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To meet the needs of embedded intelligent forest fire monitoring systems using an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), a deep learning fire recognition algorithm based on model compression and lightweight requirements is proposed in this study. The algorithm for the lightweight MobileNetV3 model was developed to reduce the complexity of the conventional YOLOv4 network structure. The redundant channels are eliminated through channel-level sparsity-induced regularization. The knowledge distillation algorithm is used to improve the detection accuracy of the pruned model. The experimental results reveal that the number of model parameters for the proposed architecture is only 2.64 million—compared with YOLOv4, this represents a reduction of nearly 95.87%. The inference time decreased from 153.8 to 37.4 ms, a reduction of nearly 75.68%. Our approach shows the advantages of a model with a smaller number of parameters, low memory requirements and fast inference speed compared with existing algorithms. The method presented in this paper is specifically tailored for use as a deep learning forest fire monitoring system on a UAV platform.

background While neo-adjuvant anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy remains the standard of care for locally advanced TNBC, the optimal chemotherapy regimen is debatable. Anlotinib, a novel multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor that effectively inhibits VEGFR, FGFR, c-KIT, c-MET, and RET, monotherapy has been proven effective in HER-2 negative metastatic breast cancer. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of anlotinib combined with TEC in neo-adjuvant treatment for locally advanced TNBC, and to evaluate the value of predicting pathological response by multi-point core needle biopsy during neo-adjuvant therapy. method This study retrospectively analyzed 18 patients (Pts) with locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer who received anlotinib combined with TEC neo-adjuvant therapy and surgical treatment from August 2020 to January 2022 in the Breast Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Anhui Cancer Hospital. Pts with clinical stage IIb/III TNBC were to be treated with 6 cycles of anlotinib (12mg, d1-14, q3w) plus 6 cycles of docetaxel (75 mg/m2, d1, q3w), Epirubicin (90 mg/m2, d1, q3w) and cyclophosphamide (600 mg/m2, d1, q3w) followed by surgery. Before the fifth cycle of treatment, ultrasound-guided multi-point Core needle biopsy was performed to evaluate the efficacy of neo-adjuvant therapy and predict the pathological complete response, as well as to guide the selection of surgical methods. The primary endpoint was pathological complete response (pCR, ypT0/is). Result Eighteen pts, the median age was 48 years (range, 23-60), were included in the statistical analysis. All patients completed 6 cycles of anlotinib combined with TEC neo-adjuvant therapy followed by radical mastectomy for breast cancer. Regarding pathological response, there were 4 (22.2%), 2 (11.1%), and 12 (66.7%) patients realizing Miller-Payne grade G3, G4, and G5, respectively. Besides, 12 (66.7%) patients achieved pCR. Additionally, the accuracy of multi-point core needle biopsy in predicting pCR was 94.4% in the interval between neo-adjuvant therapy. The grade 3 or 4 AEs were neutropenia and thrombocytopenia in 3 cases each, anemia, arrhythmia, and ALT increased in cases 1 case each. One patient dropped out of the group due to tumor rupture and bleeding. conclusion Anlotinib combined with TEC as neo-adjuvant therapy showed manageable toxicity and promising antitumor activity for locally advanced TNBC. It is safe, reliable, feasible and accurate to evaluate the efficacy of neo-adjuvant therapy and to predict pathological complete response by multi-point core needle biopsy. It means that the clinical evaluation of neo-adjuvant therapy can transition from imaging evaluation to pathological evaluation, which is helpful for the choice of surgical methods. Citation Format: Kuojun Ren, Shikai Hong, Zhengzhi Zhu, Shengying Wang, Jianjun Liu, Hong Gao, Shuhan Wang. The Efficacy of Anlotinib Combined with TEC in Neo-adjuvant Treatment for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and The Value of Multi-point Core Needle Biopsy in Prediction of Pathologic Complete Remission: A Retrospective analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-01-08.

