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Background The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mediates vasculogenesis and angiogenesis through promoting endothelial cell growth, migration and mitosis, and has involvement in cancer pathogenesis, progression and metastasis. However, the prognostic value of VEGF in patients with prostate cancer remains controversial. Objectives The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognostic value of VEGF in prostate cancer, and summarise the results of related research on VEGF. Methods In accordance with an established search strategy, 11 studies with 1,529 patients were included in our meta-analysis. The correlation of VEGF-expression with overall survival and progression-free survival was evaluated by hazard ratio, either given or calculated. Results The studies were categorized by introduction of the author, demographic data in each study, prostate cancer-relatived information, VEGF cut-off value, VEGF subtype, methods of hazard ratio (HR) estimation and its 95% confidence interval (CI). High VEGF-expression in prostate cancer is a poor prognostic factor with statistical significance for OS (HR=2.32, 95%CI: 1.40-3.24). However, high VEGF-expression showed no effect on poor PFS (HR=1.30, 95%CI: 0.88-1.72). Using Begg's, Egger's test and funnel plots, we confirmed lack of publication bias in our analysis. Conclusion VEGF might be regarded as a prognostic maker for prostate cancer, as supported by our meta-analysis. To achieve a more definitive conclusion enabling the clinical use of VEGF in prostate cancer, we need more high-quality interventional original studies following agreed research approaches or standards.

Purpose: To estimate the effects of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations on ovarian cancer and breast cancer survival. Experimental Design: We searched PubMed and EMBASE for studies that evaluated the associations between BRCA mutations and ovarian or breast cancer survival. Meta-analysis was conducted to generate combined HRs with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: From 1,201 unique citations, we identified 27 articles that compared prognosis between BRCA mutation carriers and noncarriers in patients with ovarian or breast cancer. Fourteen studies examined ovarian cancer survival and 13 studies examined breast cancer survival. For ovarian cancer, meta-analysis demonstrated that both BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers had better OS (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.70–0.83 for BRCA1 mutation carriers; HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.50–0.66 for BRCA2 mutation carriers) and PFS (HR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.52–0.81 for BRCA1 mutation carriers; HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47–0.80 for BRCA2 mutation carriers) than noncarriers, regardless of tumor stage, grade, or histologic subtype. Among patients with breast cancer, BRCA1 mutation carriers had worse OS (HR, 1.50; 95% CI, 1.11–2.04) than noncarriers but were not significantly different from noncarriers in PFS. BRCA2 mutation was not associated with breast cancer prognosis. Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that BRCA mutations are robust predictors of outcomes in both ovarian and breast cancers and these mutations should be taken into account when devising appropriate therapeutic strategies. Clin Cancer Res; 21(1); 211–20. ©2014 AACR.

Orlistat is an orally administered anti-obesity drug that has shown significant antitumor activity in a variety of tumor cells. To identify the proteins involved in its antitumor activity, we employed a proteomic approach to reveal protein expression changes in the human ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3, following Orlistat treatment. Protein expression profiles were analyzed by 2-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and protein identification was performed on a MALDI-Q-TOF MS/MS instrument. More than 110 differentially expressed proteins were visualized by 2-DE and Coomassie brilliant blue staining. Furthermore, 71 proteins differentially expressed proteins were positively identified via mass spectrometry (MS)/MS analysis. In particular, PKM1/2, a key enzyme involved in tumorigenesis, was found to be significantly downregulated in SKOV3 cells following treatment with Orlistat. Moreover, PKM1/2 was proved to be downregulated in SKOV3 cells by western blot analysis after treatment with Orlistat. Taken together, using proteomic tools, we identified several differentially expressed proteins that underwent Orlistat-induced apoptosis, particularly PKM2. These changes confirmed our hypothesis that Orlistat is a potential inhibitor of ovarian cancer and can be used as a novel adjuvant antitumor agent.

Purpose To explore the effects of Icaritin on chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells and underlying mechanisms. Method CML cells were incubated with various concentration of Icaritin for 48 hours, the cell proliferation was analyzed by MTT and the apoptosis was assessed with Annexin V and Hoechst 33258 staining. Cell hemoglobinization was determined. Western blotting was used to evaluate the expressions of MAPK/ERK/JNK signal pathway and Jak-2/Phorpho-Stat3/Phorsph-Akt network-related protein. NOD-SCID nude mice were applied to demonstrate the anti-leukemia effect of Icaritin in vivo. Results Icaritin potently inhibited proliferation of K562 cells (IC50 was 8 µM) and primary CML cells (IC50 was 13.4 µM for CML-CP and 18 µM for CML-BC), induced CML cells apoptosis and promoted the erythroid differentiation of K562 cells with time-dependent manner. Furthermore, Icaritin was able to suppress the growth of primary CD34+ leukemia cells (CML) and Imatinib-resistant cells, and to induce apoptosis. In mouse leukemia model, Icaritin could prolong lifespan of NOD-SCID nude mice inoculated with K562 cells as effective as Imatinib without suppression of bone marrow. Icaritin could up-regulate phospho-JNK or phospho-C-Jun and down-regulate phospho-ERK, phospho-P-38, Jak-2, phospho-Stat3 and phospho-Akt expression with dose- or time-dependent manner. Icaritin had no influence both on c-Abl and phospho-c-Abl protein expression and mRNA levels of Bcr/Abl. Conclusion Icaritin from Chinese herb medicine may be a potential anti-CML agent with low adverse effect. The mechanism of anti-leukemia for Icaritin is involved in the regulation of Bcr/Abl downstream signaling. Icaritin may be useful for an alternative therapeutic choice of Imatinib-resistant forms of CML.

In the present study, 90 patients with newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) were studied for all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (As2O3) combination treatment in remission induction and postremission therapy. In addition, 20 APL patients who had achieved complete remission (CR) with an ATRA-based regimen received ATRA/As2O3 combination for consolidation and maintenance were also enrolled. The results showed that ATRA/As2O3 combination therapy yielded a high CR rate of 93.3% and a significantly shorter time to enter CR (median: 31 days; range: 18–59 days) compared to the ATRA-based regimen (n = 72; median: 39 days; range: 25–62 days). With the ATRA/As2O3 combination for CR maintaining, regardless of the way by which CR was attained, the relapse-free survival was significantly better than with an ATRA plus cytotoxic chemotherapy regimen (92.9 ± 3.2% vs. 72.4 ± 7.6%, for the 3-year Kaplan-Meier estimate of relapse-free survival). The drug toxicity profile showed that with the use of As2O3, the incidence of hepatotoxicity was obviously high during remission induction but decreased significantly during postremission treatment. We conclude that APL patients may benefit from the early use of the combination of ATRA and As2O3, in either remission induction or consolidation/maintenance.

We thank Gong and colleagues ([1][1]) for their thoughtful comments and interest in our meta-analysis of the effects of BRCA1 - and BRCA2 -related mutations on ovarian and breast cancer survival ([2][2]). Regarding the first point, we want to point out one advantage of using hazard ratio (HR) as an