BCL-2 system analysis identifies high-risk colorectal cancer patients

Gut ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (12) ◽  
pp. 2141-2148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas U Lindner ◽  
Manuela Salvucci ◽  
Clare Morgan ◽  
Naser Monsefi ◽  
Alexa J Resler ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe mitochondrial apoptosis pathway is controlled by an interaction of multiple BCL-2 family proteins, and plays a key role in tumour progression and therapy responses. We assessed the prognostic potential of an experimentally validated, mathematical model of BCL-2 protein interactions (DR_MOMP) in patients with stage III colorectal cancer (CRC).DesignAbsolute protein levels of BCL-2 family proteins were determined in primary CRC tumours collected from n=128 resected and chemotherapy-treated patients with stage III CRC. We applied DR_MOMP to categorise patients as high or low risk based on model outputs, and compared model outputs with known prognostic factors (T-stage, N-stage, lymphovascular invasion). DR_MOMP signatures were validated on protein of n=156 patients with CRC from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project.ResultsHigh-risk stage III patients identified by DR_MOMP had an approximately fivefold increased risk of death compared with patients identified as low risk (HR 5.2, 95% CI 1.4 to 17.9, p=0.02). The DR_MOMP signature ranked highest among all molecular and pathological features analysed. The prognostic signature was validated in the TCGA colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) cohort (HR 4.2, 95% CI 1.1 to 15.6, p=0.04). DR_MOMP also further stratified patients identified by supervised gene expression risk scores into low-risk and high-risk categories. BCL-2-dependent signalling critically contributed to treatment responses in consensus molecular subtypes 1 and 3, linking for the first time specific molecular subtypes to apoptosis signalling.ConclusionsDR_MOMP delivers a system-based biomarker with significant potential as a prognostic tool for stage III CRC that significantly improves established histopathological risk factors.

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly A. Conran ◽  
Zhuqing Shi ◽  
William Kyle Resurreccion ◽  
Rong Na ◽  
Brian T. Helfand ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of disease-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A subset of these SNPs may be additively combined to generate genetic risk scores (GRSs) that confer risk for a specific disease. Although the clinical validity of GRSs to predict risk of specific diseases has been well established, there is still a great need to determine their clinical utility by applying GRSs in primary care for cancer risk assessment and targeted intervention. Methods This clinical study involved 281 primary care patients without a personal history of breast, prostate or colorectal cancer who were 40–70 years old. DNA was obtained from a pre-existing biobank at NorthShore University HealthSystem. GRSs for colorectal cancer and breast or prostate cancer were calculated and shared with participants through their primary care provider. Additional data was gathered using questionnaires as well as electronic medical record information. A t-test or Chi-square test was applied for comparison of demographic and key clinical variables among different groups. Results The median age of the 281 participants was 58 years and the majority were female (66.6%). One hundred one (36.9%) participants received 2 low risk scores, 99 (35.2%) received 1 low risk and 1 average risk score, 37 (13.2%) received 1 low risk and 1 high risk score, 23 (8.2%) received 2 average risk scores, 21 (7.5%) received 1 average risk and 1 high risk score, and no one received 2 high risk scores. Before receiving GRSs, younger patients and women reported significantly more worry about risk of developing cancer. After receiving GRSs, those who received at least one high GRS reported significantly more worry about developing cancer. There were no significant differences found between gender, age, or GRS with regards to participants’ reported optimism about their future health neither before nor after receiving GRS results. Conclusions Genetic risk scores that quantify an individual’s risk of developing breast, prostate and colorectal cancers as compared with a race-defined population average risk have potential clinical utility as a tool for risk stratification and to guide cancer screening in a primary care setting.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meijiao Zhou ◽  
Trevor D. Thompson ◽  
Hui-Yi Lin ◽  
Vivien W. Chen ◽  
Jordan J. Karlitz ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Clinical trials have indicated high-risk (T4 and/or N2) and low-risk (T1-T3 and N1) stage III colon cancer patients might need different doses of FOLFOX to reserve a similar survival probability. Observational studies have investigated the effect of relative dose intensity (RDI) of FOLFOX on cancer survival for patients with stage III colon cancer, but nonetheless, the studies focused on very specific populations, and none performed stratified analysis by risk profiles. This study aims to identify the optimal RDI of FOLFOX administered for high-risk and low-risk stage III colon cancer patients.Methods Data on 407 eligible patients, diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2011 who received FOLFOX, were collected by the eight population-based cancer registries for a CDC National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) project focused on Comparative Effectiveness Research. We employed Kaplan-Meier method, cumulative incidence function (CIF), Multivariable Cox model and Fine-Gray competing risks model to explore Optimal Relative Dose Intensity (RDI) defined as the lowest RDI administered without significant differences in either overall or cause-specific death.Results Among the 168 high-risk patients, the optimal RDI cut-off point was 70% where there was no statistically significant difference in overall mortality (HR=1.87; 95% CI: 0.84-4.19) and cause-specific mortality (HR=1.72; 95% CI: 0.61-4.85) when RDI<70% vs. RDI≥70%, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical covariates. When the RDI cut-off was lower than the optimal one (<55% vs. ≥55%, <60% vs. ≥60%, or <65% vs. ≥65%), the overall and cause-specific mortalities were significantly statistically different between the two groups of each comparison. Among the 239 low-risk patients, none of the evaluated cut-offs were associated with statistically significant differences in overall and cause-specific mortalities between comparison groups. The lowest RDI we assessed was 45%, HR=0.79; 95% CI: 0.23-2.67 for the overall mortality and HR=0.49; 95% CI: 0.05-4.84 for the cause-specific mortality, when RDI<45% vs. RDI≥45%.Conclusions To best utilize health care resources while maintaining efficacy, RDI can be maintained at a minimum of 70% in high-risk stage III colon cancer patients. For low-risk patients, we found that RDI as low as 45% did not impact risk of death.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-yu Shi ◽  
Yan-yan Bi ◽  
Bian-fang Yu ◽  
Qing-feng Wang ◽  
Dan Teng ◽  
...  

