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Percutaneous vertebroplasty is often used to acquire the stability of the spine and relieve the pain caused by osteoporotic vertebral compressive fracture (OVCF). 125I seeds have been used for application of local therapy for tumors. A combined treatment was reported in previous literatures. Thus, this case report is aimed at reporting a patient with an occurrence of delayed radioactive myelopathy, who accepted percutaneous vertebroplasty combined with interstitial implantation of 125I seeds for metastatic spinal tumors, and at reviewing the published literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Postoperative extrahepatic metastasis (EHM) contributes to a poor prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatectomy. This study was aimed to develop a practical method that can be used to predict postoperative EHM. Methods. In total, 578 patients were enrolled. We analyzed the clinicopathological features of the tumors and did a long-term follow-up to observe HCC recurrence. Postoperative EHM was detected in 136 patients, and multivariate analysis was used to confirm independent risk factors for postoperative EHM. After the factors were identified, a predictive scoring system was constructed as a weighted sum of these factors. The cutoff value that determines a high risk for EHM was defined by maximizing the Youden's index of the receiver operating characteristic curve. Results. Microvascular invasion, incomplete capsule, and larger tumor diameter were the three independent factors predictive for a high risk for EHM. The scoring system was derived with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.81 for postoperative 10-year EHM prediction. A cutoff value of 43 was derived and validated with a sensitivity >90% and specificity>60% to predict the development of EHM. This system was further verified in a subgroup of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage 0-A patients with an AUC of 0.82. When the cutoff value was set at 43, the sensitivity and specificity were 90.38% and 64.88%, respectively. Conclusions. Our predictive scoring system may be used to identify HCC patients who have a high risk for EHM following curative hepatectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Statins can reduce the malignancies through stimulating apoptosis. We aimed to elucidate the role of lovastatin in HepG-2 cells., Methods: HepG-2 and non-tumor L-O2 cells were used as the cell models. CCK-8, flow cytometric analysis and carboxy fluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFDA-SE) labeling were performed to monitor the viability, apoptosis and proliferation., Results: We found that lovastatin exerted the most tumor suppressing effects on liver cancer cells among the three tested statins. Lovastatin treatment significantly reduced cell viability and proliferation, and induced apoptosis in HepG-2. However, drug resistance effects were observed in the non-tumor L-O2 cells. The apoptosis triggered by lovastatin was accompanied by high intracellular levels of ROS. Pretreatment with the ROS blocker N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) could mitigate the lovastatin-induced cytotoxicity in HepG-2 cells. Mechanistically, lovastatin increased HepG-2 cell apoptosis by triggering mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathways through ROS accumulation., Conclusions: Lovastatin significantly induced cell apoptosis by activating ROS-dependent mitochondrial and ER stress pathways in HepG-2 cells., Competing Interests: None., (IJCEP Copyright © 2017.)

Background: Intrahepatic recurrence is a significant problem for patients who have undergone a hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The objective of the present study was to identify risk factors and evaluate the management of early and late recurrence of solitary HCC after curative resection., Methods: Included in this study were 816 patients with solitary HCC who underwent a curative partial hepatectomy. Intrahepatic recurrence in these patients was followed up retrospectively. Prognosis and therapy for the recurrence were investigated and analysed., Results: Early and late intrahepatic recurrence occurred in 423 patients and 199 patients, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that a tumour diameter >5 cm, the absence of a tumour capsule and the presence of microvascular invasion were correlated with early recurrence, whereas cirrhosis and alpha-fetal protein >400 μg/l were independent risk factors contributing to late recurrence. The 5-year survival of HCC patients with early recurrence was significantly lower than that of patients with late recurrence. Further curative treatment for intrahepatic recurrence offered a 5-year overall survival of 56.0%, which was better than alternative management., Conclusion: Early and late recurrences of solitary HCC after curative resection are associated with different predictive factors. The time to recurrence and further curative treatment after recurrence were the best predictors of survival post recurrence., (© 2014 International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association.)

Background and Aims: This study aimed to establish a prognostic artificial neural network model (ANN) for early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following partial hepatectomy., Methods: Consecutive patients who were operated between February 2005 and March 2012 were prospectively studied. Seventy-five and 25% of these patients were randomly selected as a training cohort and an internal validation cohort. Similar patients from another hospital formed an external validation cohort. The predictive accuracy of the ANN for postoperative survival was measured by the area under the curve (AUC) on receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The results were compared with those obtained using the conventional Cox proportional hazard model, and the Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA), TNM 6th, and Barcelona-Clinic-Liver-Cancer (BCLC) staging systems., Results: The number of patients in the training, internal validation and external validation cohorts were 543, 182, and 104, respectively. On linear regression analysis, tumor size, number, alpha¬fetoprotein, microvascular invasion, and tumor capsule were independent factors affecting survival (P < 0.05). The ANN model was established based on these factors. In the training cohort, the AUC of the ANN was larger than that of the Cox model (0.855 vs 0.826, P = 0.0115), and the staging systems (0.784 vs TNM 6th: 0.639, BCLC: 0.612, IHPBA: 0.711, P < 0.0001 for all). These findings were confirmed with the internal and external validation cohorts., Conclusion: The ANN was significantly better than the other commonly used model and systems in predicting survival of patients with early HCC who underwent partial hepatectomy., (© 2014 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)