Bibliometric analysis of olaparib and pancreatic cancer from 2009 to 2022:A global perspective

BACKGROUND Genetic screening for breast cancer gene 1(BRCA)1/2 mutations can inform breast/ovarian/pancreatic cancer patients of suitable therapeutic interventions.Four to seven percent of pancreatic cancer patients have germline BRCA mutations.BRCA genes aid in DNA repair,especially homologous recombination,which impacts genomic stability and cancer cell growth.BRCA1 regulates the cell cycle,ubiquitination,and chromatin remodeling,whereas BRCA2 stimulates the immune response.They predict the efficacy of platinum chemotherapy or polymerase(PARP)inhibitors such as olaparib.AIM To determine the trends and future directions in the use of olaparib for pancreatic cancer treatment.METHODS To evaluate the trends in how olaparib works in pancreatic cancer,we performed a bibliometric analysis.One hundred and ninety-six related publications were accessed from the Web of Science Core Collection and were published between 2009 and 2022.The analytic parameters included publications,related citations,productive countries and institutes,influential authors,and keyword development.RESULTS This study visualizes and discusses the current research,including the present global trends and future directions in olaparib and pancreatic cancer.Overall,this study sheds light on optimizing the use of olaparib in pancreatic cancer treatment,Feng X et al.The use of olaparib in pancreatic cancer WJGO https://www.wjgnet.com 4490 November 15,2024 Volume 16 Issue 11 offering valuable guidance for researchers in this field.CONCLUSION Our findings identified trends in olaparib and pancreatic cancer,with China and the USA leading and with global cooperation tightening.O'Reilly EM's team and Memorial Sloan-Kettering had the highest output.The Journal of Clinical Oncology was the most cited journal.More PARP inhibitors are emerging,and combination therapy is suggested for future therapeutic trends.

Germline pathogenic variants among high hereditary risk patients with breast and ovarian cancer and unaffected subjects in Lebanese Arab women

BACKGROUND The prevalence of germline pathogenic variants in high hereditary risk breast and/or ovarian cancer patients and unaffected subjects referred for testing is an unmet need in low and middle-income countries.AIM To determine the prevalence of germline pathogenic variants in high hereditary risk patients with breast and/or ovarian cancer and unaffected individuals.METHODS We retrospectively reviewed records of patients and unaffected subjects referred for germline pathogenic variant testing due to high hereditary risk between 2010-2020.Data was collected and analyzed on Excel sheet.RESULTS In total,358 individuals were included,including 257 patients and 101 unaffected individuals with relatives with breast or ovarian cancer.The prevalence of breast cancer susceptibility gene(BRCA)1/2 pathogenic variants was 8.63%(19/220)in patients with breast cancer,and 15.1%(5/33)in those with ovarian cancer.Among the 25 of 220 patients with breast cancer tested by next-generation sequencing,3 patients had pathogenic variants other than BRCA1/2.The highest risk was observed in those aged 40 years with breast cancer and a positive family history,where the BRCA1/2 prevalence was 20.1%(9/43).Among the unaffected subjects,31.1%(14/45)had the same BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants in their corresponding relatives.Among the subjects referred because of a positive family history of cancer without known hereditary factors,5.35%(3/56)had pathogenic variants of BRCA1 and BRCA2.The c.131G>T nucleotide change was noted in one patient and two unrelated unaffected subjects with a BRCA1 pathogenic variant.CONCLUSION This study showed a 8.63%prevalence of pathogenic variants in patients with breast cancer and a 15.1%prevalence in patients with ovarian cancer.Among the relatives of patients with BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants,31%tested positive for the same variant,while 5.3%of subjects who tested positive due to a family history of breast cancer had a BRCA pathogenic variant.

Predicting potential cancer genes by integrating network properties,sequence features and functional annotations

The discovery of novel cancer genes is one of the main goals in cancer research.Bioinformatics methods can be used to accelerate cancer gene discovery,which may help in the understanding of cancer and the development of drug targets.In this paper,we describe a classifier to predict potential cancer genes that we have developed by integrating multiple biological evidence,including protein-protein interaction network properties,and sequence and functional features.We detected 55 features that were significantly different between cancer genes and non-cancer genes.Fourteen cancer-associated features were chosen to train the classifier.Four machine learning methods,logistic regression,support vector machines(SVMs),BayesNet and decision tree,were explored in the classifier models to distinguish cancer genes from non-cancer genes.The prediction power of the different models was evaluated by 5-fold cross-validation.The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for logistic regression,SVM,Baysnet and J48 tree models was 0.834,0.740,0.800 and 0.782,respectively.Finally,the logistic regression classifier with multiple biological features was applied to the genes in the Entrez database,and 1976 cancer gene candidates were identified.We found that the integrated prediction model performed much better than the models based on the individual biological evidence,and the network and functional features had stronger powers than the sequence features in predicting cancer genes.

