Marshall Arnold (flatbeauty86)

The potential relationship between exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) and clinical symptoms in breast cancer patients and the expression levels of exosomal miRNAs in patients undergoing surgery and chemotherapy are still unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the correlation among exosomal miRNAs and clinical features and treatment in breast cancer patients. First, exosomes were isolated from the serum of patients with breast cancer and healthy controls. Next, the features of exosomes were identified by transmission electron microscopy, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and Western blot assays. Then, we detected the expression of the top-ranked miRNAs (miR-3662, miR-16-1, miR-146a, miR-1290, and miR-29c) in sixty breast cancer patients and twenty healthy controls using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The differential expression was measured by the Mann-Whitney U-test. The relative expression of miR-3662, miR-146a, and miR-1290 in serum exosomes was significantly higher in patients than healthy controls. Moreover, significant differences were found in the lymph node metastasis and clinical stage of breast cancer as the miRNA levels changed, but their expression levels in exosomes and sera were not correlated. In addition, exosomal miR-3662, miR-146a, and miR-1290 were shown to be valuable biomarkers to monitor patient condition in the course of surgery and chemotherapy. Exosomal miR-3662, miR-146a, and miR-1290 may have promising predictive value and could be utilized as biomarkers for diagnosis and preventative strategy development. Exosomal miR-3662, miR-146a, and miR-1290 may have promising predictive value and could be utilized as biomarkers for diagnosis and preventative strategy development. The identification of inflammation-related prognostic heterogeneity in intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) can reveal more effective first-line treatments. Our study aimed to compare the intermediate-stage HCC patients' different inflammation-based scores in predicting their progression-free survival (PFS) after transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). We analyzed retrospectively a total of 128 intermediate-stage HCC patients who received first-line TACE treatment. We used the Cox-proportional hazards modeling to identify the independent prognostic factors. We compared the inflammation-based scores abilities to predict the PFS through the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curves. The multivariate analysis showed that tumor size and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were the independent prognostic factors for PFS (P < 0.05). The PLR predicted the intermediate-stage HCC patients' PFS receiving the TACE treatment better than other inflammation-based scores (e.g., the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), the modified GPS, the Prognostic Index, the Prognostic Nutritional Index, the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, and the systemic immune-inflammation index) (P < 0.05). An easy-to-use novel inflammation score based on tumor size - PLR-size score significantly improved the PFS prediction performance (P < 0.05). As a first-line treatment, TACE was not well suitable for all intermediate-stage HCC patients, while the PLR was a better inflammation-based score than others. Tumor size should be regarded as an essential variable in affecting intermediate-stage HCC patients' first-line treatment strategies. As a first-line treatment, TACE was not well suitable for all intermediate-stage HCC patients, while the PLR was a better inflammation-based score than others. Tumor size should be regarded as an essential variable in affecting intermediate-stage HCC patients' first-line treatment strategies. Drug-eluting beads transarterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) is a newly developed local regional therapy for improving the efficacy