Optic disc (OD) and optic cup (OC) regional parameters are of utmost importance in the early diagnosis of glaucoma. Improving the accuracy of OD/OC segmentation results and parameter extraction in colour fundus images plays a very important role in early glaucoma screening. To improve the accuracy and inference speed of fundus image segmentation, an algorithm for fundus image segmentation based on an attention U-Net with transfer learning is proposed in this paper. First, an attention gate was added between the encoder and decoder of U-Net to focus on the target areas, thus forming the architecture of the attention U-Net. Then, after the network had been trained on the DRIONS-DB dataset to partially obtain the weights of the encoder, it was trained on the Drishti-GS dataset to further modify the weights. Finally, the trained attention U-Net model incorporating transfer learning was used to segment fundus images. OD/OC extraction using this method shows obvious advantages in model parameter quantity and inference time compared with existing algorithms, the parameter quantity is much smaller than that of existing algorithms, and the model inference time is 0.33 s, representing a reduction of more than 50%. The proposed method can be applied to a fundus image dataset with only a small number of labels. Whilst offering fast OD/OC segmentation, it also guarantees a relatively high segmentation accuracy.

Objective: In the current study, we aimed to provide a clear insight on the racial disparity of breast conserving rate (BCR) and survival in breast cancer after breast conserving surgery (BCS). Materials and Methods: Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program (SEER), we estimated breast cancer incidence rates and the rate of BCS by race in two periods (2000-2004 and 2013-2017). Relative survival analysis was based on patient-level data from 1998 to 2017. To be adjusted for baseline differences for different races, inverse probability weighting (IPW) models were stepwise performed.Results: From 2000-2004 to 2013-2017, both the breast cancer incidence (from 4.18 to 5.05 per 1000 white women) and the proportion of patients after BCS (from 55.5% to 59.9) were highest in whites than that of other races. Black individuals’ incidence (1.20 per 1000 black women or relatives 43.6% increased) and the BCR were increased most rapidly (6%) than other races. Asian or Pacific Islanders (APIs) were less likely to be diagnosed at a later stage and had the best prognosis than those of other races. After baselines fully adjusted, whites had the better Breast Cancer Specific Survival (BCSS) and Overall Survival (OS) than that of minorities (all p< 0.001).Conclusions: We identified the racial disparities of breast cancer incidence, BCR, and survival differences. We found increase trends of breast cancer incidence and BCR in minorities; however, we also identified the worse survival of minorities than that of whites, regardless of age, tumor stage, grade, and Luminal subtype.

Background Women with small- to moderate-sized breasts present a specific challenge to performing oncoplastic volume-displacement techniques for reconstructing breast defects after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). In such cases, the lateral thoracic wall region serves as a versatile reconstruction donor site. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of employing lateral thoracic adipofascial (LTA) flaps to reconstruct breast defects following BCS. Patients and Methods A total of 58 female patients who underwent BCS between February 2016 and April 2017 were analyzed. Of these, 33 patients were reconstructed with LTA flaps, and the other 25 patients received BCS only and were assigned as the control group. All patients were followed up, and we assessed surgery-related complications, breast appearance, and disease recurrence. Results The mean weight of the resected breast tissue was 65.9 g (range, 35-100 g). The mean volume of LTA flaps was 309.5 cm3 (range, 112.6-588 cm3). This oncoplastic technique was performed with minimal complications in all patients. Two patients exhibited partial adipose liquefaction (6.1%), and 2 patients manifested wound infections. Conclusions The LTA flaps were reliable and useful for reconstructing breast defects after BCS when the resected volume was confined to between 50 and 100 g, particularly in patients with small- to moderate-sized breasts. This is optimal for patients with lesions located in the upper-outer quadrant.

Jing Wang,* Jianjun Liu,* Huayuan Pan, Chenghao Jiang, Song Liu, Zhengzhi Zhu, Jing Fang, Xucai Zheng, Shikai Hong, Shengying Wang Department of Head, Neck and Breast Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, Hefei, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction: Currently in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), the correlation between lymph node positivity (LN+) and patient’s age at diagnosis is still inconclusive. The aim of this study was to investigate whether younger PTC patients had higher LN+ rates.Patients and methods: From the 1998–2013 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we analyzed PTC patients with at least 1 LN examined. The patients were divided into 5 groups by age separately for each T stage: ≤30; 31–40; 41–50; 51–60; >60 years.Results: A total of 46,077 PTC patients were identified, including 8,386 (18.2%) patients aged ≤30 years, 10,971 (23.8%) patients aged 31–40 years, 11,646 (25.3%) patients aged 41–50 years, 8,596 (18.7%) patients aged 51–60 years, and 6,478 (14.1%) patients aged >60 years. In each T stage, LN+ rates were inversely associated with age at diagnosis, which was validated by multivariate logistic regression analysis (p