Association of NOD1 and NOD2 genes polymorphisms with Helicobacter pylori related gastric cancer in a Chinese population

AIM:To investigate the association between the tag single nucleotide polymorphisms(TagSNPs) of NOD1 and NOD2 and the risk of developing gastric cancer.METHODS:We conducted a hospital-based case-control study including 296 incident gastric cancer patients and 160 gastritis controls.Eight TagSNPs in the NOD1 and NOD2 genes were selected from the Hapmap database using the haploview software and genotyped by the Sequenom MassArray system.The serum levels of anti-Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori) IgG were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to indicate H.pylori infection.The odds ratios(OR) and 95% confidence intervals(CI) were calculated by unconditional logistic regression,including sex and age as confounding factors.RESULTS:The NOD1 rs2907749 GG genotype showed a decreased risk for gastric cancer(OR 0.50,95% CI:0.26-0.95,P = 0.04) while the rs7789045 TT genotype showed an increased risk(OR 2.14,95% CI:1.20-3.82,P = 0.01).An elevated susceptibility to gastric cancer was observed in the subjects with H.pylori infection and the NaOD1 rs7789045 TT genotype(OR 2.05,95% CI:1.07-3.94,P = 0.03) or the NOD2 rs7205423 GC genotype(OR 2.52,95% CI:1.05-6.04,P = 0.04).Haplotype analysis suggested that the distribution of AGT(rs2907749,rs2075820 and rs7789045) in NOD1 between the cases and control groups was significantly different(P corrected:0.04),and the diplotype AGT/AGT was associated with an elevated gastric cancer risk(OR 1.98,95% CI:1.04-3.79,P = 0.04).The association of the NOD1 rs7789045 TT genotype and the diplotype AGT/AGT was significant with H.pylori-related diffuse-type gastric cancer(OR 3.00,95% CI:1.38-6.53,P = 0.01;OR 4.02,95% CI:1.61-10.05,P < 0.01,respectively).CONCLUSION:Genetic polymorphisms in NOD1 and NOD2 may interact with H.pylori infection and may play important roles in promoting the development of gastric cancer in the Chinese population.

A developed ant colony algorithm for cancer molecular subtype classification to reveal the predictive biomarker in the renal cell carcinoma

Background:Recently,researchers have been attracted in identifying the crucial genes related to cancer,which plays important role in cancer diagnosis and treatment.However,in performing the cancer molecular subtype classification task from cancer gene expression data,it is challenging to obtain those significant genes due to the high dimensionality and high noise of data.Moreover,the existing methods always suffer from some issues such as premature convergence.Methods:To address those problems,we propose a new ant colony optimization(ACO)algorithm called DACO to classify the cancer gene expression datasets,identifying the essential genes of different diseases.In DACO,first,we propose the initial pheromone concentration based on the weight ranking vector to accelerate the convergence speed;then,a dynamic pheromone volatility factor is designed to prevent the algorithm from getting stuck in the local optimal solution;finally,the pheromone update rule in the Ant Colony System is employed to update the pheromone globally and locally.To demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm in classification,different existing approaches are compared with the proposed algorithm on eight high-dimensional cancer gene expression datasets.Results:The experiment results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than other effective methods in terms of classification accuracy and the number of feature sets.It can be used to address the classification problem effectively.Moreover,a renal cell carcinoma dataset is employed to reveal the biological significance of the proposed algorithm from a number of biological analyses.Conclusion:The results demonstrate that CAPS may play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of renal clear cell carcinoma.

