Prognostic value and clinicopathological significance of serum- and tissue-based cytokeratin 18 express level in breast cancer: a meta-analysis

Effect of palliative radiotherapy and cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor on breast cancer cell lines

The most prevalent disease in the world and the main reason for women mortality from cancer is breast cancer. The recommended treatment for hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6i), Abemaciclib. Radiotherapy (RT) is one of the main options to control breast cancer. This work intended to examine the impact of CDK 4/6i and palliative radiation on human breast cancer cell lines. Breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, MDA-MD-468, and MDA-MD-231) were treated with varying doses of Abemaciclib and left to incubate for 48 h. Different radiation doses were applied to the lines that had the best IC50. The intrinsic treatment objectives for MBC are presented in this study, along with the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway; CDK4, CDK6, and the NF-κβ/TGF-β pathway; BAX/BcL2, P53; caspase-3, caspase-6, caspase-7, caspase-8, and caspase-9; cytokeratin 18 (CK18); cycloxygenase-2 (COX2); IL-6; IL1β; matrix metalloproteinases (MMP2 and MMP9); and oxidative stress markers. The biochemical assays revealed that abemaciclib hindered the progression of breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 and enhanced RT (10 Gy) by provoking cell cycle arrest throughout the restraint of CDK4 and CDK6 expression and increasing apoptosis, in addition to decreasing the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and NF-κβ/TGF-β pathway expression; inhibiting CK18 and COX2 activity; boosting the protein concentration of BAX and P53; and decreasing Bcl-2, IL-6, IL-1β, MMP2, and MMP9, modulating oxidative stress markers. These results implied potential effects of radiation and CDK4/6i abemaciclib on breast cancer cell lines.

The relationship between keratin 18 and epithelial-derived tumors: as a diagnostic marker, prognostic marker, and its role in tumorigenesis

As a structural protein, keratin is mainly expressed in epithelial cells and skin appendages to provide mechanical support and external resistance. The keratin family has a total of 54 members, which are divided into type I and type II. Two types of keratins connect to each other to form keratin intermediate filaments and participate in the construction of the cytoskeleton. K18 is a non-hair keratin, which is widely expressed in simple epithelial tissues with its partner, K8. Compared with mechanical support, K8/K18 pairs play more important roles in biological regulation, such as mediating anti-apoptosis, regulating cell cycle progression, and transmitting signals. Mutations in K18 can cause a variety of non-neoplastic diseases of the visceral epithelium. In addition, the expression levels of K18 are frequently altered in various epithelial-derived tumors, especially adenocarcinomas, which suggests that K18 may be involved in tumorigenesis. Due to the specific expression pattern of K18 in tumor tissues and its serum level reflecting tumor cell death, apply K18 to diagnose tumors and predict its prognosis have the potential to be simple and effective alternative methods. However, these potential roles of K18 in tumors have not been fully summarized. In this review, we focus on the relationship between K18 and epithelial-derived tumors, discuss the value of K18 as a diagnostic and prognostic marker, and summarize the interactions of K18 with various related proteins in tumorigenesis, with examples of simple epithelial tumors such as lung, breast, liver, and gastrointestinal cancers.

ONCOBREAST-TEST Is a Quick Diagnostic, Prognostic and Predictive Method of Response to Systemic Treatment

ONCOBREAST-TEST is a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure that is part of the comprehensive care of a patient with breast cancer.: Chemosensitivity of cancer cells was assessed using the MTT test, morphological assessment of cells, LDH activity in the culture medium, and flow cytometry technique (apoptosis, proliferation, CD24, CD44, GATA3, cytokeratin, Ki-67). Diagnostic tools included panels of simple tests which could be used to accurately predict the chemosensitivity of tumor cells previously isolated from a patient, even before actual chemotherapy. The proposed procedure allows for a simple (based on MTT results, cell morphology, LDH concentration), minimally invasive, quick, and accurate assessment of the sensitivity of breast cancer cells to the drugs used and, to select the most effective treatment plan as part of personalized therapy. In a patient with NOS G3, the most promising therapy will be docetaxel with cyclophosphamide and in the case of a patient with NOS G1, paclitaxel alone and in combination with trastuzumab. The implementation of such a procedure would undoubtedly increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, reduce side effects by excluding drugs that are ineffective before using them, protect the patient's health, and shorten the treatment time, bringing economic and social benefits.

Potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for breast cancer: A compiled review

Breast cancer is one of the major reason for death of women worldwide. As per the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) statistics, the number of cases of breast cancer is increasing year by year in many parts of the world. As per the recent global cancer burden figures, in 2020, there were 2.26 million incidences of breast cancer cases and it is one of the main causes of mortality due to cancer in women in the world. Biomarkers of breast cancer would prove to be very beneficial to screen women who are at higher risk and for detection of disease recurrence. Here, studies carried out on biomarkers of breast cancer and susceptibility to the disease have been reviewed. Various databases like Google Scholar, ScienceDirect and PubMed have been used for searching and majorly literature from the last 10 years have been considered. Potential biomarkers of breast cancer including blood based angiogenic factors, glycoprotein-based biomarkers, hormone receptor biomarkers and other biomarkers that were identified from various studies have been summarized.

