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PDF file - 119KB, Characteristics of patient who received CIK cell treatment.

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a high risk form of this disease, even after surgery, due to the absence of targets for hormone treatment and anti–Her-2 therapy. Chemotherapy is the main therapeutic strategy for such patients with breast cancer, although the outcome is often unsatisfactory. Thus, the development of combination adjuvant therapies is essential for improved prognosis in patients with TNBC. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of a sequential combination of cytokine-induced killer cell (CIK) infusion and chemotherapy for patients with post-mastectomy TNBC.Experimental Design: From 2008 to 2012, 90 patients with post-mastectomy TNBC were included in this retrospective study: 45 cases received chemotherapy alone or with sequential radiotherapy; a further 45 cases received chemotherapy with/without radiotherapy and sequential CIK infusion.Results: Survival analysis showed significantly higher disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates in the CIK treatment group compared with the control group (P = 0.0382, P = 0.0046, respectively; log-rank test). Multivariate survival analysis showed that CIK adjuvant treatment was an independent prognostic factor for OS of patients with TNBC. In subgroup analyses, CIK adjuvant treatment significantly increased the DFS rate of patients with pathologic grade 3, and significantly increased the OS rate of patients in N1, N2, N3, IIB, III TNM (tumor–node–metastasis) stages, and with pathologic grade 3.Conclusions: These data indicate that adjuvant CIK treatment combined with chemotherapy is an effective therapeutic strategy to prevent disease recurrence and prolong survival of patients with TNBC, particularly those with lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and poor pathologic grade. Clin Cancer Res; 20(11); 3003–11. ©2014 AACR.

PDF file - 108KB, CIK cell treatment protocol.

Objective This study was designed to establish and validate promising and reliable nomograms for predicting the survival of angiosarcoma (AS) patients. Methods The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database was queried to collect the clinical information of 785 AS patients between 2004 and 2015. Data were split into a training cohort (n = 549) and a validation cohort (n = 236) without any preference. Univariate Cox and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to analyze the clinical parameters. Independent prognostic factors were then identified. Two nomograms were constructed to predict overall survival (OS) and cancer‐specific survival (CSS) at 3 and 5 years. Finally, the models were evaluated using concordance indices (C‐indices), calibration plots, and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 785 individuals were included in this analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that age, tumor size, and stage were prognostic factors independently associated with the OS of AS. Tumor site, tumor size, and stage were associated with the CSS of AS. Based on the statistical results and clinical significance of variables, nomograms were built. The nomograms for OS and CSS had C‐indices of 0.666 and 0.654, respectively. The calibration curves showed good agreement between the predictive values and the actual values. DCA also indicated that the nomograms were clinically useful. Conclusion We established nomograms with good predictive ability that could provide clinicians with better predictions about the clinical outcomes of AS patients., We constructed new and reliable nomograms with the clinical information obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Internal and external validation results suggested that our models had good prediction effects.

Most patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are in the middle or advanced stage at the time of diagnosis, and the therapeutic effect is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to verify whether deoxythymidylate kinase (DTYMK) increased in HCC and was an effective therapeutic target in HCC. The findings revealed that the DTYMK level significantly increased and correlated with poor prognosis in HCC. However, nothing else is known, except that DTYMK could catalyze the phosphorylation of deoxythymidine monophosphate (dTMP) to form deoxythymidine diphosphate (dTDP). A number of experiments were performed to study the function of DTYMK in vitro and in vivo to resolve this knowledge gap. The knockdown of DTYMK was found to significantly inhibit the growth of HCC and increase the sensitivity to oxaliplatin, which is commonly used in HCC treatment. Moreover, DTYMK was found to competitively combine with miR-378a-3p to maintain the expression of MAPK activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAPK2) and thus activate the phospho-heat shock protein 27 (phospho-HSP27)/nuclear factor NF-kappaB (NF-κB) axis, which mediated the drug resistance, proliferation of tumor cells, and infiltration of tumor-associated macrophages by inducing the expression of C-C motif chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5). Thus, this study demonstrated a new mechanism and provided a new insight into the role of mRNA in not only encoding proteins to regulate the process of life but also regulating the expression of other genes and tumor microenvironment through the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism.

Background and aims Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are key players in multicellular, stromal-dependent alterations leading to HCC pathogenesis. However, the intricate crosstalk between CAFs and other components in the tumor microenvironment (TME) remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the cellular crosstalk among CAFs, tumor cells, and tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) during different stages of HCC pathogenesis. Approach and results In the HCC-TME, CAF-derived cardiotrophin-like cytokine factor 1 (CLCF1) increased chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 6 (CXCL6) and TGF-β secretion in tumor cells, which subsequently promoted tumor cell stemness in an autocrine manner and TAN infiltration and polarization in a paracrine manner. Moreover, CXCL6 and TGF-β secreted by HCC cells activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2 signaling of CAFs to produce more CLCF1, thus forming a positive feedback loop to accelerate HCC progression. Inhibition of ERK1/2 or CLCF1/ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor signaling efficiently impaired CLCF1-mediated crosstalk among CAFs, tumor cells, and TANs both in vitro and in vivo. In clinical samples, up-regulation of the CLCF1-CXCL6/TGF-β axis exhibited a marked correlation with increased cancer stem cells, "N2"-polarized TANs, tumor stage, and poor prognosis. Conclusions This study reveals a cytokine-mediated cellular crosstalk and clinical network involving the CLCF1-CXCL6/TGF-β axis, which regulates the positive feedback loop among CAFs, tumor stemness, and TANs, HCC progression, and patient prognosis. These results may support the CLCF1 cascade as a potential prognostic biomarker and suggest that selective blockade of CLCF1/ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor or ERK1/2 signaling could provide an effective therapeutic target for patients with HCC.