A correlation study between ITGA6 gene,chromosome 8q24,MSMB genes and prostate cancer

Objective To explore the correlation between IT-GA6 gene ( rs12621278, G ) , MSMB gene ( rs10993994,T) ,chromosome 8q24 9 ( rs10086908, T) and prostate cancer ( PCa) in Beijing residents,and to explore the correlation between genotype and pheno-

Characterization of ST13 Protein Expression in Human Colorectal Cancer Tissues

Objective: To characterize the expression of ST13 protein in human tissuesfor investigation of the function of colorectal cancer related gene ST13. Methods: ST13 ORF wascloned and over-expressed in E.coli. The recombinant ST13 protein was purified by affinitychromatography. ST13 monoclonal antibodies were generated and affinity purified with the recombinantprotein. Immunoblot and immunohistochemical staining were employed to analyze ST13 proteinexpression in human tissues. Results: The expression and purification of the recombinant ST13protein were confirmed by SDS-PAGE. The protein yield reached about 2.5 mg/L of induced bacterialculture with a purity of 91.3%. Three strains of hybridoma were obtained with antibody titers from10~4 to 10~5 in ascites fluids and with high specificity for ST13 protein. Immunoblot showed thatthe apparent Mr of ST13 protein in SW480 cells and human tissues estimated by SDS-PAGE mobility wasapproximately 50 000, which was about 10 000 larger than the 41 324 calculated, but theglycosylation of the protein was excluded. Computer modeling revealed the protein to be ahydrophilic molecule. Immunohistochemical staining showed that ST13 protein was evenly distributedin cytoplasm and expressed in colon, stomach, liver, and other epithelial cells. Differences in thestaining intensity of the protein were observed between normal and cancer tissues as well as amongdifferent normal or carcinoma tissues. Conclusion: ST13 protein is a cytoplasmic molecule with anapparent Mr of 50 000. The protein is expressed in colorectal and other epithelial tissues. Theexpression level of the protein is down-regulated in colorectal cancer and varies among differentnormal and/or carcinoma tissues. Comparison of cDNA sequences and protein characteristics indicatesthat ST13 protein and hsp70-interacting protein (Hip) are same proteins, raising the possibilitythat ST13 protein is involved in the development of colorectal cancer through Hsp70 molecularchaperone machinery.

Genetic predisposition to colorectal cancer:Where we stand and future perspectives

The development of colorectal cancer(CRC)can be influenced by genetic factors in both familial cases and sporadic cases.Familial CRC has been associated with genetic changes in high-,moderate-and low-penetrance susceptibility genes.However,despite the availability of current gene-identification techniques,the genetic causes of a considerable proportion of hereditary cases remain unknown.Genome-wide association studies of CRC have identified a number of common lowpenetrance alleles associated with a slightly increased or decreased risk of CRC.The accumulation of low-risk variants may partly explain the familial risk of CRC,and some of these variants may modify the risk of cancer in patients with mutations in high-penetrance genes.Understanding the predisposition to develop CRC will require investigators to address the following challenges:the identification of genes that cause uncharacterized hereditary cases of CRC such as familial CRC type X and serrated polyposis;the classification of variants of unknown significance in known CRC-predisposing genes;and the identification of additional cancer risk modifiers that can be used to perform risk assessments for individual mutation carriers.We performed a comprehensive review of the genetically characterized and uncharacterized hereditary CRC syndromes and of lowand moderate-penetrance loci and variants identified through genome-wide association studies and candidate-gene approaches.Current challenges and future perspectives in the field of CRC predisposition are also discussed.

A feature extraction framework for discovering pan-cancer driver genes based on multi-omics data

The identification of tumor driver genes facilitates accurate cancer diagnosis and treatment,playing a key role in precision oncology,along with gene signaling,regulation,and their interaction with protein complexes.To tackle the challenge of distinguishing driver genes from a large number of genomic data,we construct a feature extraction framework for discovering pan-cancer driver genes based on multi-omics data(mutations,gene expression,copy number variants,and DNA methylation)combined with protein–protein interaction(PPI)networks.Using a network propagation algorithm,we mine functional information among nodes in the PPI network,focusing on genes with weak node information to represent specific cancer information.From these functional features,we extract distribution features of pan-cancer data,pan-cancer TOPSIS features of functional features using the ideal solution method,and SetExpan features of pan-cancer data from the gene functional features,a method to rank pan-cancer data based on the average inverse rank.These features represent the common message of pan-cancer.Finally,we use the lightGBM classification algorithm for gene prediction.Experimental results show that our method outperforms existing methods in terms of the area under the check precision-recall curve(AUPRC)and demonstrates better performance across different PPI networks.This indicates our framework’s effectiveness in predicting potential cancer genes,offering valuable insights for the diagnosis and treatment of tumors.

