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Background: The main objective of this meta-analysis was to determine the clinical benefit of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) compared with radiation alone (RT) in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients in endemic geographic areas. Methods: Using a prospective meta-analysis protocol, two independent investigators reviewed the publications and extracted the data. Published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which patients with NPC in endemic areas were randomly assigned to receive CCRT or RT alone were included. Results: Seven trials (totally 1608 patients) were eligible. Risk ratios (RRs) of 0.63 (95% CI, 0.50 to 0.80), 0.76 (95% CI, 0.61 to 0.93) and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.62 to 0.89) were observed for 2, 3 and 5 years OS respectively in favor of the CCRT group. The RRs were larger than that detected in the previously reported meta-analyses (including both endemic and non-endemic), indicating that the relative benefit of survival was smaller than what considered before. Conclusions: This is the first meta-analysis of CCRT vs. RT alone in NPC treatment which included studies only done in endemic area. The results confirmed that CCRT was more beneficial compared with RT alone. However, the relative benefit of CCRT in endemic population might be less than that from previous meta-analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAim:To investigate a possible regulator gene involved in the cholera toxin-induced differentiation of rat C6 glioma cells.Methods:The global changes in the mRNA expression pattern induced by cholera toxin were analyzed using gene chip microarray. The selected gene was then silenced by RNA interference or overexpressed with an ORF plasmid to determine its necessity in this process.Results:Nur77, a member of the orphan nuclear receptor family (NR4A), was markedly up-regulated during the process of differentiation. Furthermore, RNAi of nur77 attenuated the induction effect of cholera toxin on C6 cells, whereas overexpression of nur77 led to similarly differentiated behavior, including morphologic and biomarker changes, as well as cell cycle arrest.Conclusion:Nur77 participated actively and essentially as an important regulator in the cholera toxin-induced differentiation of C6 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on the thermal properties of an epoxy cresol-formaldehyde novolac (ECN)/diaminodiphenyl sulfone (DDS) system. A bismaleimide (BMI) polymer monomer containing tetramethylbiphenyl and aromatic esther structures was synthesized to improve the thermal properties of the modified substance. Results showed that introducing bismaleimide monomer, 4,4'-bis(4-maleimidophenoxy)-3,3',5,5'-tetramethyl biphenyl (BMITB) into the ECN/DDS system improved its thermal stability and decreased its moisture absorption.

Copolymerization of propylene oxide (PO) and ethylene oxide (EO) using double metal cyanide (DMC) complex as the catalyst was carried out. The structure of random copolymers was confirmed by [sup 13]C-NMR and IR spectra. ¹H-NMR analysis shows that the EO content in the copolymer is the same as that in the initial monomer feed. Moderate molecular weight copolymcrs with various EO content were obtained and their values of molecular weight distribution (MWD) fell in the range of 1.21-1.55. It was found that the molecular weight of copolymers is controlled by the mass ratio of EO + PO to initiator moles used. The reaction rate as well as polymer yield decrease with increasing EO content in the feed composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although cancers are widely considered to be maintained by stem cells, the existence of stem cells in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has seldom been reported, in part due to the lack of unique surface markers. We here identified cancer stem cell-like cells with side population (SP) phenotype in five human RCC cell lines. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that 769P, a human clear cell RCC cell line, contained the largest amount of SP cells as compared with other four cell lines. These 769P SP cells possessed characteristics of proliferation, self-renewal, and differentiation, as well as strong resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy that were possibly related to the ABCB1 transporter. In vivo experiments with serial tumor transplantation in mice also showed that 769P SP cells formed tumors in NOD/SCID mice. Taken together, these results indicate that 769P SP cells have the properties of cancer stem cells, which may play important roles in tumorigenesis and therapy-resistance of RCC.