Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal malignant gynecological tumors. More than 70%of patients with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at advanced stage. The 5-year survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer is less than 30%because of the lack of effective biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and personalized treatment. MicroRNA (miR) is a class of small noncoding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression primarily through post-transcriptional repression. Many studies on tissue miR in ovarian cancer have been carried out and show great potential in clinical practice. However, tissue samples are not easily available because sampling causes injury. Researchers have started to focus on plasma/serum miR, assuming that blood samples may replace tissue samples in miR research in the future. Plasma/serum miR research is still in its early stages. Studies on its function in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer have achieved some progress, but plasma/serum miR profiling for prognosis and personalized treatment of ovarian cancer remains unknown. A thorough understanding of the function of plasma/serum miR in ovarian cancer will facilitate early diagnosis and improve treatment for ovarian cancer.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding single-stranded RNAs that can modulate target gene expression at post-transcriptional level and participate in cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. T cells have important functions in acquired immune response;miRNAs regulate this immune response by targeting the mRNAs of genes involved in T cell development, proliferation, differentiation, and function. For instance, miR-181 family members function in progression by targeting Bcl2 and CD69, among others. MiR-17 to miR-92 clusters function by binding to CREB1, PTEN, and Bim. Considering that the suppression of T cell-mediated immune responses against tumor cells is involved in cancer progression, we should investigate the mechanism by which miRNA regulates T cells to develop new approaches for cancer treatment.

Objective:To determine the clinical serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9), individually and in combination, for the diagnosis of 50 healthy subjects and 150 cases of esophageal, gastric, and colon cancers.
Methods:The sensitivities of the two markers were compared individually and in combination, with specificity set at 100%. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted.
Results:Serum CEA levels were significantly higher in cancer patients than in the control group. The sensitivity of CEA was determined:in esophageal cancer, sensitivity=28%, negative predictive value (NPV)=61.72%, and AUC=0.742 (SE=0.05), with a significance level of P<0.0001;in gastric cancer, sensitivity=30%, NPV=58.82%, and AUC=0.734 (SE=0.05), with a significance level of P<0.0001;in colon cancer, sensitivity=74%, NPV=79.36%, and AUC=0.856 (SE=0.04), with a significance level of P<0.0001. The sensitivity of CA19-9 was also evaluated:in esophageal cancer, sensitivity=18%, NPV=54.94%, and AUC=0.573 (SE=0.05), with a significance level of P=0.2054. In gastric cancer, sensitivity=42%, NPV=63.29%, and AUC=0.679 (SE=0.05), with a significance level of P<0.0011. In colon cancer, sensitivity=26%, NPV=57.47%, and AUC=0.580 (SE=0.05), with a significance level of P=0.1670. The following were the sensitivities of CEA/CA19-9 combined:in esophageal cancer, sensitivity=42%, NPV=63.29%, SE=0.078 (95%CI:0.0159-0.322);gastric cancer, sensitivity=58%, NPV=70.42%, SE=0.072 (95%CI:-0.0866-0.198);and colon cancer, sensitivity=72%, NPV=78.12%, SE=0.070 (95%CI:0.137-0.415).
Conclusion:CEA exhibited the highest sensitivity for colon cancer, and CA19-9 exhibited the highest sensitivity for gastric cancer. Combined analysis indicated an increase in diagnostic sensitivity in esophageal and gastric cancer compared with that in colon cancer.