Background High probability of metastasis limited the long-term survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our previous study revealed that Galectin-3 was closely associated with poor prognosis in HCC patients. Methods The effects of Galectin-3 on tumour metastasis were investigated in vitro and in vivo, and the underlying biological and molecular mechanisms involved in this process were evaluated. Results Galectin-3 showed a close correlation with vascular invasion and poor survival in a large-scale study in HCC patients from multiple sets. Galectin-3 was significantly involved in diverse metastasis-related processes in HCC cells, such as angiogenesis and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Mechanistically, Galectin-3 activated the PI3K-Akt-GSK-3β-β-catenin signalling cascade; the β-catenin/TCF4 transcriptional complex directly targeted IGFBP3 and vimentin to regulate angiogenesis and EMT, respectively. In animal models, Galectin-3 enhanced the tumorigenesis and metastasis of HCC cells via β-catenin signalling. Moreover, molecular deletion of Galectin-3-β-catenin signalling synergistically improved the antitumour effect of sorafenib. Conclusions The Galectin-3-β-catenin-IGFBP3/vimentin signalling cascade was determined as a central mechanism controlling HCC metastasis, providing possible biomarkers for predicating vascular metastasis and sorafenib resistance, as well as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of HCC patients.

Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) checkpoint inhibitor therapy leads to immune-related adverse events (irAEs). We sought to evaluate whether the development of irAEs correlates with the treatment response in Chinese patients with advanced melanoma. In this study, we conducted a retrospective study of advanced melanoma patients who received PD-1 inhibitor therapy in China between August 2014 and March 2018. A total of 93 patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors including pembrolizumab and nivolumab were enrolled. The most frequent irAEs were pruritus, rash, vitiligo, and fatigue. The median time to onset of irAEs was 6.1 weeks. The overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were higher in patients with irAEs than those without irAEs (P = 0.004 and P = 0.003, respectively), and better in patients who experienced three or more irAEs than those with none (P

Adjuvant cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell immunotherapy has shown potential in improving the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after curative resection. However, whether an individual could obtain survival benefit from CIK cell treatment remains unknown. In the present study, we focused on the characteristics of CIK cells and aimed to identify the best predictive biomarker for adjuvant CIK cell treatment in patients with HCC after surgery. This study included 48 patients with HCC treated with postoperative adjuvant CIK cell immunotherapy. The phenotype activity and cytotoxic activity of CIK cells were determined by flow cytometry and xCELLigence™ Real-Time Cell Analysis (RTCA) system, respectively. Correlation analysis revealed that the cytotoxic activity of CIK cells was significantly negative correlated with the percentage of CD3+ CD4+ cell subsets, but significantly positive correlated with CD3-CD56+ and CD3+ CD56+ cell subsets. Survival analysis showed that there were no significant associations between patients' prognosis and the phenotype of CIK cells. By contrast, there was statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with high cytotoxic activity of CIK cells as compared with those with low cytotoxic activity of CIK cells. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that CIK cell cytotoxicity was an independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS. In conclusion, a high cytotoxic activity of CIK cells can serve as a valuable biomarker for adjuvant CIK cell immunotherapy of HCC patients after surgery.

The abnormal expression of noncoding RNAs has attracted increasing interest in the field of hepatocellular carcinoma progression. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms mediated by noncoding RNAs in these processes are unclear. Here, we obtained the expression profiles of long noncoding RNAs, microRNAs, and mRNAs from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and identified hepatocarcinogenesis-specific differentially expressed transcripts. Next, we identified significant Gene Ontology and pathway terms that the differentially expressed transcripts involved in. Using functional analysis and target prediction, we constructed a hepatocellular carcinoma-associated deregulated competitive endogenous RNA network to reveal the potential mechanisms underlying tumor progression. By analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas dataset, six key long noncoding RNAs showed significant association with overall survival as well as strong correlation with some microRNAs and mRNAs in the competitive endogenous RNA network. We further validated the above results and determined their diagnostic and prognostic value in clinical samples. Importantly, by large-scale analyses, we identified a cluster of long noncoding RNAs, GBAP1, MCM3AP-AS1, SLC16A1-AS1, C3P1, DIO3OS, and HNF4A-AS1 as candidate biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, which will improve our understanding of competitive endogenous RNA-mediated regulatory mechanisms underlying hepatocellular carcinoma development and will provide novel therapeutic targets in the future.

The repeated use of doxorubicin is limited due to dose-limiting cardiac toxicity. Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PEG-LD, Duomeisu) has a reduced cardiac toxicity. This phase I study aimed to investigate the maximum tolerated doses (MTDs) and dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) of the PEG-LD and cisplatin combination in patients with metastatic and recurrent osteosarcoma.Patients were given PEG-LD at a dose of 40, 50, or 60 mg/mA total of 15 patients were enrolled in this trial, and nine of the patients had received prior doxorubicin. The MTD of PEG-LD was reached at 50 mg/mWe provide the data showing that PEG-LD 50 mg/mChiCTR1900021550.