// Jianjun Liu 1, * , Mingxue Su 2, * , Shikai Hong 1, * , Hong Gao 1 , Xucai Zheng 1 and Shengying Wang 1 1 Department of Head, Neck, and Breast Surgery, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, West Branch of Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, China 2 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Lu’an People’s Hospital, Lu’an, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Shengying Wang, email: Shengywang@163.com Keywords: nomogram, breast cancer, preoperative radiotherapy Received: February 22, 2017 Accepted: May 01, 2017 Published: May 18, 2017 ABSTRACT Background: To estimate survival in non-metastatic breast cancer patients who failed to achieve a pathological complete response (pCR) more effectively, we combined the clinicpathological characteristics after preoperative radiation therapy (pRT) and established a novel nomogram. Materials and Methods: Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, we identified 2,545 non-metastatic breast cancer patients who underwent pRT between 1998 and 2013. Based on the registries of patients, the primary cohort divided into training set ( n = 1,692) and validation set ( n = 853). Nomograms were established by training set and validated by validation set. Results: According to the multivariate analysis of training set, nomogram which combined age at diagnosed, marital status, location, grade, ER status, yp-T status, yp-N status and whether received breast conservation surgery (BCS) was developed. Calibration plots of the nomograms showed that the probability of DSS corresponded to actual observation closely. The C-index was 0.78 in validation set, which was significantly higher than that of yp-TNM staging system (0.75, p = 0.004). Conclusions: The proposed nomogram resulted in more–reliable DSS prediction for non-metastatic breast cancer patients in general population, it would be helpful in individualized survival prediction and better treatment allocation after pRT.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common chronic complications of diabetes. It has become an essential public health crisis, especially for care in the home. Synchronized electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) signals were obtained from healthy non-diabetic (n = 37) and diabetic (n = 85) subjects without peripheral neuropathy, recruited from the diabetic outpatient clinic. The conventional parameters, including low-/high-frequency power ratio (LHR), small-scale multiscale entropy index (MEISS), large-scale multiscale entropy index (MEILS), electrocardiogram-based pulse wave velocity (PWVmean), and percussion entropy index (PEI), were computed as baseline and were then followed for six years after the initial PEI measurement. Three new diabetic subgroups with different PEI values were identified for the goodness-of-fit test and Cox proportional Hazards model for relative risks analysis. Finally, Cox regression analysis showed that the PEI value was significantly and independently associated with the risk of developing DPN after adjustment for some traditional risk factors for diabetes (relative risks = 4.77, 95% confidence interval = 1.87 to 6.31, p = 0.015). These findings suggest that the PEI is an important risk parameter for new-onset DPN as a result of a chronic complication of diabetes and, thus, a smaller PEI value can provide valid information that may help identify type 2 diabetic patients at a greater risk of future DPN.

// Jianjun Liu 1,* , Mingxue Su 2,* , Jing Wang 3,* , Gan Zhang 1 , Jing Zhou 1 , Anqing Zhang 1 , Zixue Ren 1 , Xucai Zheng 1 , Shikai Hong 1 , Shengying Wang 1 and Rongxin Zhang 1 1 Department of Head - Neck and Thoracic Surgery, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, West branch of Anhui Province Hospital, Hefei, China 2 Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Lu’an People’s Hospital, Lu’an, China 3 Department of Urologic Surgery, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, West branch of Anhui Province Hospital, Hefei, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Rongxin Zhang, email: // Shengying Wang, email: // Keywords : neoadjuvant radiotherapy; gastric cancer; survival analysis; SEER Received : August 23, 2016 Accepted : October 05, 2016 Published : October 11, 2016 Abstract Although local advanced gastric cancer (AGC) could benefit from neoadjuvant radiotherapy (NRT), there are few studies evaluating patients’ survival after NRT. In current study, we aimed to investigate the value of prognostic factors in AGC patients after NRT and to evaluate whether post-therapy pathological characteristics were predictive factors in these patients. We retrospectively analyzed AGC patients who underwent NRT from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Database. The patients’ clinical and post-therapy pathological characteristics were analyzed. The best cutoff points for continuous variables were identified by X-tile. The discrimination of risk factors were compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. As a result, 1,429 AGC patients were included into this study. In the multivariate analysis, the lymph nodes status and histology grade were significant risk factors for DSS (disease special survival). Then, we propose a novel Grade-lymph node Ratio (G-R) staging system for the AGC patients’ survival prognosis. Clearly, the new G-R staging system has a more-accurate 3-year and 5-year DSS prediction than the AJCC staging system ( p = 0.001, 0.007, respectively). In conclusions, the current large, general population-based study demonstrated that the G-R staging system resulting in more-accurate DSS prediction. It could be regarded as a reliable classification for AGC patients after NRT in future.