Objective:To analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic factors of small gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) of the stomach.
Methods:A total of 31 small gastric GIST patients, including 10 males and 21 females, with a median age of 58 years (37-81 years), who underwent surgery at any time from 1999 to 2012 were included in this study. The clinical records of the patients were analyzed retrospectively.
Results:Abdominal discomfort and pain (10 cases, 32.3%, respectively) were the two most common complaints among the patients. All patients received surgery, 11 received gastric wedge resection, 11 received subtotal gastrectomy, 5 received laparoscopic gastric wedge resection, and 4 received endoscopic submucosal dissection. No severe adverse complication was observed. A total of 29 patients (93.5%) were followed up. During the follow-up, 2 patients were found to exhibit tumor recurrence, and 1 patient had liver metastases. One patient died of tumor progression, while another died of another malignant tumor. Median progression free survival (PFS) time was 120.3 months, and median overall survival (OS) time was 130.4 months.
Conclusion:Small gastric GIST has better prognosis. Surgery is the best choice for therapy. Micro-invasive procedures are safe and effective for elective patients. Tumor necrosis, tumor bleeding, and muscle invasion are potential prognostic factors of small gastric GIST.

Objective:To identify differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in the metastasis of epithelial ovarian cancer.
Methods:An in vitro invasion assay was performed to validate the invasive capability of SKOV3 and SKOV3.ip1 cell lines. Total RNA was then extracted, and microarray analysis was performed. Moreover, nine lncRNAs were selected for validation using RT-qPCR.
Results:Compared with the SKOV3 cells, the SKOV3.ip1 cells significantly improved in the in vitro invasive activity. Of the 4,956 lncRNAs detected in the microarray, 583 and 578 lncRNAs were upregulated and downregulated, respectively, in SKOV3.ip1 cells, compared with the parental SKOV3 cells. Seven of the analyzed lncRNAs (MALAT1, H19, UCA1, CCAT1, LOC645249, LOC100128881, and LOC100292680) confirmed the deregulation found by microarray analysis. Conclusion:LncRNAs clusters were differentially expressed in ovarian cancer cells with varying metastatic potentials. This result indicates that some lncRNAs might exert a partial or key role in epithelial ovarian cancer metastasis. Further studies should be conducted to determine the roles of these lncRNAs in ovarian cancer metastasis.

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) has rarely been described as an autoimmune paraneoplastic syndrome of thymoma. This case is the seventh case of AIH revealed by cholestasis few years after the diagnosis of thymoma and the first case treated with chemotherapy alone. We report in this paper a new approach to this rare severe condition. A 29 year-old man presented with chest pain and dyspnea with a history of thymoma surgically removed 4 years ago. CT scan showed the recurrence of an anterior mediastinal mass. Biology showed elevated liver enzymes and profound cholestasis. No sign of viral or toxic hepatitis or bile duct abnormalities were observed. Autoimmune antibodies, except for the anti-nuclear antibody, were negative. Liver biopsy showed active chronic AIH. The patient was diagnosed with recurrent thymoma with AIH and underwent 6 cycles of chemotherapy. A complete response on thymoma and cholestasis was obtained after 10 months of follow-up. Steroids and immunosuppressors are the standard treatment for AIH. The effect of chemotherapy as a specific treatment of this paraneoplastic syndrome needs to be considered.

Objective:To assess the effect of antiviral therapy for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radical hepatectomy.
Methods:A total of 478 HBV-related HCC patients treated by radical hepatectomy were retrospectively collected. Patients in the treatment group (n=141) received postoperative lamivudine treatment (100 mg/d), whereas patients in the control group (n=337) did not. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates, overall survival (OS) rates, treatments for recurrent HCC and cause of death were compared between the two groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was also conducted to reduce confounding bias between the two groups.
Results:The 1-, 3-, and 5-year RFS rates didn't significantly differ between the two groups (P=0.778);however, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P=0.002). Similar results were observed in the matched data. Subgroup analysis showed that antiviral treatment conferred a significant survival benefit for Barcelona Clinical Liver Cancer stage A/B patients. Following HCC recurrence, more people in the treatment group were able to choose curative treatments than those in the control group (P=0.031). For cause of death, fewer people in the treatment group died of liver failure than those in the control group (P=0.041).
Conclusion:Postoperative antiviral therapy increases chances of receiving curative treatments for recurrent HCC and prevents death because of liver failure, thereby significantly prolonging OS, especially in early-or intermedian-stage tumors.