Background Radical/cytoreductive nephrectomy or nephron-sparing surgery may be thought to be not safe or unfeasible in some renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients in which tumor is locally advanced or highly complicated. Neoadjuvant therapy may reduce the volume of the tumor, thus facilitates surgery. The aim the study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant combination of pazopanib or axitinib and PD-1-activated dendritic cell-cytokine-induced killer (PD-1/DC-CIK) cell immunotherapy in those patients. Methods Data from 16 RCC patients who received neoadjuvant pazopanib (Group P, n=9) or axitinib (Group A, n=7) plus PD-1/DC-CIK cells immunotherapy were reviewed retrospectively. A total of 9 participants that were potential candidates for radical/cytoreductive nephrectomy (RN/CN) had locally advanced tumor and 5 participants with partial nephrectomy (PN) absolute indications had highly complicated tumors. The efficacy outcomes were based on volume changes of the primary tumor, lymph nodes, and tumor thrombus in 13 participants with complete computed tomography (CT) imaging. The treatment-related toxicities and surgical complications were also reported. Results With a median of 2.1 months treatment, the overall volume of the tumors decreased by a median of 42.30% [interquartile range (IQR): 19.37-66.78%]. Specifically, the median reduction of tumor volume was 88.77 and 15.50 cm3 in group P and group A, respectively (P=0.014). However, participants in Group P were more likely to experience grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events (AEs) than those in Group A (44.4% vs. 0). Finally, all participants were candidates for appropriate surgery after neoadjuvant therapy (as assessed by the surgeon), and 10 participants accepted surgery, including 5 PN, 4 RN/CN, and 1 lymph node dissection. A solitary participant had Clavien grade IV acute renal failure required dialysis and another had grade II lymphatic leakage. Conclusions Neoadjuvant combination of pazopanib or axitinib and PD-1/DC-CIK cells immunotherapy was well-tolerated and could effectively reduce the volume of tumors in locally advanced or highly complicated RCC patients.

Introduction IL-37 is a cytokine of IL-1 family that plays an important role in innate immunity and inflammation, and has been studied as a tumor suppressor in many cancers. However, it remains unclear whether IL-37 plays a regulatory role in tumor-infiltrating dendritic cells (DCs) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and methods We evaluated the relationship between IL-37 expression and tumor infiltration by DCs in 155 HCC samples through immunohistochemical analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The effects of IL-37 on the anti-tumor activity of DCs were investigated by ELISA, flow cytometry, real-time quantitative PCR, cytotoxicity assays and tumorigenicity assays. Results The expression level of IL-37 in HCC samples was positively correlated with the degree of CD1a+ DCs infiltration. The survival rates of patients with both a high expression of IL-37 and a high infiltration by CD1a+ DCs were significantly higher than those of patients with a low expression of IL-37 and a low infiltration by CD1a+ DCs. In vitro chemotaxis analysis indicated that HCC cells overexpressing IL-37 recruited more DCs by secreting higher levels of specific chemokines (eg, CCL3 and CCL20). In addition, IL-37 indirectly up-regulated the expression of major histocompatibility class II molecules, CD86 and CD40 on DCs by acting on tumor cells; IL-37 also indirectly enhanced the anti-tumor effect of T lymphocytes by stimulating DCs to secrete cytokines such as IL-2, IL-12, IL-12p70, interferon-α (IFN-α) and IFN-γ. Finally, overexpression IL-37 in HCC cells significantly delayed tumor growth and increased recruitment of CD11c+ DCs to tumor tissues was also revealed in vivo mouse model. Conclusion DCs play an important role in IL-37 mediated anti-tumor immune responses in HCC, which may contribute to the development of novel cancer immunotherapeutic strategies.

Purpose: To evaluate the tumour cell PD-L1 (TC-PD-L1) expression patterns in the local microenvironment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Materials and Methods: 30 fresh primary ccRCC tissues were used to detect the association between TC-PD-L1 and CD8+TILs at mRNA level. The in vitro incubation experiment was used to confirm the association between extrinsic TC-PD-L1 expression and IFNγ. A cohort of 135 ccRCC patients treated between January 2009 and August 2013 was included for survival analysis. Results: Our results confirmed that ccRCC cell lines were capable of expressing PD-L1. The incubation experiment in vitro demonstrated the positive correlation of TC-PD-L1 expression with interferon-gamma (IFNγ). Additionally, survival analysis was investigated in 135 ccRCC patients and found no independent correlation of TC-PD-L1 expression in multivariate analysis, whereas more distinct prognostic differences were detected when TC-PD-L1-positive ccRCC were sub-classified as with or without CD8+ T cell infiltration. Conclusion: The intrinsic and extrinsic expression patterns are both detected in ccRCC. High positive rate of TC-PD-L1 correlated closely to the strong infiltration of CD8+ TILs. TC-PD-L1-positive ccRCC patients with abundant CD8+ TILs infiltration confer the high risk of death and disease relapse.

Background Well-designed clinical trials are of great importance in validating novel treatments and ensuring an evidence-based approach for sarcoma. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive landscape of the characteristics of metastatic or advanced sarcoma clinical trials using the substantial resource of the ClincialTrials.gov database. Methods We identified 260,755 trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov in the last 20 years, and 277 of them were eligible for inclusion. The baseline characteristics were ascertained for each trial. The trials were systematically reviewed to validate their classification into 96 trials registered before 2008 and 181 trials registered between 2008 and 2017. Results We found that in the last decade, metastatic and advanced sarcoma trials were predominantly phase II-III studies (p = 0.048), were more likely to be ≥2 arms (17.7% vs 35.3%, respectively; p = 0.007), and were more likely to use randomized (13.5% vs 30.4%; p = 0.002) and double-blinded (2.1% vs 9.4%; p = 0.024) assignment than trials registered before 2008. Furthermore, in the last 10-year period, metastatic sarcoma trials were more likely to be conducted in Asia. Treatment involving target therapy and immunotherapy were more common (71.8% vs 37.5%; p

