Regular arrangement of collecting venules:Does patient age affect its accuracy?

AIM:To address the diagnostic value of the regular arrangement of collecting venules(RAC)among old age patients. METHODS:A total of 390 consecutive patients whose Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori)status was known and who received upper gastrointestinal endoscopy,were retrospectively studied for the presence or absence of RAC as well as gastric mucosal atrophy.The sensitivity, specificity,positive predictive value,negative predic-tive value and accuracy of RAC to detect normal gastric mucosa were assessed and were compared among two different age groups of patients. RESULTS:The mean age±standard deviation(SD)of included patients(n=390),was 62.9±13 years.The sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and accuracy of RAC to detect normal gastric mucosa were 91.7%,66.1%,18.8%,99%and 68.1%respectively.Although the sensitivity,specificity,positive predictive value,negative predictive value and accuracy of RAC among patients<60 years(n= 139)was 94.7%,71.2%,46.2%,98.1%and 76.1%,respectively,it was 80%,64.3%,5.1%,93%and 64.6%, respectively,among patients≥60 years(n=251). Younger Patients(<60 years),have highly significant rates of RAC sensitivity,positive predictive value,and accuracy(P≤0.001,≤0.001 and≤0.02,respectively).Older patients had highly significant rates of H. pylori infection and gastric mucosal atrophy(P≤0.01). CONCLUSION:Although RAC is a valuable sign for real-time identification of normal gastric mucosa,its accuracy seems to be affected by the patient's age.

Endoscopic Kyoto classification of Helicobacter pylori infection and gastric cancer risk diagnosis

Recent advances in endoscopic technology allow detailed observation of the gastric mucosa.Today,endoscopy is used in the diagnosis of gastritis to determine the presence/absence of Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori)infection and evaluate gastric cancer risk.In 2013,the Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society advocated the Kyoto classification,a new grading system for endoscopic gastritis.The Kyoto classification organized endoscopic findings related to H.pylori infection.The Kyoto classification score is the sum of scores for five endoscopic findings(atrophy,intestinal metaplasia,enlarged folds,nodularity,and diffuse redness with or without regular arrangement of collecting venules)and ranges from 0 to 8.Atrophy,intestinal metaplasia,enlarged folds,and nodularity contribute to gastric cancer risk.Diffuse redness and regular arrangement of collecting venules are related to H.pylori infection status.In subjects without a history of H.pylori eradication,the infection rates in those with Kyoto scores of 0,1,and≥2 were 1.5%,45%,and 82%,respectively.A Kyoto classification score of 0 indicates no H.pylori infection.A Kyoto classification score of 2 or more indicates H.pylori infection.Kyoto classification scores of patients with and without gastric cancer were 4.8 and 3.8,respectively.A Kyoto classification score of 4 or more might indicate gastric cancer risk.

The 150 most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology series: questions 6–14

To accelerate our endeavors to overcome cancer,Chinese Journal of Cancer has launched a program of publishing 150most important questions in cancer research and clinical oncology.In this article,nine more questions are presented as followed.Question 6.Why do nasopharyngeal carcinomas rarely metastasize to the brain?Question 7.Can distant spread of cancer cells be blocked by inhibiting the remodeling of high endothelial venules in the sentinel lymph node?Question 8.What sort of live-imaging techniques can be developed to directly observe the dynamic processes of metastasis?Question 9.How does chronic hepatitis prevent liver metastasis from colorectal cancer?Question 10.How many types of host cells contribute to forming the pre-metastatic niche in the lung favorable for metastasis?Question 11.Why do cancers rarely metastasize to the small bowel?Question 12.Why do glioblastomas rarely metastasize outside the central nervous system?Question 13.Despite increased understanding of the molecular genetic events leading to the development and progression of high-grade gliomas,these tumors are the most therapeutically refractory among all human cancers.What then would be the most effective therapeutic approaches to treat what in essence can be regarded as a whole brain malignancy,since even a surgical resection of greater than 99%of tumor tissues is invariably associated with recurrence?Question 14.The blood–brain barrier(BBB)effectively limits a wide variety of potential therapeutic agents from reaching glioma cells widely dispersed in the brain.What therapeutic approaches can be used to breach the BBB and allow therapeutic agents to seek out and kill these tumor cells?

The Heat Shock Protein Story—From Taking mTORC1,2 and Heat Shock Protein Inhibitors as Therapeutic Measures for Treating Cancers to Development of Cancer Vaccines

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) serve to correct proteins’ conformation, send the damaged proteins for degradation (quality control function). Heat shock factors (HSFs) are their transcription factors. The protein complexes mTOR1 and 2 (with the same core mTOR), the phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase-1 (PDK1), the seine/threonine-specific protein kinase (Akt), HSF1, plus their associated proteins form a network participating in protein synthesis, bio-energy generation, signaling for apoptosis with the help of HSPs. A cancer cell synthesizes proteins at fast rate and needs more HSPs to work on quality control. Shutting down this network would lead to cell death. Thus inhibitors of mTOR (mTORI) and inhibitors of HSPs (HSPI) could drive cancer cell to apoptosis—a “passive approach”. On the other hand, HSPs form complexes with polypeptides characteristic of the cancer cells;on excretion from the cell, they becomes antigens for the immunity cells, eventually leading to maturation of the cytotoxic T cells, forming the basic principle of preparing cancer-specific, person-specific vaccine. Recent finding shows that HSP70 can penetrate cancer cell and expel its analog to extracellular region, giving the hope to prepare a non-person-specific vaccine covering a variety of cancers. Activation of anti-cancer immunity is the “active approach”. On the other hand, mild hyperthermia, with increase of intracellular HSPs, has been found to activate the immunity response, and demonstrate anti-cancer effects. There are certain “mysteries” behind the mechanisms of the active and passive approaches. We analyze the mechanisms involved and provide explanations to some mysteries. We also suggest future research to improve our understanding of these two approaches, in which HSPs play many roles.