Non-transmissible Sendai virus vector encoding c-myc suppressor FBP-interacting repressor for cancer therapy

AIM: To investigate a novel therapeutic strategy to target and suppress c-myc in human cancers using far up stream element (FUSE)-binding protein-interacting repressor (FIR).

Research progress on the relationship between BRCA1 and hereditary breast cancer

Breast cancer gene 1(BRCA1) gene was the first breast cancel susceptibility gene discovered in familial breast cancer.It has been revealed that BRCA1 can be combined with an array of important protein involved in cell cycle regulation,DNA repair,gene transcription control and apoptosis regulation.It plays a down-regulation effect on tumor growth and an important role in maintaining genomic stability.New research suggests that it also associate with the breast cancer stem cells and microRNA.Its mutations,promoter methylation and ectopic expression may one of the main reasons for the generation and development of hereditary breast cancer.

Effect of NS398 on metastasis-associated gene expression in a human colon cancer cell line

AIM： To investigate the effect of NS398 on the metastasis-associated gene expression in LoVo colorectal cancer cells.METHODS： LoVo cells were treated with NS398 at the concentration of 100 IJmol/L for 24 and 48 h respectively. Total RNA was extracted with TRIzol reagents and reverse transcribed with Superscript Ⅱ and hybridized with cDNA mlcroarray （containing oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, signal transduction molecules, adhesive molecules, growth factors, and ESTs） fabricated in our laboratory. After normalization, the ratio of gene expression of NS398 treated to untreated LoVo cells was either 2-fold up or 0.5-fold down was defined as the differentially expressed genes. Semi-quantitative RT-PCR was used to validate the microarray results.RESULTS： Among the 447 metastasis-associated genes, 9 genes were upregulated and 8 genes were downregulated in LoVo cells treated with NS398 for 24 h compared to untreated cells. While 31 genes were upregulated and 14 genes were downregulated in LoVo cells treated with NS398 for 48 h. IGFBP-5, PAI-2, JUN,REL, BRCA1, and BRCA2 might be the new targets of NS398 in treatment of colorectal cancer.CONCLUSION： NS398 might exert its anti-metastasis effect on colorectal cancer by affecting several metastasis-associated gene expression.

Prognostic role of sensitive-to-apoptosis gene expression in rectal cancer

AIM:To investigate the association between prognosis of rectal cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy(CRT) and expression of sensitive-to-apoptosis(SAG),B-cell lymphoma-extra large(Bcl-X L) and Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer(Bak).METHODS:Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the expression of proteins of interest,namely SAG,Bcl-X L,Bak and β-actin,in rectal carcinoma patients who had a follow-up period of 3 years after CRT.Biopsy specimens were excised from the rectal tumor preceding CRT.RESULTS:SAG,Bcl-X L and Bak proteins showed significant correlations with each other.In multivariate analysis,patients with high vs low SAG expression showed a statistically significant difference in 2-year survival rates:56% vs 73%,respectively(P = 0.056).On the other hand,there were no significant correlations between the expression levels of all three genes and metastatic rates or tumor responses to CRT.Mean overall survival in the patients with elevated SAG expression was 27.1 mo ± 3.9 mo [95% confidence interval(CI):19.3-34.9],and in patients with reduced expression,it was 32.1 mo ± 2.5 mo(95% CI:27.3-36.9).The corresponding values for Bcl-X L were 28.0 mo ± 4.1 mo(95% CI:19.9-36.1) and 31.7 mo ± 2.9 mo(95% CI:26.0-37.5),and those for Bak were 29.8 mo ± 3.7 mo(95% CI:22.5-37.2) and 30.6 mo ± 2.4 mo(95% CI:25.5-35.0),respectively.CONCLUSION:Two-year survival rates significantly correlated with low SAG expression,and SAG may be a candidate gene for good prognosis,independent of therapeutic response of different individuals.