The toxicity spectrum between Chinese and Caucasian patients with melanoma who were treated with BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) may differ. The purpose of the present study was to assess the safety and tolerability of BRAFi and BRAFi-based combination therapies [MEK inhibitors (MEKi) or anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1) antibody] in Chinese patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation-positive metastatic melanoma. We also investigated whether treatment-related adverse events (AEs) correlated with the prognosis. This retrospective study collected data from 43 patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation-positive metastatic melanoma from a single Chinese cancer center. Of the 43 patients, 12 patients received BRAFi monotherapy, 12 patients received BRAFi+MEKi, and 19 patients received BRAFi combined with the anti-PD-1 antibody. The median follow-up time was 19 months. In the BRAFi group, the most common AEs were rashes, palmoplantar erythrodysesthesia, and arthralgia. Four out of 12 (30%) patients experienced grade 3–4 treatment-related AEs. All grades of AEs in the BRAFi+MEKi group were similar to the BRAFi group, except for higher pyrexia (58.3%) and fewer cutaneous AEs. Three out of 12 (25%) patients experienced grade 3–4 AEs, especially pyrexia (16.7%). In the BRAFi+anti-PD-1 antibody group, AEs were similar to the BRAFi group, except for an increased aminotransferase level (36.8%), increased bilirubin (31.6%), and hypothyroidism (15.8%). Eleven out of 19 (57.9%) patients experienced grade 3–4 AEs and four out of 19 (21%) patients discontinued the therapy due to AEs. Treatment-related hepatotoxicity (trHE), defined as an increase in either alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), or bilirubin levels, was the only AE identified as a significant poor-prognosis indicator in this study. The median progression-free survival of patients with trHE (41.9%) was 8 months, whereas it was 18 months for those without trHE [p = 0.046, hazard ratio (HR) = 2.116]. Moreover, this association was independent of medication regimens (p = 0.014, HR = 2.971). The overall response rate of patients with trHE was significantly lower than those without trHE (44.4 vs. 60.0%, p = 0.024), and we observed a similar trend in patients treated with BRAFi, BRAFi+MEKi, and BRAFi+anti-PD-1 antibody. In conclusion, BRAFi and BRAFi-based combination therapies were tolerable with reversible AEs in Chinese patients with melanoma. The trHE in patients receiving BRAFi and BRAFi-based regimens might indicate a poor therapy-related prognosis.

Objectives Although axitinib has achieved a preferable response rate for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), patient survival remains unsatisfactory. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of a combination treatment of axitinib and a low dose of pembrolizumab‐activated autologous dendritic cells–co‐cultured cytokine‐induced killer cells in patients with advanced RCC. Methods All adult patients, including treatment‐naive or pretreated with VEGF‐targeted agents, were enrolled from May 2016 to March 2019. Patients received axitinib 5 mg twice daily and pembrolizumab‐activated dendritic cells–co‐cultured cytokine‐induced killer cells intravenously weekly for the first four cycles, every 2 weeks for the next four cycles, and every month thereafter. Results The 43 patients (22 untreated and 21 previously treated) showed a median progression‐free survival (mPFS) of 14.7 months (95% CI, 11.16–18.30). mPFS in treatment‐naive patients was 18.2 months, as compared with 14.4 months in pretreated patients (log‐rank P‐value = 0.07). Overall response rates were 25.6% (95% CI, 13.5–41.2%). Grade 3 or higher adverse events occurred in 5% of patients included hypertension (11.6%) and palmar‐plantar erythrodysesthesia (7.0%). Peripheral blood lymphocyte immunophenotype and serum cytokine profile analyses demonstrated increased antitumor immunity after combination treatment particularly in patients with a long‐term survival benefit, while those with a minimal survival benefit demonstrated an elevated proportion of peripheral CD8+TIM3+ T cells and lower serum‐level immunostimulatory cytokine profile. Conclusions The combination therapy was active and well tolerated for treatment of advanced RCC, either as first‐ or second‐line treatment following other targeted agents. Changes in immunophenotype and serum cytokine profile may be used as prognostic biomarkers., This study demonstrated that the combination of axitinib plus pembrolizumab‐activated autologous DC‐cytokine‐induced killer cells contributed to encouraging clinical outcomes in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who were treatment‐naive or targeted agents‐pretreated. Such combination therapy led to superior antitumor immunity, including increased lymphocyte infiltration and cellular responses of CD8+ T cells, especially in patients who acquired long‐term survival benefit. An increased percentage of peripheral CD8+TIM3+ T cells and a lower serum‐level immunostimulatory cytokine profile were identified as a potential resistance mechanism to this combination therapy in patients with minimal survival benefit.

BackgroundThe advent of immune checkpoint therapy has been a tremendous advance in cancer treatment. However, the responses are still insufficient in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). We aimed to identify rational combinations to increase the response to immune checkpoint therapy and improve survival.MethodsWhole-exome sequencing (WES) was performed in 11 patients with liposarcoma. Somatic copy number alterations (SCNAs) were analyzed at the gene level to identify obvious amplification patterns in drug-target genes. The expression and prognostic value of class I histone deacetylases (HDACs) was evaluated in 49 patients with sarcoma in our center and confirmed in 263 sarcoma samples from The Tumor Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Q-PCR, flow cytometry and RNA-seq were performed to determine the correlations between class I HDACs, chidamide and PD-L1 in vitro and in vivo. The efficacy of combining chidamide with PD-1 blockade was explored in an immunocompetent murine model and a small cohort of patients with advanced sarcoma. Western blot, ChIP assay and dual luciferase assessment were applied in the mechanistic study.ResultsThe HDAC gene family was frequently amplified in STS. SCNAs in the HDAC gene family were extensively amplified in 8 of 11 (73%) patients with liposarcoma, based on a drug-target gene set, and we verified amplification in 76.65% (197/257) of cases by analyzing TCGA sarcoma cohort. Class I HDAC expression is associated with a poor prognosis for patients with STS, and its inhibition is responsible for promoting apoptosis and upregulating of programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). The HDAC class I inhibitor chidamide significantly increases PD-L1 expression, increased the infiltration of CD8+ T cells and reduced the number of MDSCs in the tumor microenvironment. The combination of chidamide with an anti-PD-1 antibody significantly promotes tumor regression and improves survival in a murine model. Moreover, chidamide combined with the anti-PD-1 antibody toripalimab is effective in patients with advanced and metastatic sarcoma, and the side effects are tolerable. Mechanistically, chidamide increases histone acetylation at the PD-L1 gene through the activation of the transcriptional factor STAT1.ConclusionsThe combination of chidamide and anti-programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) therapy represents a potentially important strategy for STS.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the ninth most common lethal malignancy worldwide. Great efforts have been devoted to clarify the pathogenesis of BC, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. To screen for the genes associated with the progression and carcinogenesis of BC, three datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus. A total of 37 tumor and 16 non-cancerous samples were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Subsequently, 141 genes were identified, including 55 upregulated and 86 downregulated genes. The protein-protein interaction network was established using the Search Tool for Retrieval of Interacting Genes database. Hub gene identification and module analysis were performed using Cytoscape software. Hierarchical clustering of hub genes was conducted using the University of California, Santa Cruz Cancer Genomics Browser. Among the hub genes, kinesin family member 11 (KIF11) was identified as one of the most significant prognostic biomarkers among all the candidates. The Kaplan Meier Plotter database was used for survival analysis of KIF11. The expression profile of KIF11 was analyzed using the ONCOMINE database. The expression levels of KIF11 in BC samples and bladder cells were measured using reverse transcription-quantitative pCR, immunohistochemistry and western blotting. In summary, KIF11 was significantly upregulated in BC and might act as a potential prognostic biomarker. The present identification of DEGs and hub genes in BC may provide novel insight for investigating the molecular mechanisms of BC.