Despite extensive research, the exact mechanisms involved in colorectal cancer (CRC) etiology and pathogenesis remain unclear. This study aimed to examine the correlation between tumor-associated alternative splicing (AS) events and tumor immune infiltration (TII) in CRC. We analyzed transcriptome profiling and clinical CRC data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and lists of AS-related and immune-related signatures from the SpliceSeq and Innate databases, respectively to develop and validate a risk model of differential AS events and subsequently a TII risk model. We then conducted a two-factor survival analysis to study the association between TII and AS risk and evaluated the associations between immune signatures and six types of immune cells based on the TIMER database. Subsequently, we studied the distribution of six types of TII cells in high- and low-risk groups for seven AS events and in total. We obtained the profiles of AS events/genes for 484 patients, which included 473 CRC tumor samples and 41 corresponding normal samples, and detected 22581 AS events in 8122 genes. Exon Skip (ES) (8446) and Mutually Exclusive Exons (ME) (74) exhibited the most and fewest AS events, respectively. We then classified the 433 patients with CRC into low-risk (n = 217) and high-risk (n = 216) groups based on the median risk score in different AS events. Compared with patients with low-risk scores (mortality = 11.8%), patients with high-risk scores were associated with poor overall survival (mortality = 27.6%). The risk score, cancer stage, and pathological stage (T, M, and N) were closely correlated with prognosis in patients with CRC (P &lt; 0.001). We identified 6479 differentially expressed genes from the transcriptome profiles of CRC and intersected 468 differential immune-related signatures. High-AS-risk and high-TII-risk predicted a poor prognosis in CRC. Different AS types were associated with different TII risk characteristics. Alternate Acceptor site (AA) and Alternate Promoter (AP) events directly affected the concentration of CD4T cells, and the level of CD8T cells was closely correlated with Alternate Terminator (AT) and Exon Skip (ES) events. Thus, the concentration of CD4T and CD8T cells in the CRC immune microenvironment was not specifically modulated by AS. However, B cell, dendritic cell, macrophage, and neutrophilic cell levels were strongly correlated with AS events. These results indicate adverse associations between AS event risk levels and immune cell infiltration density. Taken together, our findings show a clear association between tumor-associated alternative splicing and immune cell infiltration events and patient outcome and could form a basis for the identification of novel markers and therapeutic targets for CRC and other cancers in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhautesh D. Jani ◽  
Frederick K. Ho ◽  
David J. Lowe ◽  
Jamie P. Traynor ◽  
Sean P. MacBride-Stewart ◽  
...  