Bacillus-produced surfactin can inhibit acute inflammation in vitro and in vivo. However, there is no report whether surfactin could inhibit chronic inflammation in the atherosclerotic lesions. Apoliprotein E deficient (ApoE(-/-)) mice (fed on atherogenic diet) were intragastrically administered with surfactin for 9 doses, then the athero-protective effect of surfactin was determined in vivo. The results showed surfactin could induce anti-inflammatory factors such as IgA, transforming growth factor (TGF)-β and interleukin (IL)-10 in the intestine. Further investigation discovered that surfactin also systemically induced CD4(+)CD25(+)FoxP3(+) Tregs in spleen, which could inhibit T cells to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-γ. The IgG subclass pattern with high titer of IgG1 (Th2-type) but low titer of IgG2a (Th1-type) was also found in the surfactin-treated mice. As a result, the attenuation of chronic inflammation was observed in the surfactin-treated groups accompanying with less TNF-α but more IL-10 in the atherosclerotic lesions. Moreover, surfactin could reduce serum total cholesterol and cholesterol in low-density lipoprotein, and increase serum cholesterol in high-density lipoprotein in mice. Collectively, surfactin could significantly attenuate atherosclerotic lesions on the aorta by restoration of the delicate balance of Th1/Th2 response in mice.

Triple negative breast cancer lacking estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor and Her2 account for account for the majority of the breast cancer deaths, due to the lack of specific gene targeted therapy. Our current study aimed to investigate the role of miR-544 in triple negative breast cancer. Endogenous levels of miR-544 were significantly lower in breast cancer cell lines than in human breast non-tumorigenic and mammary epithelial cell lines. We found that miR-544 directly targeted the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) on both Bcl6 and Stat3 mRNAs, and overexpression of miR-544 in triple negative breast cancer cells significantly down-regulated expressions of Bcl6 and Stat3, which in turn severely inhibited cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. Employing a mouse xenograft model to examine the in vivo function of miR-544, we found that expression of miR-544 significantly repressed the growth of xenograft tumors. Our current study reported miR-544 as a tumor-suppressor microRNA particularly in triple negative breast cancer. Our data supported the role of miR-544 as a potential biomarker in developing gene targeted therapies in the clinical treatment of triple negative breast cancer.

Toward water splitting, the cell voltage is limited by the sluggish anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), requiring a much higher overpotential than cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we replace the OER with more favorable glucose oxidation reaction (GOR), that is glucose electrolysis in alkaline environment, which requires a much lower cell voltage than that of water electrolysis. The surface of porous Co–Ni alloy on carbon cloth is partial oxidized, serving as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for both GOR and HER. The active sites, conductivity, intrinsic activity and stability can be synergistically improved with the engineered porous Co–Ni alloy on carbon cloth. In result, the cell voltage is as low as 1.39 V when the current density reaches to 10 mA cm−2 in glucose electrolysis. While without the glucose in the electrolyte, the voltage reaches as high as 1.65 V. This work can make a contribution to develop the other highly active and robust bifunctional electrocatalysts for glucose or similar organic molecular electrolysis.

The pursuit of low cell voltage for water splitting is urgent for the clean and sustainable energy. However, the cell voltage is limited by the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), requiring a higher overpotential than cathodic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, to boost water electrolysis, we replace the anodic OER with glucose oxidation reaction (GOR) over engineered ultra-thin cobalt nickel hydroxide nanosheet on carbon cloth, in which can synergistically improve its numbers of active sites, conductivity, intrinsic activity and stability with the Co doped α-Ni(OH)2. When it couples with Pt cathode, the resulting cell voltage to drive water splitting at the current density of 100 mA cm−2 with the assistance of glucose is as low as 1.56 V. While without the glucose in the electrolyte, the potential reaches as high as 1.75 V. Therefore, replacing OER with the GOR can reduce the potential of water electrolysis. This work is contributed to the development the other highly active and robust electrocatalysts in water electrolysis with the assistance of glucose or similar organic molecular.