Objectives This phase I study aimed to evaluate the antitumor effect and safety of programmed death‐ligand‐1 (PD‐L1)–targeting autologous chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR‐T) cells for patients with non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods Programmed death‐ligand‐1–specific CAR‐T cells were generated using lentiviral transduction. Four patients with NSCLC were recruited, but only one patient was finally involved. CAR‐T cells were infused on three different days (total dose during therapy, 1 × 106 CAR‐T cells kg−1 body weight). The date on which the patient received the first CAR‐T cell infusion was designated as Day 0. Results Circulating CAR‐T cells accounted for 3.30% of the patient’s peripheral blood T cells detected by FACS analysis during the first follow‐up (Day +29). The chest CT scan showed subtle tumor shrinkage (stable disease). On Day +43, the patient developed pyrexia without any known causes and dyspnoea that rapidly deteriorated to respiratory failure in 3 days. The chest X‐ray and CT scan showed bilateral extensive pulmonary infiltration in addition to the tumor silhouette on the left upper lung. The interleukin (IL)‐6 levels in serum dramatically increased (> 100‐fold). The patient was immediately transferred to the ICU where he received oxygen and intravenous infusions of tocilizumab and methylprednisolone. His symptoms rapidly improved and the pulmonary inflammation gradually resolved. Conclusion The clinical manifestations and test findings for this patient with NSCLC might represent unique clinical manifestations of solitary organ damage secondary to PD‐L1–specific CAR‐T cell therapy. The differential diagnosis, underlying mechanism and prevention and treatment strategies for such complications have also been discussed., We studied the circulating PD‐L1–specific CAR‐T cells in a patient with non‐small cell lung cancer. Circulating PD‐L1–specific CAR‐T cells accounted for 3.30% of the patient’s peripheral blood T cells detected by FACS in the first follow‐up (Day +29), and a chest CT scan showed subtle shrinkage of tumors (stable disease). However, the patient was immediately transferred to the ICU on Day +47 because he deteriorated quickly into respiratory failure in three days. This case might represent a unique clinical manifestation of solitary organ damage secondary to PD‐L1–specific CAR‐T cell therapy.

Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery is the standard treatment modality for stage III and part of stage II or stage IV colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. However, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate remains unsatisfactory. Thus, developing combination therapies is essential to improve the prognosis of patients with CRC. The present study aimed to determine the effect of a sequential combination of cytokine-induced killer cell (CIK) infusion and chemotherapy for patients with CRC. 122 patients with CRC treated with postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively included in this study. Among them, 62 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy only (control group), while the other 60 patients, with similar demographic and clinical characteristics, received adjuvant chemotherapy and sequential CIK cell immunotherapy (CIK group). Survival analysis showed significantly improved disease free survival (DFS) and OS rates in the CIK group compared with the control group (log-rank test, P = .0024; P = .008, respectively). Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that sequential CIK cell treatment was an independent prognostic factor for patients’ DFS and OS. Subgroup analyses showed that sequential CIK cell treatment significantly improved the DFS and OS of patients with high-risk T4 stage and insufficient chemotherapy duration. In conclusion, these data indicate that sequential adjuvant CIK cell treatment combined with chemotherapy is an effective therapeutic strategy to prevent disease recurrence and prolong survival of patients with CRC, particularly for patients with high-risk T4 stage and insufficient chemotherapy duration.

Background Clinically, the median survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was only 6–12 months and a 5-year survival rate of less than 20%. Therefore, an in-depth study of the molecular mechanisms involved in RCC is of great significance for improving the survival of patients with advanced RCC. Acylglycerol kinase (AGK) is a newly discovered lipid kinase that has been reported to be a potent oncogene that may be involved in the regulation of malignant progression in a variety of tumours. However, the expression and biological characteristics of the AGK gene in RCC remain unclear. Methods AGK expression was quantified by quantitative real-time PCR, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry in RCC cell lines and paired patient tissues. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the prognostic value of AGK in human RCC tissue samples. Chi-squared test was performed to analyse the correlation between AGK expression and the clinicopathological features. Stable overexpression and knockdown of AGK in RCC cells was constructed with lentivirus. The oncogenic effects of AGK in human RCC progression were investigated using assays of colony formation, anchorage-independent growth, EdU assay, cell cycle analysis, wound-healing, trans-well analysis and xenograft tumour model. GSEA and KEGG analysis were conducted to detect the potential pathway of AGK involved in RCC. These results were further confirmed using the luciferase reporter assays, immunofluorescence and in vivo experiments. Results AGK expression is significantly elevated in RCC and closely related to the malignant development and poor prognosis in RCC patients. By in vitro and in vivo experiments, AGK was shown to enhance the proliferation of RCC cells by promoting the transition from the G1 phase to the S phase in the cell cycle and to enhance the migration and invasion by promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition. By activating the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signalling pathway in RCC, AGK can increase nuclear accumulation of β-catenin, which further upregulated TCF/LEF transcription factor activity. Conclusions AGK promotes the progression of RCC via activating the PI3K/AKT/GSK3β signalling pathway and might be a potential target for the further research of RCC.

