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Purpose: Neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix (NECC) is rare but results in poor prognosis. The causes of death (CODs) in NECC patients are rarely reported. Our study aimed to explore the distributions of death causes of NECC patients compared with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma (ADC) and to develop a validated survival prediction model. Methods: Patients diagnosed with NECC, SCC, or ADC were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program database from 1975 to 2019. We analyzed the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) to determine each cause of death for each survival time category. The Kaplan–Meier method was used for survival analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to establish a nomogram model. Results: A total of 358 NECC patients were included in this study, and 270 (75.4%) died during the follow‐up period. Patients with NECC had 5.55 times (95% CI, 4.53–6.79, p < 0.0001) higher risk of death compared with patients with SCC and 10.38 times (95% CI, 8.28–13.01, p < 0.0001) higher compared with ADC. Cervical cancer is the main cause of death in NECC. As the diagnosis time increased, the risk of death from all causes and cervix cancer gradually decreased. While after at least 10 years of follow‐up time, the highest and most dramatical SMR values were observed for metastasis (SMR, 138.81; 95% CI, 37.82–355.40; p < 0.05) and other cancers as the reason for death has an over 7‐fold higher SMR (SMR: 7.07; 95% CI: 2.60–15.40, p < 0.05) more than 5 years after the cancer diagnosis. Race, FIGO stage, and surgery were independent risk factors for the overall survival (OS) of NECC patients. For the predictive nomogram, the C‐index was 0.711 (95% CI: 0.697–0.725) and was corrected to 0.709 (95% CI: 0.680, 0.737) by bootstrap 1000 resampling validation. Conclusion: Compared with SCC and ADC, NECC patients have an elevated risk of mortality due to cervical cancer and metastasis. We successfully constructed a prognostic nomogram for patients with NECC. Based on refractoriness and high mortality of NECC, targeted treatment strategies and follow‐up plans should be further developed according to the risk of death and distribution characteristics of CODs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the purple peel formation mechanism of the Minhou wild banana (Musa itinerans), epidermal cells of the purple and green parts of peel were subjected to RNA sequencing. In total, 3,640 differently expressed unigenes (DEGs) were identified. A KEGG enrichment analysis showed that these DEGs were mainly involved in flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, plant hormone signal transduction, starch and sucrose metabolism, and phenylalanine metabolism pathways, which suggested that the differential accumulation of secondary metabolites leads to the colour difference. Anthocyanin biosynthesis-related and transcription-factor genes with homologues that were crucial for anthocyanin biosynthesis in other plant species were identified as DEGs. We hypothesised that anthocyanin gene expression and subsequently anthocyanin metabolism contributed to the colour difference. The anthocyanin content in the purple peel was significantly higher than in the green peel, which verified the hypothesis. Quantitative real-time PCR on 11 DEGs was largely consistent with the RNA sequencing, indicating that the transcriptome data was reliable. Thus, the differential expression of anthocyanin biosynthesis-related genes correlates with the formation of the purple peel of Minhou wild banana. The generated comprehensive gene expression data provide insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying anthocyanin biosynthesis in banana peel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the changes in the incidence and mortality trends of ovarian cancer (OC), cervical cancer (CC) and uterine cancer (UC) in the Fujian Province, southeastern China., Design: Provincial, population-based, retrospective observational study., Setting: Fujian province, southeastern China between 2011-2020., Participants: From 2011 to 2020, 6178 new cases and 2037 deaths caused by 3 gynaecological cancers were eligible for analysis., Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measures were the incidence and mortality rates, including the age-standardised incidence rate (ASIR) and age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR), of three gynaecological cancers. The secondary outcome measure was the prevalence (average annual per cent changes (AAPC))., Results: The incidence of all three gynaecological cancers increased from 2011 to 2020. CC had the slowest upward trend, with an AAPC of 2.54% over the period. However, it had the highest ASIR among the 3 cancers in 2020 (10.41/100 000). UC showed a rapid increase, with an AAPC of 15.15% from 2016 to 2020. While the mortality rate of UC remained stable, both CC and OC also exhibited rising trends, with the CC having the highest ASMR (3.05/100 000) in 2020. The ASMR for CC increased rapidly, with the highest AAPC of 5.51%. Conversely, changes in the ASMR for UC were not statistically significant (p=0.601). Moreover, high incidence rates were more common among perimenopausal women and older participants in the respective cancer groups where the increased mortality was observed., Conclusions: Gynaecological cancer burden remains a public health issue in Fujian Province, with an increasing incidence. Improving the healthcare system and promoting a healthy lifestyle should be highlighted to reduce the cancer burden., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Introduction: With the advancements in cancer prevention and diagnosis, the proportion of newly diagnosed early-stage cervical cancers has increased. Adjuvant therapies based on high-risk postoperative histopathological factors significantly increase the morbidity of treatment complications and seriously affect patients' quality of life., Objectives: Our study aimed to establish a diagnostic nomogram for vaginal invasion (VI) among early-stage cervical cancer (CC) that can be used to reduce the occurrence of positive or close vaginal surgical margins., Methods: We assembled the medical data of early-stage CC patients between January 2013 and December 2021 from the Fujian Cancer Hospital. Data on demographics, laboratory tests, MRI features, physical examination (PE), and pathological outcomes were collected. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate the diagnostic variables for VI in the training set. Finally, the statistically significant factors were used to construct an integrated nomogram., Results: In this retrospective study, 540 CC patients were randomly divided into training and validation cohorts according to a 7:3 ratio. Multivariate logistic analyses showed that age [odds ratio (OR) = 2.41, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.29-4.50, P = 0.006], prognostic nutritional index (OR = 0.18, 95% CI, 0.04-0.77, P = 0.021), histological type (OR = 0.28, 95% CI, 0.08-0.94, P = 0.039), and VI based on PE (OR = 3.12, 95% CI, 1.52-6.45, P = 0.002) were independent diagnostic factors of VI. The diagnostic nomogram had a robust ability to predict VI in the training [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.70-0.82] and validation (AUC = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.58-0.83) cohorts, and the calibration curves, decision curve analysis, and confusion matrix showed good prediction power., Conclusion: Our diagnostic nomograms could help gynaecologists quantify individual preoperative VI risk, thereby optimizing treatment options, and minimizing the incidence of multimodality treatment-related complications and the economic burden., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statementThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.