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Gastric cancer is one of the malignant tumors with high incidence in China, with a 5-year relative survival rate of about 40%, which is characterized by low early diagnosis rate, large tumor load, high heterogeneity and poor prognosis. In the past 20 years, the multidisciplinary team model and individualized and precise decisions have become recognized measures to effectively improve the comprehensive treatment efficacy of gastric cancer. For the treatment of cancer, it has gradually transitioned from the simple evidence-based model of the “thousand people” to “precision immunotherapy”. The field of gastric cancer has made breakthroughs in many aspects in 2022, covering molecular mechanism exploration, diagnosis technology and treatment strategy, clinical transformation, precision medicine and immunotherapy became research hotspots. The research in targeted drugs mainly focus on a few hot targets (such as CLDN18.2 and FGFR2b). In the field of immunotherapy, domestic programmed death-1 (PD-1) inhibitors are gradually emerging (in the study of RATIONALE 305), and more attention is being paid to the reduction of toxicity (in the Moonlight study) and the exploration of new treatment models (in the targeted combination immunotherapy: LEAP-015 study; in the immunotherapy combined with radiotherapy: Neo-PLANET study). This paper reviewed the progress of gastric cancer research in 2022, and provided ideas and suggestions for more accurate understanding of its pathogenesis, in-depth clinical translational research and formulation of clinical practice programs.

Background and purpose: 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is the backbone of drug for gastric cancer. Traditional high-dose 5-FU often leads to serious adverse reactions and drug resistance. The low-dose 5-FU metronomic chemotherapy can significantly reduce the toxicity of the drug without affecting the efficacy, but it is not clear which dose can achieve the best anti-tumor effect. The purpose of this study was to explore the optimal metronomic chemotherapy strategy for 5-FU and to explore the related molecular mechanisms. Methods: A nude mouse subcutaneous tumor model of SGC-7901 gastric cancer cell line was established. After tumor formation, mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: maximum tolerated dose (MTD) group, daily metronomic chemotherapy (MET-qd) group, every other day metronomic chemotherapy (MET-qod) group and twice-weekly metronomic chemotherapy (MET-biw) group. Duration of single course of treatment was 21 d, and mice received a total of 2 courses of treatment. During the treatment period, the general condition of nude mice was observed, the tumor mass was weighed and measured every week, and the tumor growth curve was drawn. Flow cytometry was used to detect circulating endothelial progenitors (CEP) in peripheral blood of nude mice; B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) and myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) infiltrated in the tumor and spleen. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expressions of CD11c and CD163 in the tumor. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), platelet derived growth factor (PDGF), interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-12 in peripheral blood of nude mice. In addition, white blood cell counts and H-E stained sections of liver, lung, kidney, and heart were performed in order to monitor toxicity assessments. Results: The three metronomic chemotherapy strategies of 5-FU could inhibit the growth of xenograft tumor in nude mice similar to the MTD group, and the MET-qod group has the most obvious anti-tumor effect (P

Objective To investigate the species composition and dynamic changes of vaginal microbiota in patients with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis （RVVC）. Methods Six patients with confirmed symptomatic RVVC were enrolled in this study. During the onset of RVVC, 1 high vaginal swab sample was collected from each patient on a daily basis to identify the vaginal microbiota. Principal co-ordinate analysis （PCoA）, thermogram analysis and α diversity analysis were adopted to analyze the species composition and dynamic changes of vaginal microbiota in RVVC patients. Results PCoA analysis between groups showed that the species composition of vaginal microbiota in patients with RVVC was similar at the interval between onset, but the species difference was increased at several days before the onset and on the day of onset. Thermogram analysis suggested that the distance between microbiota was large in the onset stage and at the interval between onset of RVVC, and the intermediate difference of microbiota began to converge at several days before the onset stage. The species composition analysis of vaginal microbiota in patients with RVVC showed that Lactobacillus accounted for 64.25%. Bacterial genera with relative abundance between 0.10% and 1.00% included Dialister, Enterobacteriaceae, Finegoldia magna, Atopobium, Aerococcus, Staphylococcus, Anaerococcus and Lactococcus. The genera with relative abundance of >1.00% consisted of Lactobacillus, Prevotella, Streptococcus, Gardnerella and Ureaplasma. The α diversity index evaluation results indicated that the species abundance at the interval between onset of RVVC was similar, which was increased approaching the onset stage, and most returned to a low level of species abundance before the onset. Lactobacillus was the absolute dominant genus during several menstrual cycles of patients receiving follow-up, with small fluctuations. However, there was a transient increase of Prevotella in each group before the onset, and there was also an increase in Gardnerella, which occasionally fluctuated. The proportion of the other genera such as Dialister, Finegoldia magna, Atopobium and Ureaplasma was relatively low,and with few fluctuations. The remaining genera remained at a low level during the menstrual cycle.Conclusions Lactobacillus is the main vaginal microbiota in patients with RVVC. Vaginal microbiota in RVVC patients are relatively stable, with few fluctuations. In clinical treatment,widespread attention should be diverted to the regulation of vaginal microecological environment and restoring the proportion of vaginal microbiota.

Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) on the invasion and metastasis of cervical cancer. Methods Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the infiltration of TAMs in cervical lesions. The human mononuclear THP1 cell line was induced to transform into M2 type TAMs in vitro. TAMs were used to stimulate cervical cancer cells (SiHa and C33a). Scratch and Transwell assays were used to detect the effect of TAMs on the migration and invasion of cervical cancer cell lines. Western blot was used to detect the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and the expression of MMP-9 in cervical cancer cells. Results The number of TAM infiltration was positively correlated with the progression of cervical lesions. After stimulated by TAMs-CM, SiHa and C33a cells appeared interstitial-like changes, and the migration and invasion abilities were significantly enhanced (both P < 0.5). TAMs could down-regulate the expression of E-Cadherin, and up-regulate the expression of N-Cadherin, Vimentin and MMP-9. Conclusion The invasion of TAMs is closely related to the malignant transformation and progression of cervical epithelium. TAMs may promote the invasion and metastasis of cervical cancer cells by up-regulating the expression of MMP-9.

Bamboo scrimber was made by "hot in-cold out" hot-pressing with hot parameters of 5 MPa, 150°C and 40–180 min. The variation of temperature and vapor pressure were investigated during hot-pressing of bamboo slabs with various initial moisture content (IMC; 5, 10, 15, and 20%), slab target density (TD; 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 g/cm3), slab target thickness (TT; 15, 30, 45, and 60 mm) using thermocouple sensors and a self-made press-monitoring system. The results showed obvious stages in the temperature and vapor pressure behavior of bamboo slabs during hot-pressing. IMC showed a limited effect on temperature but an obvious increase in vapor pressure. TD and target TT exhibited good linear relationships with the time to reach 120°C in the core layer, suggesting this can be used as an indicator of hot-pressing time. However, both TD and TT correlate less well with the vapor pressure, which might reflect differences in the size or fluffing degree of bamboo bundles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]