PMWA) and to assess clinical‐pathologic risk factors for individual LTP estimation. Furthermore, we compared the prognostic predictive ability for LTP between the nomogram and the traditional staging systems. Methods: This retrospective study was approved by the institutional review board. Five hundred and forty treatment‐naïve patients with HCC according to the Milan criteria, who subsequently underwent CT‐PMWA were reviewed from 2009 to 2019. Baseline characteristics were collected to identify the risk factors for the determination of LTP after CT‐PMWA. The multivariate Cox proportional‐hazards model based on significant prognostic factors of LTP was used to construct the nomogram, which was then assessed for its predictive accuracy using mainly the Harrell's C‐index and time‐dependent area under the curve (tAUC). Results: After a median follow‐up time of 28.7 months, 6.5% (35/540) patients had LTP. The nomogram was developed based on the tumor size, tumor number, Child‐Turcotte‐Pugh (CTP) grade, platelet, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT). The nomogram had good calibration and discriminatory abilities in the training set, with C‐indexes of 0.799 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.738, 0.860), and tAUCs of 0.844 (CI: 0.728, 0.895), that were greater than those of traditional staging systems. Internal validation with 1000 bootstrap resamples had a good C‐index of 0.735 (CI: 0.648, 0.816). Conclusions: The nomogram model can be used to predict accurately LTP after CT‐PMWA for early‐stage HCC, as well as to assist physicians during the therapeutic decision‐making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the rechargeable Li-O 2 battery (LOB) has encountered several bottlenecks till date. One of the biggest challenges is to lower the oxidation potential of Li 2 O 2 , which is the insulating and insoluble discharge product. A possible solution to this problem is to use high acceptor number (AN) or donor number (DN) solvents to increase the solubility of Li 2 O 2 , so that the dissolved Li 2 O 2 can diffuse to the cathode surface and get oxidized at a relatively low potential. Herein, we explored the efficiency and side-reactions in the LOB charge process with different Li 2 O 2 soluble electrolytes. The relationship between the solubility of Li 2 O 2 and charging rate was analyzed quantitatively with ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and rotating disk electrode experiments. As a result, electrolytes with high AN usually have higher solubility for Li 2 O 2 than electrolytes with high DN, and thus exhibit higher Li 2 O 2 oxidation rates. Nevertheless, higher Li 2 O 2 solubility in high AN electrolytes also induces more severe side reactions and easily passivates the electrode surface. The trade-off between charging reaction rate and electrolyte stability is a key issue to be considered when designing high performance LOB electrolytes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficiency of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and subsequent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) combined with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells transfusion for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)., Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted for 63 early-stage HCC patients who were treated with TACE and sequential RFA in this hospital between July 2001 and January 2012. These patients were divided into two groups: TACE+RFA+CIK (31 patients) and TACE+RFA (32 patients). Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and adverse events were compared between two groups., Results: The median OS and PFS in the TACE+RFA+CIK group were significantly longer than those in TACE+RFA group (OS: 107.5 vs 61.4 months, respectively, P=0.038; PFS: 43.0 vs 30.0 months respectively, P=0.024).The 3-, 5- and 10-year cumulative overall survival rates in the TACE+RFA+CIK group were higher than those in the TACE+RFA group (93.3%, 77.7% and 35.4% vs 76.7%, 57.7% and 29.3%, respectively). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year cumulative progression-free survival rates were also higher in the TACE+RFA+CIK group (93.5%, 66.4% and 28.4% vs 84.4%, 38.5% and 0.1%, respectively). No serious complications were observed in both groups., Conclusion: This study suggests that CIK cells transfusion is safe, feasible, and superior in prolonging the OS and PFS time of early-stage HCC. However, any conclusions must be confirmed by more clinical studies.

Objective: To subdivide the M1 stage of patients to predict better survival groups and assess the predictive factors of prognosis to select personalized cancer treatments., Methods: From the records of 666 colorectal cancer cases treated at our hospital during January 1995 to December 2010, we analyzed the site of metastases, number of metastases, size of hepatic metastatic tumor and corresponding treatments. According to the results, we made recommendations for subdividing the M1 stage to guide individualized treatments., Results: The metastatic median survival of liver metastasis and non-liver metastasis were 18.7 vs 22.9 months (P = 0.082). And the median survival of single organ metastasis, double organ metastasis and multiple organ metastasis were 24.8 vs 15.6 vs 10.9 months, (P < 0.01).With no more than 3 liver lesions, the patients received operation or ablation therapy plus chemotherapy and their median survival was longer than those on chemotherapy only (49.6 vs 22.3 months, P < 0.01)., Conclusion: According to metastatic characteristics, different clinical features and treatments result in significantly different survivals and prognoses in metastatic colorectal cancer patients.