AbstractMany western countries used shielding (extended self-isolation) of people presumed to be at high-risk from COVID-19 to protect them and reduce healthcare demand. To investigate the effectiveness of this strategy, we linked family practitioner, prescribing, laboratory, hospital and death records and compared COVID-19 outcomes among shielded and non-shielded individuals in the West of Scotland. Of the 1.3 million population, 27,747 (2.03%) were advised to shield, and 353,085 (26.85%) were classified a priori as moderate risk. COVID-19 testing was more common in the shielded (7.01%) and moderate risk (2.03%) groups, than low risk (0.73%). Referent to low-risk, the shielded group had higher confirmed infections (RR 8.45, 95% 7.44–9.59), case-fatality (RR 5.62, 95% CI 4.47–7.07) and population mortality (RR 57.56, 95% 44.06–75.19). The moderate-risk had intermediate confirmed infections (RR 4.11, 95% CI 3.82–4.42) and population mortality (RR 25.41, 95% CI 20.36–31.71) but, due to their higher prevalence, made the largest contribution to deaths (PAF 75.30%). Age ≥ 70 years accounted for 49.55% of deaths. In conclusion, in spite of the shielding strategy, high risk individuals were at increased risk of death. Furthermore, to be effective as a population strategy, shielding criteria would have needed to be widely expanded to include other criteria, such as the elderly.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meijiao Zhou ◽  
Trevor D. Thompson ◽  
Hui-Yi Lin ◽  
Vivien W. Chen ◽  
Jordan J. Karlitz ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Clinical trials have suggested high-risk (T4 and/or N2) and low-risk (T1-T3 and N1) stage III colon cancer patients might need different doses of FOLFOX to reserve a similar survival probability. Observational studies have investigated the effect of relative dose intensity (RDI) of FOLFOX on cancer survival for patients with stage III colon cancer, but nonetheless, the studies focused on very specific populations, and none performed stratified analysis by risk profiles. This study aims to identify the optimal RDI of FOLFOX administered for high-risk and low-risk stage III colon cancer patients. Methods: Data on 407 eligible patients, diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2011 who received FOLFOX, were collected by the eight population-based cancer registries for a CDC National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) project focused on Comparative Effectiveness Research. We employed Kaplan-Meier method, cumulative incidence function (CIF), Multivariable Cox model and Fine-Gray competing risks model to explore Optimal RDI defined as the lowest RDI administered without significant differences in either overall or cause-specific death. Results: Among the 168 high-risk patients, the optimal RDI cut-off point was 70% where there was no statistically significant difference in overall mortality (HR=1.59; 95% CI: 0.69-3.66) and cause-specific mortality (HR=1.24; 95% CI: 0.42-3.64) when RDI<70% vs. RDI≥70%, adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical covariates. When the RDI cut-off was lower than the optimal one (<55% vs. ≥55%, <60% vs. ≥60%, or <65% vs. ≥65%), the overall mortality was significantly statistically different between the two groups of each comparison. Among the 239 low-risk patients, none of the evaluated cut-offs were associated with statistically significant differences in overall and cause-specific mortalities between comparison groups. The lowest RDI we assessed was 45%, HR=0.80; 95% CI: 0.24-2.73 for the overall mortality and HR=0.53; 95% CI: 0.06-4.95 for the cause-specific mortality, when RDI<45% vs. RDI≥45%. Conclusions: To best utilize health care resources while maintaining efficacy, RDI can be maintained at a minimum of 70% for high-risk stage III colon cancer patients. For low-risk patients, we found that RDI as low as 45% did not significantly affect the risk of death.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly Ann Conran ◽  
Zhuqing Shi ◽  
William Kyle Resurreccion ◽  
Rong Na ◽  
Brian T. Helfand ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of disease-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A subset of these SNPs may be additively combined to generate genetic risk scores (GRSs) that confer risk for a specific disease. Although the clinical validity of GRSs to predict risk of specific diseases has been well established, there is still a great need to determine their clinical utility by applying GRSs in primary care for cancer risk assessment and targeted intervention.Methods: This clinical study involved 281 primary care patients without a personal history of breast, prostate or colorectal cancer who were 40-70 years old. DNA was obtained from a pre-existing biobank at NorthShore University HealthSystem. GRSs for colorectal cancer and breast or prostate cancer were calculated and shared with participants through their primary care provider. Additional data was gathered using questionnaires as well as electronic medical record information. A t-test or Chi-square test was applied for comparison of demographic and key clinical variables among different groups.Results: The median age of the 281 participants was 58 years and the majority were female (66.6%). One hundred one (36.9%) participants received 2 low risk scores, 99 (35.2%) received 1 low risk and 1 average risk score, 37 (13.2%) received 1 low risk and 1 high risk score, 23 (8.2%) received 2 average risk scores, 21 (7.5%) received 1 average risk and 1 high risk score, and no one received 2 high risk scores. Before receiving GRSs, younger patients and women reported significantly more worry about risk of developing cancer. After receiving GRSs, those who received at least one high GRS reported significantly more worry about developing cancer. There were no significant differences found between gender, age, or GRS with regards to participants’ reported optimism about their future health neither before nor after receiving GRS results.Conclusions: Genetic risk scores that quantify an individual’s risk of developing breast, prostate and colorectal cancers as compared with a race-defined population average risk have potential clinical utility as a tool for risk stratification and to guide cancer screening in a primary care setting.


