Prevalence of diabetes mellitus among 80,193 gastrointestinal cancer patients in five European and three Asian countries

Background Diabetes mellitus (DM) has recently been associated with an increased incidence of such digestive tract malignancies as gastric or colorectal cancer. However, systematic data on the prevalence of DM among digestive tract cancer entities, especially in terms of geographic distributions, are lacking. Methods We used the Oncology Dynamics database (IQVIA) to identify a total of 80,193 patients with gastrointestinal (GI) cancer (5845 esophagus, 20,806 stomach, 38,138 colon, and 15,414 rectum cancer patients) from eight European and Asian countries. Results The overall prevalence of DM among all digestive tract cancer patients was 14.8% (11,866/80,193). In terms of cancer site, DM prevalence was highest in patients with colon (15.5%) or rectal (15.3%) cancer and lowest in patients with esophageal cancer (12.0%). Interestingly, we observed significant differences in DM prevalence between countries. Spain (27.8%, 31.3%) and South Korea (21.0%, 27.9%) had the highest prevalence of DM among gastric and colon cancer patients, while DM prevalence in esophageal (18.8%) and rectal (38.0%) cancer patients was highest in Germany. Conclusion Our data revealed a high prevalence of DM among digestive tract cancer patients in Europe and Asia, and showed that DM prevalence varies among digestive tract cancer sites as well as countries.

Effect of Vitamin D Supplements on Relapse of Digestive Tract Cancer with Tumor Stromal Immune Response: A Secondary Analysis of the AMATERASU Randomized Clinical Trial

The aim was to examine whether vitamin D supplementation (2000 IU/day) reduces the risk of relapse in a subgroup of patients with digestive tract cancer, showing a sufficient immune response in tumor stroma by conducting secondary subgroup analyses of the AMATERASU randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (UMIN000001977). A total of 372 patients were divided into two subgroups stratified by the median density of immune cells infiltrating in tumor stroma into higher and lower halves. In the higher-half subgroup of CD56+ cells, the relapse ratio was significantly lower in the vitamin D group (7.4%) than in the placebo group (20.5%) (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR), 0.35; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.15–0.82), but it was equivalent (25.2% vs. 22.7%) in the lower-half subgroup of CD56+ cells (SHR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.68–2.19) with a significant interaction (Pinteraction = 0.02). Although there were no significant differences, the risk of relapse was lower in the vitamin D group than in the placebo group in the higher half of CD45RO+ memory T cells (8.9% vs. 19.2%), and of CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (11.3% vs. 22.5%). In patients with digestive tract cancer, vitamin D supplementation was hypothesized to reduce the risk of relapse in the subgroup of patients who already have an adequate infiltration of immune cells in their tumor stroma.

Spatiotemporal Distribution and Evolution of Digestive Tract Cancer Cases in Hefei, China Since 2012

Background: Cancer has become the major killer of deaths among Chinese urban and rural residents, and about 50% of new cases are from liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal cancer. Digestive tract cancer(DTC) has received widespread attention due to its poor treatment effect and high mortality rate, as well as severe physical, psychological, mental, and economic trauma to patients and their families.Methods: The data on DTC cases in Lujiang County in Hefei, China, were downloaded from the Data Center of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hefei, Anhui Province, China, while the demographic data were sourced from the demographic department in China. Systematic statistical analyses, including the spatial empirical Bayes smoothing, spatial autocorrelation, hotspot statistics, and Kulldorff's retrospective space-time scan, were used to identify the spatial and spatiotemporal clusters of DTC. GM(1,1) and standard deviation ellipses were then applied to predict the future evolution of the spatial pattern of the DTC cases in Lujiang County. Results: DTC in Lujiang County had obvious spatiotemporal clustering. The spatial distribution of DTC cases increases gradually from east to west in the county in a stepwise pattern. The peak of DTC cases occurred in 2012-2013, and the high-case spatial clusters were located mainly in the northwest of Lujiang County. At the 1% significance level, two spatiotemporal clusters were identified. From 2012 to 2017, the cases of DTC in Lujiang County gradually shifted to the high-incidence area in the northwest, and the spatial distribution range experienced a process of “dispersion-clustering”. The cases of DTC in Lujiang County will continue to move to the northwest from 2018 to 2025, and the predicted spatial clustering tends to be more obvious. Conclusions: High-incidence time of DTC was 2012-2013, and the number of cases increased from east to west in Lujiang County. High clusters were mostly located in the northwestern area and agglomerated from southeast to northwestern especially after 2014.

Vitamin D Supplementation Regulates Postoperative Serum Levels of PD-L1 in Patients with Digestive Tract Cancer and Improves Survivals in the Highest Quintile of PD-L1: A Post Hoc Analysis of the AMATERASU Randomized Controlled Trial

Because vitamin D responsive elements have been found to be located in the PD-L1 gene, vitamin D supplementation was hypothesized to regulate serum PD-L1 levels and thus alter survival time of cancer patients. A post hoc analysis of the AMATERASU randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of postoperative vitamin D3 supplementation (2000 IU/day) in 417 patients with stage I to stage III digestive tract cancer from the esophagus to the rectum was conducted. Postoperative serum PD-L1 levels were measured by ELISA and divided into quintiles (Q1–Q5). Serum samples were available for 396 (95.0%) of the original trial. Vitamin D supplementation significantly (p = 0.0008) up-regulated serum PD-L1 levels in the lowest quintile (Q1), whereas it significantly (p = 0.0001) down-regulated them in the highest quintile (Q5), and it did not either up- or down-regulate them in the middle quintiles (Q2–Q4). Significant effects of vitamin D supplementation, compared with placebo on death (HR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.12–0.92) and relapse/death (HR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.15–0.89) were observed in the highest quintile (Q5) of serum PD-L1, whereas significant effects were not observed in other quintiles (Pinteraction = 0.02 for death, Pinteraction = 0.04 for relapse/death). Vitamin D supplementation significantly reduced the risk of relapse/death to approximately one-third in the highest quintile of serum PD-L1.

The current outlook of human papillomavirus and its association with digestive tract cancer

Digestive tract cancers are frequent worldwide, despite efforts to control known predisposing factors, they keep increasing, this fact suggests that human papillomavirus (HPV) may play an important oncogenic role in these pathologies. In order to argue the incidence that HPV has in the genesis of gastrointestinal tract tumors and to determine if it is a possible causal agent, the scientific literature published to date on the subject was reviewed, and was found that 4.5% of all diagnosed cancers correspond to HPV; 12% are extra cervical, 20% esophagus, 31.9% colon adenomas, 43% colorectal adenocarcinoma, and 35% head and neck neoplasms (HNSCC). The types of HPV reported in the digestive tract are 6, 9, 11, 13, 16.18, 20, 24, 25, 30, 33, 51, 54, 57, DL 416, DL 428 and DL 436. Although, the studies show the HPV impact in the oncogenesis and its role as a prognostic marker in some of them, they do not have hard evidence that reveals this relationship, therefore demonstrating its integration would allow clarifying it.