The impact of chemotherapy on cognitive function of breast cancer patient

Objective:Chemotherapy significantly improved the survival of breast cancer,but also brings various symptoms and psychological distresses.Cognitive dysfunction was usually ignored.This study aimed to investigate the changes in cognitive function during chemotherapy and its influence on the quality of life in breast cancer patients.Methods:Female patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer have prospectively enrolled in this study.Participants investigated and completed questionnaires at four-time points:pre-chemotherapy(T1),post-chemotherapy(T2),6 months(T3)and 12 months(T4)after the completion of chemotherapy.The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive scale and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer scale used was to assess the cognitive function and the quality of life,respectively.Data were analyzed using descriptive and repeated-measures analysis of variance statistics.Results:One hundred and eighty-three patients participated in the study and completed questionnaires at least 2 times.The mean score of cognitive function and the quality of life were significantly different at a different time point(P<0.05 for all).The trends of cognitive scores shown that the most serious damage of cognitive function appeared after beginning chemotherapy and followed by a slowly turn back after the completion of chemotherapy.The trend of the mean score of the quality of life after chemotherapy was similar to that of the cognitive score.The degree of cognitive dysfunction was significantly associated with the score of the quality of life at each time point after chemotherapy(P<0.05).Conclusion:Chemotherapy is closely associated with a cognitive impairment,which contributes to a significant decrease in the quality of life of patients with breast cancer.

Screening and bioinformatics analysis of thyroid cancer-related hub genes

Objective:To identify the thyroid cancer-related hub genes and pathways by bioinformatics initially in order to lay the foundation for further study.Methods:The expression profile chips and data of thyroid cancer were screened and downloaded from the gene expression omnibus(GEO).The GEO2R was applied to identify the differential expressed genes between thyroid cancer tissues and normal thyroid tissues.And the Metascape online website was used for pathway and function enrichment.With the usage of STRING and Cytoscape,the protein-protein interaction network was constructed,and the plug-in app cytoHubba in Cytoscape was applied to screen hub genes.Kaplan-Meier Plotter was implemented to conduct survival analysis of hub genes for further screening and discussion.Results:A total of 304 differential expressed genes were screened,and were mainly enriched in the biological processes of extracellular matrix,cell-substrate adhesion,response to wounding,muscle structure development and hormone metabolic process etc.by Metascape.Protein-protein interaction network visualized 284 nodes;the top ten scores of Maximal Clique Centrality algorithm were taken as the criteria to screen out the hub genes with high connectivity in the gene expression network.The KM plotter analysis confirmed that 5 of 9 hub genes were correlated with the prognosis of thyroid cancer patients.Conclusion:FN1,SPP1,TIMP1,VCAN,COL1A1,COL1A2,MMP1,DCN,COMP and FMOD may play a significant role in the development of thyroid cancer.Genes which have prognostic significance in survival analyses were found to be relevant to the composition and regulation of extracellular matrix.

The prognostic value of baseline circulating tumor cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer: a meta-analysis

Objective:The prognostic value of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)in metastatic breast cancer(MBC)patients was contentious.A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate whether MBC patients’clinical outcomes could be predicted by CTCs detection.Methods:Relevant published studies were searched through electronic databases from January 1990 to February 2018,among which,those investigated the correlation between CTCs and clinical outcomes of progression-free survival and overall survival in MBC patients were involved.The hazard ratios(HR)and confidence intervals(CI)in the studies were extracted from the study using random or fixed effects model,and the meta-analysis was conducted.The prognostic value of tumor cells in patients with different subtypes was estimated by subgroup analysis.Results:Twenty-one eligible studies enrolling 3,837 patients were appropriate for pooled analysis.Progression-free survival(HR,1.66;95%CI,1.47–1.87;P=0.000)and overall survival(HR,2.51;95%CI,2.13–2.96;P=0.000)were worse in patients with CTCs-positive.Subtypes of hormone receptor(HorR)positive,human epidermal growth factor receptor-2(HER2)negative and triple negative with presence of CTCs showed a statistically significant worse PFS and OS.However,CTCs detection presented no prognostic value in patients with HorR-negative or HER2-positive subtypes.Conclusion:The enumeration of CTCs at baseline in patients with MBC subtypes of HorR-positive,HER2-negative and triple negative is connected with disease progression and poor survival,but inappropriate for HorR-negative and HER2-positive subtypes.