scholarly journals Pathological and genomic phenotype of second neuroendocrine carcinoma during long-term follow-up after radical radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-peng Peng ◽  
Qiao-dan Liu ◽  
Yu-jing Lin ◽  
Shun-li Peng ◽  
Rong Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Second head and neck neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) after radical radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treatment is rarely reported. The prognosis of second cancer is poor, and our research focuses on finding a breakthrough in the treatment. In this study, we aimed to investigate clinicopathological characteristics and to identify the genomic landscape of second head and neck NECs. Methods We collected five second head and neck NEC cases in the recent three years from our patient database. Clinicopathological data and images were obtained. Genomic analysis was performed using high-throughput second generation sequencing. KEGG pathway enrichment analyses between high-frequency mutations were performed using the STRING database. Results All patients had been diagnosed with second NEC, according to the pathological observations. The interval between diagnosis of NPC and NEC ranged from 10 to 18 years. Two patients had brain or liver metastasis at three and nine months, respectively, after the diagnosis of NEC. Three patients died of the disease with the overall survival time ranging from three to nine months. Commonly altered genes (50%) in second head and neck NECs included TP53, RB1, NOTCH2, PTEN, POLG, KMT2C, U2AF1, EPPK1, ELAC2, DAXX, COL22A1, and ABL1. Those genetic lesions might affect p53 signaling, MAPK signaling, PI3K-Akt signaling, sphingolipid signaling, and neurotrophin signaling pathways. Conclusions Second head and neck NECs had poor prognosis. We revealed, for the first time, the mutational landscape, high-frequency somatic mutations, and potential signaling pathways of second head and neck NECs. Its optimal treatment model needs to be further studied in future clinical trials.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Guan ◽  
Jinru Weng ◽  
Qiaosheng Ren ◽  
Chunbin Zhang ◽  
Liantao Hu ◽  
...  

CXCL3 plays extensive roles in tumorigenesis in various types of human cancers through its roles in tumor cell differentiation, invasion, and migration. However, the mechanisms of CXCL3 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) remains unclear. In our study, multiple databases were used to explore the expression level, prognostic value, and related mechanisms of CXCL3 in human HNSCC through bioinformatic methods. We also performed further experiments in vivo and in vitro to evaluate the expression of CXCL3 in a human head and neck tissue microarray and the underlying effect mechanisms of CXCL3 on the tumor biology of HNSCC tumor cells. The result showed that the expression level of CXCL3 in patients with HNSCC was significantly higher as compared with that in normal tissues (p<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that patients with high CXCL3 expression had a lower overall survival rate (p=0.038). CXCL3 was further identified as an independent prognostic factor for HNSCC patients by Cox regression analysis, and GSEA exhibited that several signaling pathways including Apoptosis, Toll-like receptor, Nod-like receptor, Jak-STAT, and MAPK signaling pathways may be involved in the tumorigenesis of HNSCC. CAL27 cells overexpressing or HNSCC cells treated with exogenous CXCL3 exhibited enhanced cell malignant behaviors, whereas downregulating CXCL3 expression resulted in decreased malignant behaviors in HSC4 cells. In addition, CXCL3 may affect the expression of several genes, including ERK1/2, Bcl-2, Bax, STAT3, and NF-κB. In summary, our bioinformatics and experiment findings effectively suggest the information of CXCL3 expression, roles, and the potential regulatory network in HNSCC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
pp. 1828-1837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zong ◽  
Shaoqing Ju ◽  
Rongrong Jing ◽  
Ming Cui

Abstract Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common cancers globally. Because of the high frequency of tumor recurrence, or metastasis, after surgical resection, the prognosis of patients with GC is poor. Therefore, exploring the mechanisms underlying GC is of great importance. Recently, accumulating evidence has begun to show that dysregulated long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in the progression of GC via several typical signaling pathways, such as the AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. Moreover, the interactions between lncRNAs and microRNAs appear to represent a novel mechanism in the pathogenesis of GC. This review provides a synopsis of the latest research relating to lncRNAs and associated signaling pathways in GC.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1742
Author(s):  
Melysa Fitriana ◽  
Wei-Lun Hwang ◽  
Pak-Yue Chan ◽  
Tai-Yuan Hsueh ◽  
Tsai-Tsen Liao

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are epithelial malignancies with 5-year overall survival rates of approximately 40–50%. Emerging evidence indicates that a small population of cells in HNSCC patients, named cancer stem cells (CSCs), play vital roles in the processes of tumor initiation, progression, metastasis, immune evasion, chemo-/radioresistance, and recurrence. The acquisition of stem-like properties of cancer cells further provides cellular plasticity for stress adaptation and contributes to therapeutic resistance, resulting in a worse clinical outcome. Thus, targeting cancer stemness is fundamental for cancer treatment. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to regulate stem cell features in the development and tissue regeneration through a miRNA–target interactive network. In HNSCCs, miRNAs act as tumor suppressors and/or oncogenes to modulate cancer stemness and therapeutic efficacy by regulating the CSC-specific tumor microenvironment (TME) and signaling pathways, such as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), Wnt/β-catenin signaling, and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) or insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) signaling pathways. Owing to a deeper understanding of disease-relevant miRNAs and advances in in vivo delivery systems, the administration of miRNA-based therapeutics is feasible and safe in humans, with encouraging efficacy results in early-phase clinical trials. In this review, we summarize the present findings to better understand the mechanical actions of miRNAs in maintaining CSCs and acquiring the stem-like features of cancer cells during HNSCC pathogenesis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 104547
Author(s):  
Zhenzhen Cheng ◽  
Jingjing Tu ◽  
Hongpan Zhang ◽  
Yi zhang ◽  
Benhong Zhou

Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 2248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian-Ming Chen ◽  
Pei-Yin Chen ◽  
Chia-Chieh Lin ◽  
Ming-Chang Hsieh ◽  
Jen-Tsun Lin

Background: Sesamin is a lignin present in sesame oil from the bark of Zanthoxylum spp. Sesamin reportedly has anticarcinogenic potential and exerts anti-inflammatory effects on several tumors. Hypothesis/Purpose: However, the effect of sesamin on metastatic progression in human head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC) remains unknown in vitro and in vivo; hence, we investigated the effect of sesamin on HNSCC cells in vitro. Methods and Results: Sesamin-treated human oral cancer cell lines FaDu, HSC-3, and Ca9-22 were subjected to a wound-healing assay. Furthermore, Western blotting was performed to assess the effect of sesamin on the expression levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and proteins of the MAPK signaling pathway, including p-ERK1/2, P-p38, and p-JNK1/2. In addition, we investigated the association between MMP-2 expression and the MAPK pathway in sesamin-treated oral cancer cells. Sesamin inhibited cell migration and invasion in FaDu, Ca9-22, and HSC-3 cells and suppressed MMP-2 at noncytotoxic concentrations (0 to 40 μM). Furthermore, sesamin significantly reduced p38 MAPK and JNK phosphorylation in a dose-dependent manner in FaDu and HSC-3 cells. Conclusions: These results indicate that sesamin suppresses the migration and invasion of HNSCC cells by regulating MMP-2 and is thus a potential antimetastatic agent for treating HNSCC.


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