The expression of HER-2/neu gene in colon cancer tissues and its clinical significance

Objective：The article aims to detect the expression of HER-2/neu gene in colon cancer tissues and adjacent tissues, to analyze the relationship between dif erent pathologic types and clinical features, also to invest the distribution of patients with positive expression of HER-2 gene. Methods：The expression of HER-2 gene in the 223 samples with colon can-cer was detected by immunochemical approach. The expression of HER-2 gene in colon cancer tissues and adjacent tissues and dif erent pathologic types was analyzed byχ2 test. The correlation between the expression of HER-2 gene and clinical features was analyzed by Spearman. Results：The number of positive expression of HER-2 gene in colon cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were 74 and 0 respectively, the dif erence has statistical significance. The number of papil ary or tubular adenocarcinoma was 182, among them, 60 cases were positive expression. The number of mucinous adenocarcinoma was 41, among them, 14 cases were positive expression. The expression of HER-2/neu gene has no correlation with sex, age, the maximum diameter, general classification, degree of dif erentiation and depth of invasion, which has no statistical significance. However, the expression of HER-2/neu gene has correlation with metastasis of lymph node and Dukes stage, which has statistical significance. The expression of HER-2/neu gene was positive correlation with metastasis of lymph node and Dukes stage. The correlated coef icient index was 0.320 and 0.320 respectively. In the 74 patients with positive expression of HER-2 gene, 59.4%of them were 60-74 years old. And there was 97.3%of the patients without family history of adenocarcinoma. Conclusion：The expression of HER-2/neu gene in colon cancer tissues was higher than in adjacent tissues. The expression of HER-2/neu gene has no correlation with sex, age, the maximum diameter, general classification, degree of dif erentiation and depth of invasion, but has correlation with metastasis of lymph node and Dukes stage. The expression of HER-2/neu gene was positive correlation with metastasis of lymph node and Dukes stage. The expression of HER-2/neu gene with age of 60-74 years old and without family history of adenocarcinoma was higher than other groups.

Detection of Breast Cancer 1 (BRCA1) Gene Using an Electrochemical DNA Biosensor Based on Immobilized ZnO Nanowires

Herein we report an electrochemical DNA biosensor for the rapid detection of sequence (5’ AAT GGA TTT ATC TGC TCT TCG 3’) specific for the breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene. The proposed electrochemical genosensor is based on short oligonucleotide DNA probe immobilized onto zinc oxide nanowires (ZnONWs) chemically synthesized onto gold electrode via hydrothermal technique. The morphology studies of the ZnONWs, performed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), showed that the ZnO nanowires are uniform, highly dense and oriented perpendicularly to the substrate. Recognition event between the DNA probe and the target was investigated by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in 0.1 M acetate buffer solution (ABS), pH 7.00;as a result of the hybridization, an oxidation signal was observed at +0.8 V. The influences of pH, target concentration, and non-complimentary DNA on biosensor performance were examined. The proposed DNA biosensor has the ability to detect the target sequence in the range of concentration between 10.0 and 100.0 μM with a detection limit of 3.32 μM. The experimental results demonstrated that the prepared ZnONWs/Au electrodes are suitable platform for the immobilization of DNA.

Association of ADIPOQ and ADIPOR Variants with Risk of Colorectal Cancer：A Meta-analysis

Numerous epidemiological studies have studied the association of adiponectin（ADIPOQ） gene and adiponectin receptor（ADIPOR） gene polymorphisms with risk of colorectal cancer（CRC）,but the outcomes were incomplete and inconsistent.Therefore,we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the associations systematically.All eligible case-control studies published up to Jan.2015 were searched from Pub Med,the Cochrane library,Elsevier,Wiley Online library,China National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wan Fang data and Chongqing VIP.Effect sizes of odds ratio（OR） and 95% confidence interval（95%CI） were calculated by using a fixed-or random-effect model.Twelve case-control studies including 6141 cases and 7398 controls were selected.Significant differences in the distributions of allele frequency with CRC risk were directly present in ADIPOQ variants rs2241766,rs1501299 and ADIPOR variant rs1342387.In stratified analysis for different populations,significant differences were present in ADIPOQ variant rs822396 for Ashkenazi Jewish,in ADIPOQ variant rs1501299 and ADIPOR variant rs1342387 for Chinese and in ADIPOQ variant rs 2241766 for Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese.In addition,the factors correlated with insulin resistance had synergistic effect with ADIPOQ variants rs2241766 T/G and rs1501299 G/T on risk of CRC.ADIPOQ variants rs2241766 T/G,rs1501299 G/T and ADIPOR variant ADIPOR rs1342387 G/A had a population specific correlation with CRC risk,which may be mediated by insulin resistance.And large well-designed studies are still needed for further evaluation of rs822396 and rs1063538,especially for their interaction and combined effect in the correlation with CRC risk.