Association of ERCC1 rs11615 Polymorphism with the Risk of Cervical Cancer Especially in Chinese Populations: A Meta-Analysis

Abnormalities of the ERCC1 gene can affect DNA repair pathways, thereby having a vital effect on genomic stability. A growing amount of case-control studies have focused on making an investigation of the association between ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism and cervical cancer susceptibility. However, the controversial results have raised concerns. To draw a more accurate conclusion, six studies were elaborately selected from the electronic databases for this meta-analysis, with 753 cervical cancer cases and 851 healthy controls. We applied pooled ORs combined with 95% CIs to test the potential associations. Significant associations were revealed in Chinese populations (T vs C: $\text{OR}=1.557$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.234–1.966$ ; TT vs CC: $\text{OR}=3.175$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.754–5.748$ ; TT/CT vs CC: $\text{OR}=1.512$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.126–\mathrm{2,031}$ ; and TT vs CT/CC: $\text{OR}=2.836$ and $95\%\text{CI}=1.592–5.051$ ). Even when the studies deviating from HWE were excluded, an increased cervical cancer susceptibility was observed in Chinese. These results disclose that there is an obvious correlation between the risk of cervical cancer and ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism, especially in Chinese populations, and the T variant is the risky one. Also, our findings need further studies to validate.

Biology of primary breast cancer in older women beyond routine biomarkers

Purpose

There are numerous biomarkers which may have potential predictive and prognostic significance in breast cancer. This is extremely important in older adults, who may opt for less aggressive therapy. This work outlines the literature on biological assessment outside of standard biomarkers (defined as ER, PgR, HER2, Ki67) in women ≥ 65 years with primary operable invasive breast cancer, to determine which additional biomarkers are relevant to outcome in older women.

Methods

Medline and Embase databases were searched. Studies were eligible if included ≥ 50 patients aged ≥ 65 years; stratified results by age; measured a biomarker outside of standard assay and reported patient data.

Results

A total of 12 studies were appraised involving 5000 patients, measuring 28 biomarkers. The studies were extremely varied in methodology and outcome but three themes emerged: 1. Differences in biomarker expression between younger and older women, indicating that breast cancer in older women is generally less aggressive compared to younger women; 2. Relationship of biomarker expression with survival, suggesting biomarkers which may exclusively predict response to primary treatment in older women; 3. Association of biomarker with chemotherapy, suggesting that older patients should not be declined chemotherapy based on age alone.

Conclusion

There is evidence to support further investigation of B-cell lymphoma (BCL2), liver kinase (LK)B1, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), cytoplasmic cyclin-E, mucin (MUC)1 and cytokeratins (CKs) as potential predictive or prognostic markers in older women with breast cancer undergoing surgery. Studies exploring these biomarkers in larger cohorts and in women undergoing non-operative therapies are required.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12282-021-01266-5.

Prognostic value of non-invasive serum Cytokeratin 18 detection in gastrointestinal cancer: a meta-analysis

Background: Gastrointestinal cancer is one of the most common neoplasms. Cytokeratin 18(CK18) is widely expressed in many different organs and cancers. Emerging data suggested conflicting results about the role of CK18 during carcinogenesis. The aim of this study is to systematically review the prognostic value of circulating CK18 (M65) and caspase-Cleaved CK18 (M30) in digestive cancers.

Materials and Methods: We searched major database for manuscripts reporting the effect of pretreatment CK18 on survival of digestive cancer patients. Revman5.3 and R were the software used for analysis. Pooled multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for overall survival (OS) were calculated in all patients and many different subgroup analyses by stratifying on tumor type, metastasis stage, and ethnicity.

Results: 11 original studies were included for analysis. A low level of M30 and M65 were shown to be a protective factor for all cancer patients (HR 0.49, 95%CI 0.33-0.73, P=0.0003; HR 0.48, 95% CI 0.32-0.70, P =0.0001, respectively). The low M30 remained to be a protective factor for metastasized cancer patients while M65 had no statistically significant correlation with prognosis.

Conclusions: Non-invasive total and cleaved CK18 level detection by ELISA could be potentially a useful predictor of prognosis of digestive cancer patients. Further studies are warranted to investigate the molecular mechanisms of CK18.

ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism increases susceptibility to breast cancer: a meta-analysis of 4547 individuals

Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1), a DNA repair protein, is vital for maintaining genomic fidelity and integrity. Despite the fact that a mounting body of case-control studies has concentrated on investigating the association of the ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism and breast cancer risk, there is still no consensus on it. We conducted the current meta-analysis of all eligible articles to reach a much more explicit conclusion on this ambiguous association. A total of seven studies involving 2354 breast cancer cases and 2193 controls were elaborately selected for this analysis from the Embase, EBSCO, PubMed, WanFang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated in our meta-analysis. We found that the ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism was significantly associated with breast cancer risk under all genetic models. When excluded, the studies that deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), the pooled results of what remained significantly increase the risk of breast cancer under the allele model (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.02-1.27, P=0.02), heterozygote model (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.06-1.44, P=0.007), and dominant model (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.05-1.41, P=0.01). This increased breast cancer risk was found in Asian population as well as under the heterozygote model (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.05-1.48, P=0.013) and dominant model (OR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.02-1.42, P=0.03). Our results suggest that the ERCC1 rs11615 polymorphism is associated with breast cancer susceptibility, and in particular, this increased risk of breast cancer existence in Asian population.