Kuojun Ren,1,* Yachao Yin,2,* Fang He,3 Yi Shao,4 Shengying Wang1 1Department of Head–Neck and Breast Surgery, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, USTC, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Radiotherapy, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, USTC, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Respiratory Medicine, Anhui Chest Hospital, Hefei, Anhui, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Ophthalmology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Introduction: The role of derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR) in predicting the prognosis of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has not been well studied. Here, we attempted to investigate the significance of dNLR in predicting the prognosis of patients with surgical (nonmetastatic) TNBC.Methods: A total of 281 patients diagnosed with surgical TNBC in The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China from February 2005 to March 2015 were retrospectively included in this study. Kaplan–Meier curve analysis was used to assess the disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). We used Cox regression model to assess the prognostic significance of pretreatment dNLR and other clinicopathological parameters in TNBC patients.Results: The median DFS in TNBC patients who had low dNLR and high dNLR was 28.9 and 15.1months (P

Lingyun Diao,1,2 Shengying Wang,2 Zhiguang Sun1 1Department of Gastroenterology, The First Clinical Medical School of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, Xuzhou City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xuzhou, People’s Republic of China Background: Dysregulated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in the development of human cancers. LncRNA GAPLINC has been reported to be increased in gastric cancer (GC) tissues.Methods: Real-time PCR assays were used to measure expressions of GAPLINC, miR-378, and MAPK1 mRNA. Western blot assays were employed to examine MAPK1 protein expression. Cell proliferation and cell cycle were measured by CCK-8 and propidium iodide-detection assays, respectively. The interaction between GAPLINC and miR-378 was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis and luciferase assays. Luciferase assays were also used to study whether GAPLINC was able to act as a molecular sponge of miR-378 to modulate MAPK1 expression.Results: The lncRNA GAPLINC expression was upregulated and positively correlated with MAPK1 expression in gastric cancer tissues and cells. Additionally, lncRNA GAPLINC promoted the expression of MAPK1 and the enhancement of GC cell proliferation and cell cycle progression by LncRNA GAPLINC was dependent on MAPK1 in vitro and in vivo. Consequently, we found that miR-378 expression was inversely correlated with GAPLINC expression in GC tissues and cells. miR-378 could directly bind to GAPLINC and decreased GAPLINC expression, thus reducing MAPK1 expression. Furthermore, overexpression of miR-378 inhibited MAPK1 expression, cell proliferation, and cell cycle progression of gastric cancer cells, while these effects were abrogated by upregulating lncRNA GAPLINC expression.Conclusion: Taken together, lncRNA GAPLINC promotes gastric cancer cell proliferation by acting as a molecular sponge of miR-378 to modulate MAPK1 expression.Keywords: GAPLINC, cell proliferation, miR-378, MAPK1, gastric cancer&nbsp

Chenghao Jiang,1,* Tong Cheng,2,* Xucai Zheng,1 Shikai Hong,1 Song Liu,1 Jianjun Liu,1 Jing Wang,1 Shengying Wang1 1Department of Head – Neck Surgery, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, West Branch of Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, China; 2Department of Endocrinology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Objective: This study was to evaluate the risk factors of survival in patients with columnar cell variant (CCV) and encapsulated variant (ECV). Materials and methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1988–2013) was used to compare the characteristics of CCV and ECV with those of classic papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Survival was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method, the log-rank test, and Cox multivariate regression. Multivariate logistic regression was used to further analyze lymph node metastases and distant metastasis. There were 765 CCV, 529 ECV, and 39,035 PTC patients. ECV tumors were similar to PTC in terms of overall survival, disease-specific survival, age, sex, and distant metastasis. Results: Compared with PTC, CCV tumors tended to be larger, with a higher incidence rate among males and in patients ≥65 years of age. CCV was associated with higher rates of extrathyroidal extension, multifocality, lymph node examinations, and lymph node and distant metastases (p20 mm, ≤40 mm (OR 1.851 [1.170–2.928]), and size >40 mm (OR 1.847 [1.088–3.136]). Conclusion: ECV appears to have a similar prognosis to PTC, while CCV has a worse prognosis than classic PTC. Treatment with external beam radiotherapy and radioactive implants should be conducted carefully in patients with CCV. Keywords: columnar cell, encapsulated variant, disease-specific survival, external beam radiotherapy, distant metastasis, SEER