An Oncolytic Adenovirus Expressing Herpes Simplex Virus-Thymidine Kinase for Targeting Cancer Therapy:An in vitro Evaluation

Objective： Oncolytic adenovirus, also called conditionally replicating adenovirus （CRAD）, has been developed for the treatment of cancer. However, there is a tremendous need to enhance their antitumor efficacy. Here we wish to evaluate whether a strategy that combines the herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase with oncolytic effects offers a therapeutic advantage. Methods： A novel adenovirus Ad-ETK containing a sequentially positioned promoter of human telomerase reverse transcriptase （hTERT）, the coding sequence of E1A gene, an internal ribosome entry site sequence （IRES） and the coding sequence of herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase （HSV-TK） was constructed. Infection of various cells with Ad-ETK followed by RT-PCR confirmed the expression of E1A and HSV-TK. The oncolytic ability and synergism between oncolytic effects and HSV-TK system was measured. The infection efficiency was determined by flow cytometry. Results： Ad-ETK deliverys E1A and HSV-TK gene, which selectively replicates in hTERT-positive tumor cells, and the progeny virus can reach up to 150 IU/cell. Our in vitro study showed that Ad-ETK plus ganciclovir （GCV） induced an obvious cell death. Conclusion： An oncolytic adenovirus plus the HSV-TK/GCV suicide gene system resulted in a significant improvement in treatment efficacy and it may offer important considerations in the development and preclinical assessments of oncolytic virotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer–Outlook: gene therapy

Gene therapy offers an elegant alternative to toxic chemotherapy regimens, mostly without severe side effects. Cancer gene therapy was among the first applications. Following the enthusiasm in the early nineties, a more rationale view is the recent way to look at it. This tutorial review looks upon the tools of gene therapy and the principte elements （vector, promoter, targeting, therapeutic gene）. The principles of gene therapy such as gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy （GDEPT） and gene directed tumor vaccination are explained. Further, published protocols and clinical studies for pancreatic carcinoma gene therapy are reviewed. Finally, an outlook is given on the latest developments, some of them beyond conventional gene therapy.

Clinical significance of breast cancer susceptibility gene 1 expression in resected non-small cell lung cancer:A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND The clinical significance of breast cancer susceptibility gene 1(BRCA1)in nonsmall cell lung cancer(NSCLC)patients undergoing surgery remains unclear up to now.AIM To explore the relation of BRCA1 expression with clinicopathological characteristics and survival in patients with resected NSCLC.METHODS EMBASE,PubMed,Web of Science,and The Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify the relevant articles.To assess the correlation between the expression of BRCA1 and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with resected NSCLC patients,the combined relative risks or hazard ratios(HRs)with their corresponding 95%confidence intervals[CIs]were estimated.RESULTS Totally,11 articles involving 1041 patients were included in the meta-analysis.The results indicated that the expression of BRCA1 was significantly correlated with prognosis of resected NSCLC.Positive BRCA1 expression signified a shorter overall survival(HR=1.60,95%CI:1.25-2.05;P<0.001)and disease-free survival(HR=1.78,95%CI:1.42-2.23;P<0.001).However,no significant association of BRCA1 expression with any clinicopathological parameters was observed.CONCLUSION BRCA1 expression indicates a poor prognosis in resected NSCLC patients.BRCA1 might serve as an independent biomarker to predict clinical outcomes and help to customize optimal adjuvant chemotherapy for NSCLC patients who had received surgical therapy.

Harnessing transposons for cancer gene discovery

Cancer gene discovery continues to drive current cancer research with the promise of identifying new diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets by elucidating novel genetic interactions that promote or sustain tumor formation. Sleeping Beauty（SB） transposoniated insertional mutagenesis has emerged as an exciting approach to identify novel cancer-causing genes in the mouse. The SB transposon faithfully ＂hops＂ throughout the genome by a cut-and-paste mechanism mediated by the ubiquitous expression of the SB transposase. Initial tumor data generated using an SB transposon harboring the MSCV promoter demonstrated a bias towards hematopoietic tumors. More recently, experiments using a modified SB transposon containing the CAG promoter have generated cohorts of mice with solid tumors, primarily carcinomas, which in some cases metastasize. Many animals also develop multiple, inde- pendent primary tumors. These data demonstrate the utility of the SB transposition system for cancer gene discovery across organ systems.