Purpose: To directly compare the efficacy and acute toxicities of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) concurrent with weekly cisplatin (40 mg/m2) to high-dose concurrent cisplatin (100 mg/m2) at three-week intervals. Materials and Methods: A total of 3,799 patients diagnosed with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center between January 2010 and December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Propensity score analysis was conducted to balance the baseline characteristics between the groups, which allowed us to draw reliable conclusions. The efficacy and safety profiles were then assessed in the well-balanced large cohort. Results: The risk of distant metastasis was lower among the patients treated with weekly concurrent cisplatin than among those treated with the triweekly regimen (hazard ratio [HR], 0.45; P = .028). However, the disease-free survival, loco-regional relapse-free survival and overall survival rates were similar. The weekly group showed significantly higher rates of grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia, but lower rates of grade 3-4 mucositis, nausea and vomiting than the triweekly group. Conclusion: IMRT concurrent with a weekly cisplatin regimen was associated with significantly improved distant metastasis-free survival in locally advanced NPC. Differences in the selected acute toxicities between the weekly and triweekly concurrent cisplatin regimens were noted.

While traditional cytotoxic agents play a limited role in advanced dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP), the treatment of sunitinib for patients with advanced DFSP after imatinib failure is not well defined. The objective of this case report was to analyze the relationship between molecular mechanisms and clinical outcomes of sunitinib treatment in patients with advanced DFSP after imatinib failure. In this case report, a 37-year-old man suffered from advanced DFSP progression after surgical operation, microwave ablation, and chemotherapy. The immunohistochemistry in this patient revealed abundant expression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta on tumor cells, which is one of the drug targets of sunitinib. The nucleotide sequence analysis revealed COL1A1-PDGFB fusion transcripts in this patient. Thus, we treated the patient with sunitinib, a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, after imatinib failure. After treatment with sunitinib, the patient exhibited a partial response and 9 months' progression-free survival without significant adverse drug effects. In our case, the patient with advanced DFSP experienced a favorable outcome in 9-months' progression-free survival and a significant improvement of quality of life without serious side effects after sunitinib treatment. Therefore, sunitinib could serve as another treatment option for patients with advanced DFSP.

e16040 Background: Surufatinib is a novel small-molecule kinase inhibitor targeting VEGFRs, FGFR and CSF-1R, simultaneous targeting of angiogenesis through VEGFRs/FGFR1 and modulating tumor immune microenvironment through CSF-1R may be a uniquely potent strategy to enhance antitumor activity. Toripalimab is a monoclonal humanized IgG4 PD-1 antibody. Encouraging efficacy of surufatinib plus toripalimab treating patients with advanced solid tumors was reported at 2020 AACR. This is an ongoing, multicenter, open-label, single-arm, phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of surufatinib in combination with toripalimab in various solid tumors. Here we report the results of patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma. Methods: Patients with histologically confirmed gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma who have failed first-line of systemic chemotherapy were enrolled. Surufatinib 250 mg once a day (QD) will be orally administrated and toripalimab 240 mg will be intravenously administered every 3 weeks. Primary endpoint was the objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST v1.1. Results: As of Dec 31, 2020, a total of 21 gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma patients were enrolled. The median age was 58 years old, and 81% of the patients were male. Median duration of treatment was 3 months (surufatinib, 3 months; toripalimab, 3 months). Among 15 patients with at least one post-baseline efficacy evaluation, 2 patients achieved confirmed partial response (PR), with 3 additional unconfirmed PR. And there were 6 in stable disease (SD), 3 in progressive disease (PD) and one not evaluable per RECIST v1.1. There were 5 in PR, 7 in SD and 2 in PD per irRECIST, respectively. The confirmed and unconfirmed ORR were 13.3% (95% CI: 1.7%-40.5%) and 33.3% (95% CI: 11.8%-61.6%), respectively. The disease control rate (DCR) was 73.3% (95% CI: 44.9%-92.2%) per RECIST v1.1. Median PFS was 3.71 months (95% CI: 1.41-unknown). 14.3% (3/21) of patients had treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) of ≥ Grade 3. The most common TRAEs of ≥ Grade 3 were herpes zoster (4.8%), lymphopenia (4.8%), lymphocyte count decreased (4.8%), white blood cell count decreased (4.8%), liver injury (4.8%) and anaemia (4.8%). 4.8% (1/21) of patients had serious TRAEs. One patient died due to unknown reasons. Conclusions: Surufatinib plus toripalimab appeared to show encouraging activity in advanced gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma with manageable safety profile. Such combination could be a promising strategy for advanced gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma in the future. Clinical trial information: NCT04169672.