Adjuvant chemotherapy has been demonstrated to improve the prognosis of patients with early-stage breast cancer; however, the high cost and side effects associated with this treatment may discourage patients from receiving it. The present study assessed the candidate factors that may influence decisions regarding postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy in females with early-stage breast cancer. Patients diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between January 2000 and December 2007 were enrolled in the study. Information about the patients, including socio-demographic factors, clinicopathological characteristics and receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy, was obtained from their medical records. Overall, 434 out of 1,296 (33.5%) patients with breast cancer decided against receiving adjuvant chemotherapy. Receipt of chemotherapy was significantly associated with the age of the patient at the time of diagnosis (P=0.029), occupational type (P=0.023), and lymph node status (P

WH1fungin, a surfactin cyclopeptide from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens WH1, is firstly reported as a novel immunoadjuvant, which can markedly enhance the immune response when given in mixture with antigens. After intramuscular or subcutaneous immunization, WH1fungin can help to induce both of durable humoral and cellular immune response, even as strong as Freund's adjuvant. Both IgG1 and IgG2a antigen-specific antibodies were elicited from the immunizations indicating a mixed Th1/Th2 response. Splenocytes from mice intramuscularly immunized with OVA plus WH1fungin responded to OVA CTL peptide stimulation resulting in an increase in CD8 + TNF-α + and CD8 + IFN-γ + T cell populations, and also an increase in CD4 + TNF-α + T cells and CD4 + IFN-γ + T cell populations was found from mice subcutaneously immunized with OVA plus WH1fungin when responded to OVA Th peptide stimulation. These results further suggest that WH1fungin helps to elicit humoral and cellular responses to OVA. The potential mechanism of WH1fungin as an immunoadjuvant was investigated. In vitro assays showed that WH1fungin could enter into RAW 264.7 cells, induce ROS accumulation, and increase the expression of cell surface markers and cytokines in cells. Further investigation suggested that WH1fungin might exert its adjuvant activity by ligating with TLR-2 in antigen present cells such as RAW 264.7. Taken together, WH1fungin is very potent as a novel adjuvant for development of vaccines in the future.

Vaccination against cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) is proven to be effective for inhibiting atherosclerosis in animal models. In this study, the proteases-resistant intestinal trefoil factor (TFF3) was used as a molecular vehicle to construct chimeric TFF3 (cTFF3) containing CETP B cell epitope and tetanus toxin helper T cell epitope. It was found that cTFF3 still preserved a trefoil structure, and can resist proteases digestion in vitro. After oral immunization with cTFF3, the CETP-specific IgA and IgG could be found in intestine lavage fluid and serum, and the anti-CETP antibodies could inhibit partial CETP activity to increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, decrease low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and inhibit atherosclerosis in animals. Therefore, TFF3 is a potential molecular vehicle for developing oral peptide vaccines. Our research highlights a novel strategy for developing oral peptide vaccines in the future.

Summary Background/Objective Gastric cancer is the fourth most prevalent cancer worldwide. The ability to accurately predict surgery-related morbidity and mortality is critical in deciding both the timing of surgery and choice of surgical procedure. The aim of this study is to compare the POSSUM, p-POSSUM, o-POSSUM, and APACHE II scoring systems for predicting surgical morbidity and mortality in Chinese gastric cancer patients, as well as to create new scoring systems to achieve better prediction. Methods Data from 612 gastric cancer patients undergoing gastrectomy between January 2007 and December 2011 were included in this study. The predictive abilities of the four scoring systems were compared by examining observed-to-expected (O/E) ratios, the receiver operating characteristic curve, Student t test, and χ 2 test results. Results The observed complication rate of 34% ( n = 208) did not differ significantly from the rate of 36.6% ( n = 208) predicted by the POSSUM scoring system (O/E ratio = 0.93). The observed mortality rate was 2.9% ( n = 18). For predicting mortality, POSSUM had an O/E ratio of 0.34 as compared with p-POSSUM (O/E ratio = 0.91), o-POSSUM (O/E ratio = 1.26), and APACHE II (O/E ratio = 0.28). Conclusion The POSSUM scoring system performed well with respect to predicting morbidity risk following gastric cancer resection. For predicting postoperative mortality, p-POSSUM and o-POSSUM exhibited superior performance relative to POSSUM and APACHE II.