Author(s):  
Kosuke Mima ◽  
Nobutomo Miyanari ◽  
Keisuke Kosumi ◽  
Takuya Tajiri ◽  
Kosuke Kanemitsu ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nan Ma ◽  
Lu Si ◽  
Meiling Yang ◽  
Meihua Li ◽  
Zhiyi He

AbstractThere is an urgent need to identify novel biomarkers that predict the prognosis of patients with NSCLC. In this study,we aim to find out mRNA signature closely related to the prognosis of NSCLC by new algorithm of bioinformatics. Identification of highly expressed mRNA in stage I/II patients with NSCLC was performed with the “Limma” package of R software. Survival analysis of patients with different mRNA expression levels was subsequently calculated by Cox regression analysis, and a multi-RNA signature was obtained by using the training set. Kaplan–Meier estimator, log-rank test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to analyse the predictive ability of the multi-RNA signature. RT-PCR used to verify the expression of the multi-RNA signature, and Westernblot used to verify the expression of proteins related to the multi-RNA signature. We identified fifteen survival-related mRNAs in the training set and classified the patients as high risk or low risk. NSCLC patients with low risk scores had longer disease-free survival than patients with high risk scores. The fifteen-mRNA signature was an independent prognostic factor, as shown by the ROC curve. ROC curve also showed that the combined model of the fifteen-mRNA signature and tumour stage had higher precision than stage alone. The expression of fifteen mRNAs and related proteins were higher in stage II NSCLC than in stage I NSCLC. Multi-gene expression profiles provide a moderate prognostic tool for NSCLC patients with stage I/II disease.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. e043837
Author(s):  
Usha Dutta ◽  
Anurag Sachan ◽  
Madhumita Premkumar ◽  
Tulika Gupta ◽  
Swapnajeet Sahoo ◽  
...  

ObjectivesHealthcare personnel (HCP) are at an increased risk of acquiring COVID-19 infection especially in resource-restricted healthcare settings, and return to homes unfit for self-isolation, making them apprehensive about COVID-19 duty and transmission risk to their families. We aimed at implementing a novel multidimensional HCP-centric evidence-based, dynamic policy with the objectives to reduce risk of HCP infection, ensure welfare and safety of the HCP and to improve willingness to accept and return to duty.SettingOur tertiary care university hospital, with 12 600 HCP, was divided into high-risk, medium-risk and low-risk zones. In the high-risk and medium-risk zones, we organised training, logistic support, postduty HCP welfare and collected feedback, and sent them home after they tested negative for COVID-19. We supervised use of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and kept communication paperless.ParticipantsWe recruited willing low-risk HCP, aged <50 years, with no comorbidities to work in COVID-19 zones. Social distancing, hand hygiene and universal masking were advocated in the low-risk zone.ResultsBetween 31 March and 20 July 2020, we clinically screened 5553 outpatients, of whom 3012 (54.2%) were COVID-19 suspects managed in the medium-risk zone. Among them, 346 (11.4%) tested COVID-19 positive (57.2% male) and were managed in the high-risk zone with 19 (5.4%) deaths. One (0.08%) of the 1224 HCP in high-risk zone, 6 (0.62%) of 960 HCP in medium-risk zone and 23 (0.18%) of the 12 600 HCP in the low-risk zone tested positive at the end of shift. All the 30 COVID-19-positive HCP have since recovered. This HCP-centric policy resulted in low transmission rates (<1%), ensured satisfaction with training (92%), PPE (90.8%), medical and psychosocial support (79%) and improved acceptance of COVID-19 duty with 54.7% volunteering for re-deployment.ConclusionA multidimensional HCP-centric policy was effective in ensuring safety, satisfaction and welfare of HCP in a resource-poor setting and resulted in a willing workforce to fight the pandemic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganna Leonenko ◽  
Emily Baker ◽  
Joshua Stevenson-Hoare ◽  
Annerieke Sierksma ◽  
Mark Fiers ◽  
...  

AbstractPolygenic Risk Scores (PRS) for AD offer unique possibilities for reliable identification of individuals at high and low risk of AD. However, there is little agreement in the field as to what approach should be used for genetic risk score calculations, how to model the effect of APOE, what the optimal p-value threshold (pT) for SNP selection is and how to compare scores between studies and methods. We show that the best prediction accuracy is achieved with a model with two predictors (APOE and PRS excluding APOE region) with pT<0.1 for SNP selection. Prediction accuracy in a sample across different PRS approaches is similar, but individuals’ scores and their associated ranking differ. We show that standardising PRS against the population mean, as opposed to the sample mean, makes the individuals’ scores comparable between studies. Our work highlights the best strategies for polygenic profiling when assessing individuals for AD risk.


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