e16199 Background: Patients with advanced neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) have a poor prognosis and limited treatment option after first-line treatment. Surufatinib, a multi-kinase inhibitor of VEGFR 1-3, FGFR 1 and CSF-1R, has been approved in patients with advanced or metastatic extra-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in China. Toripalimab is a monoclonal humanized IgG4 PD-1 antibody. Surufatinib modulates tumor immune microenvironment and has shown promising antitumor activity in combination with toripalimab in solid tumors, including neuroendocrine tumor and neuroendocrine carcinoma. Herein, we reported the efficacy and safety of surufatinib in combination with toripalimab in a cohort of advanced NEC patients. Methods: The multicenter, open-label, single-arm phase II clinical trial enrolled advanced NEC patients refractory to first-line chemotherapy, and received surufatinib 250 mg once a day orally plus toripalimab 240 mg intravenously on day 1 of a 21-day cycle. The primary end point is objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1. Results: Twenty-one patients enrolled and received combination therapy. At data cut-off (December 31, 2020), the average treatment cycles were 5.1±3.69 for surufatinib and 5.0±3.68 for toripalimab. Among 20 tumor evaluable patients, 4 patients achieved confirmed PR and 10 patients achieved stable disease. The ORR and disease control rate (DCR) are 20 % (95%CI: 5.7%-43.7%) and 70% (95%CI: 45.7%-88.1%) respectively. The median PFS is 3.94 months (95%CI: 1.31- unknown). OS is not mature till data cut-off. Adverse events (AEs) reported as related to treatment (TRAE) occurred in 100% of patients, of which Grade≥3 TRAEs occurred in 33.3% of patients. The reported Grade≥3 TRAEs were hypertension in 2 (9.5%) patients, and upper abdominal pain, oral mucositis, neutrophil count decreased, leukocyte count decreased, dermatitis, anemia and backache in 1 (4.8%) patient each. Immune related Grade ≥3 AEs, Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase increased and dermatitis, occurred in 2 (9.5%) patients, respectively. TRAE caused surufatinib or toripalimab interruption occurred in 6 (28.6%) and 4 (19%) patients respectively. There were neither serious AEs nor AEs inducing treatment discontinuations or deaths. Conclusions: As there is no standard second-line treatment, this combination of surufatinib and toripalimab might offer a new promising choice to treat NEC as second-line treatment due to good efficacy and manageable treatment related toxicities. Clinical trial information: NCT04169672.

Background The anaplastic lymphoma kinase tyrosine kinase inhibitors (ALK-TKIs) have been administered to patients with ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer for a long period of time and show a promising response. However, the differences in the toxicity profiles among these drugs are still unclear. Methods We performed a comprehensive search of the MEDLINE, EMBASE, WEB OF SCIENCE and COCHRANE databases from the drugs’ inception to May 2016 to identify clinical trials. Severe adverse events (AEs) (grade ≥ 3) based on the ALK-TKI type were analysed. Results Seventeen trials published between 2011 and 2016, including a total of 1826 patients, were eligible for analysis. Patients in 10 trials (n = 1000) received crizotinib, patients in 5 trials (n = 601) received ceritinib and patients in 2 trials (n = 225) received alectinib. The overall frequencies of treatment-related death and AEs due to treatment withdrawal were 0.9% (12/1365) and 5.5% (85/1543), respectively. Moreover, the frequency of severe AEs in patients treated with ceritinib was significantly higher than patients treated with crizotinib or alectinib, especially for hepatotoxicity, fatigue and some of gastrointestinal symptoms. Additionally, significant difference in the elevated lipase and amylase levels (grade ≥ 3) were detected between ceritinib and crizotinib/alectinib, whereas neutropenia was less frequent. Conclusions ALK-TKIs were safe for ALK-positive patients. Moreover, statistically significant differences in some severe AEs among ceritinib, crizotinib and alectinib were detected in present study. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3405-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Previous genomic studies revealed phosphotidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway mutation in human salivary gland adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). No validation of its prognostic value has been reported. Methods P-Akt, pan-Akt, phosphorylated-mammalian target of rapamycin (p-mTOR), PI3K, and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor beta (IGF-1Rβ) were detected on 120 salivary gland ACC/adjacent salivary gland pairs immunohistochemically and were correlated with clinicopathological data. Results Expression of cytoplasmic and nuclear p-Akt, cytoplasmic p-mTOR, nuclear pan-Akt, and nuclear IGF-1Rβ were higher in ACC than in adjacent salivary glands. P-Akt, p-mTOR, PI3K, and IGF-1Rβ expression were correlated with one another in both cytoplasm and nucleus. Low p-mTOR expression in both subcellular compartments was associated with locoregional recurrence, poor disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). Low nuclear p-Akt (Ser473) and p-mTOR expression were independent predictors for poor OS and DFS, respectively. Conclusion High level of Akt/mTOR activation in ACC is correlated with a significantly improved survival. P-mTOR and nuclear p-Akt are prognostic biomarkers of salivary gland ACC. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 1145-1154, 2017.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the prognostic value of different immunization-based scoring systems in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). Methods: We conducted a retrospective study evaluating a cohort of 165 patients diagnosed with STS between July 2007 and July 2014. The relative Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) of these patients was calculated using 3 different systems: the traditional GPS system (tGPS), the modified GPS system 1 (m1GPS), and the modified GPS system 2 (m2GPS). Then, we evaluated the relationships between each GPS system and clinicopathological characteristics. The mean follow-up for survivors in the cohort was 73.7 months as of March 2015. Results: The most favorable overall survival (OS) rate was associated with the score 0 groups, and the poorest progression-free survival (PFS) rate was associated with the score 2 groups, regardless of which system was used to calculate the score. Specifically, the m1GPS provided the greatest accuracy in predicting OS and PFS. Moreover, the same effect was observed in a separate analysis restricted to patients with metastases. Remarkably, in patients with a score of 2 as measured by all 3 systems, local treatment resulted in a poorer prognosis compared to patients with a score of 2 who did not receive local treatment. Conclusion: The GPS is a valuable prognostic marker and has the capability to predict the appropriate treatment strategy for STS patients with metastases. The modified GPS systems demonstrated superior prognostic and predictive value compared with the traditional GPS system.