We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of postpathological characters in nonmetastatic breast cancer (NMBC) patients who received preoperative radiotherapy (PRT) followed by mastectomy (MAST). We conducted retrospective analyses using the data collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program of the National Cancer Institute. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors. Disease-specific survival was calculated by the Kaplan–Meier curve and validated by log rank test. The discriminations of independent risk factors and staging systems were compared by the area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) and validated by Harrell concordance index (bootstrapping algorithm). Akaike information criterion (AIC) was applied to compare the difference of model. One thousand three hundred fifty NMBC patients who had received PRT followed by MAST from 1988 to 2013 were included in the study. We found the metastatic lymph node ratio (mLNR) staging was a superior indicator than pN staging. Thus, we proposed a T-lymph node ratio (T-NR) staging system with simplified-T categories (T0–3 and T4) and the mLNR staging. The novel T-NR staging system provided larger AUC (P = .024, .008, respectively) and the smaller AIC (P

Background We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the value of 18 FDG PET-CT for diagnosis of distant metastases in breast cancer patients. Methods Studies about PET-CT were systematically searched in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. We calculated sensitivities, specificities, likelihood ratios, and constructed summary receiver operating characteristic curves for PET-CT. We also compared the performance of PET-CT with that of conventional imaging by analyzing studies that had also used conventional imaging on the same patients. Results Across 8 PET-CT studies (748 patients), sensitivity and specificity of PET-CT were 0.96 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.90–0.98) and 0.95 (95% CI = 0.92–0.97). Across 6 comparative studies (664 patients), sensitivity and specificity of PET-CT were 0.97 (95% CI = 0.84–0.99) and 0.95 (95% CI = 0.93–0.97), and of conventional imaging were 0.56 (95% CI = 0.38–0.74) and 0.91 (95% CI = 0.78–0.97), respectively. Conclusions Compared with conventional imaging, 18 FDG PET-CT has higher sensitivity for diagnosis of distant metastases in breast cancer patients.

Human heat shock protein 60 (hHSP60) and apolipoprotein B-100 (ApoB-100) in oxidized low density lipoproteins are considered pro-atherosclerotic factors by inducing autoimmunity response, and immunization with peptides from these two proteins can inhibit atherosclerosis in animal models. In this study, we constructed chimeric proteins containing ApoB-100 and/or hHSP60 peptides by human intestinal trefoil factor (ITF) as a scaffold and then fused with glutathionine-S transferase (GST) for expression in Escherichia coli. These purified chimeric proteins were used for immunizing apolipoprotein E (ApoE)-null mice fed on Western diet, and then the immune response and anti-atherosclerotic effect was assayed. Unexpectedly, neither anti-ApoB-100 nor anti-hHSP60 antibodies could be detected in serum. Histological analysis demonstrated the mice immunized with a chimeric protein containing both ApoB-100 and hHSP60 peptides showed the most significant reduction of atherosclerotic lesions (65.9%), and the mice immunized with the chimeric protein only containing ApoB-100 or hHSP60 peptide also showed a 26.7% (p

To seek an effective approach of treatment to infantile hemangioma of parotid gland.Nineteen cases of infantile hemangioma of parotid gland were analyzed retrospectively. The operative methods were as follows: Superficial parotidectomy (15 cases), total parotidectomy(3 cases), superficial parotidectomy and inner hemangioma ligation in parotid(1 cases). The neck-nape shin flap repair(3 cases),"Dissection outside the false capsule" and facial nerve anatomy are applied in the operation.Three cases showed a partial facial nerve paralysis after operation. One cases needed a blood transfusion (200 ml) in the operation. The follow up was beyond 1 year with excellent results."Dissection outside the false capsule, facial nerve anatomy and the neck-nape skin flap repair are applied in the operation. These treatment methods are effective and radical. It is worthy of wide application".