Jing-Jing Zhao,1,2,* Zi-Qi Zhou,1,2,* Peng Wang,3,4,* Chang-Long Chen,1,2 Yuan Liu,1,2 Qiu-Zhong Pan,1,2 Qian Zhu,1,2 Yan Tang,1,2 De-Sheng Weng,1,2 Jian-Chuan Xia1,2 1Department of Experimental Research, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, China; 2Department of Biotherapy, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, China; 3Department of Emergency Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China; 4Department of Medical Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Malignant Tumor Epigenetics and Gene Regulation, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) develops in a background of chronic inflammation; therefore, it is a promising candidate for treatment by immunotherapy. Although tumor immunity is critically involved in tumor growth and metastasis in ESCC, important gaps exist in our understanding of its immune microenvironment. This study aimed to investigate the expression and prognostic significance of immune checkpoint proteins in ESCC and the associated T-cell densities.Materials and methods: We investigated the infiltration of CD8+ T cells and the expressions of immune checkpoint proteins (PD-1, TIGIT, PD-L1, and PD-L2) in 154 primary ESCC patients by immunohistochemistry. The correlation of immune checkpoint proteins’ expression and clinical outcomes was determined by Kaplan–Meier test and multivariate Cox regression analysis.Results: PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression were detected in 45.5 and 59.7% of the ESCC samples, respectively. The high densities of PD-1+ and TIGIT+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were expressed in 47.4 and 49.4% of the ESCC patients, respectively. The number of PD-1+ TILs was significantly positively correlated with CD8+ TILs (P

Accumulating evidence has indicated that inflammation is required for the initiation and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The annexin family protein, which has a highly similar structure, has been demonstrated to participate in pro- or anti-inflammatory regulation in the developing of tumours. However, the potential effects of ANXA3 in the immune microenvironment of HCC remain unknown. In present study, we found that increased ANXA3 expression is associated with a higher infiltrated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (iNLR) in HCC. Moreover, HCC patients with a high iNLR and high ANXA3 expression confer the highest risk of death. ANXA3 can be detected in both cell lysates and culture supernatants. However, the secretory ANXA3 did not directly regulate the iNLR. Further study demonstrated that ANXA3 upregulated the iNLR by inducing chemokine CXCL8 and CCL25 release from HCC cells. We further confirmed that ANXA3 promotes tumourigenesis and detected the same associations between ANXA3 and the iNLR or chemokines in vivo. Our findings indicate that ANXA3 regulates the chemokine to remodel the iNLR and promotes tumourigenicity in HCC. These results further expanded our understanding of ANXA3 in the microenvironment of HCC and might provide novel targets for the investigation of molecular treatments for HCC patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the prognostic role of the preoperative plasma lipid profile, including low-density lipoprotein -cholesterol [LDL-C], high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol [HDL-C], cholesterol, and triglycerides, in hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing radical resection. Methods: Clinical data, including the preoperative plasma profile levels, were retrospectively collected and reviewed in 1411 hepatocellular carcinoma patients, who underwent operation between 2001 and 2010. Kaplan-Meier method and the Cox proportional hazards regression model were used in analyzing the DFS and OS. Results: We found that HDL-C ≤ 0.88 mmol/L and cholesterol ≤ 4.420 mmol/L were preoperative risk factors of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). A decreased CHO level was significantly associated with decreased OS (HR, 0.800; 95% CI, (0.691-0.926), P =0.003) and decreased DFS (HR, 0.844; 95% CI, 0.737-0.966, P=0.012). Additionally, an increased HDL-C level was shown significant association with increased OS (HR, 0.679; 95% CI, 0.570-0.808, P

To examine the relationship between cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) expression and esophageal carcinoma prognosis, CTLA-4 expression was immunohistochemically detected in paraffin-embedded primary tumor specimens from 158 patients with esophageal cancer. CTLA-4 was detected in the cytoplasm and cell membranes of esophageal cancer cells and in interstitial lymphocytes. In univariate analyses (log-rank), higher interstitial CTLA-4+ lymphocyte density and higher tumor CTLA-4 expression were associated with shorter overall survival (OS). After controlling for age and clinical stage, multivariate analysis (Cox) found that tumor CTLA-4 expression was an independent predictor of shorter OS (HR 2.016, P = 0.004). These results indicate that CTLA-4 expression in the tumor environment (both lymphocytes and tumor cells) is associated with poorer prognosis. In addition, CTLA-4 profiles may be useful for predicting the benefits and toxicity of CTLA-4 blockade in patients with esophageal carcinoma.

Bromodomain-containing protein 7 (BRD7) is a subunit of the PBAF complex, which functions as a transcriptional cofactor for the tumor suppressor protein p53. Down-regulation of BRD7 has been demonstrated in multiple types of cancer. This study aimed to investigate BRD7 expression and its tumor suppressive effect in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The expression of BRD7 was examined in clinical specimens of primary HCC and in HCC cell lines through real-time quantitative PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. The prognostic value of BRD7 expression and its correlation with the clinicopathological features of HCC patients were statistically analyzed. The effect of BRD7 on the tumorigenicity of HCC was also examined using proliferation and colony-formation assays, cell-cycle assays, migration and cell-invasion assays, and xenograft nude mouse models. BRD7 was down-regulated in tumor tissues and HCC cell lines. BRD7 protein expression was strongly associated with clinical stage and tumor size. Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed higher survival rates in patients with higher BRD7 expression levels compared to those with lower BRD7 levels. A multivariate analysis indicated that BRD7 expression was an independent prognostic marker. The re-introduction of BRD7 expression significantly inhibited proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion and led to cell cycle arrest in HCC cells in vitro. Furthermore, experiments in mice suggested that BRD7 overexpression suppresses HCC tumorigenicity in vivo. In conclusions, our data indicated that BRD7 may serve as a tumor suppressor in HCC and may be a novel molecular target for the treatment of HCC.