Expression of miRNA and Occurrence of Distant Metastases in Patients with Hürthle Cell Carcinoma

Decreased microRNA-768-3p expression indicates a poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer and promotes breast cancer cell viability, migration and invasion

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women and microRNA-768-3p (miR-768-3p) is abnormally expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma, non-small cell lung carcinomas and melanoma. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic value and biological function of miR-768-3p in breast cancer. The expression of miR-768-3p in tumor tissues and adjacent tissues of 116 patients with breast cancer obtained by surgery and normal breast cell lines MCF-10A and breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, T-47D and SK-BR-3) were detected by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. The association between miR-768-3p expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed using the χ² test. In addition, the Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. A Cox regression model was used to examine the effect of miR-768-3p on the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Hemocytometer cell counting and Transwell assays were used to detect the effects of miR-768-3p on the characteristics of breast cancer cells. The target genes of miR-768-3p in breast cancer were identified by bioinformatics software and detected by luciferase reporter assay. Compared with normal tissues and normal breast cancer cells, miR-768-3p was significantly decreased in breast cancer tissues and cancer cells (P<0.001). The reduction in miR-768-3p was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.040), Tumor Node Metastasis stage (P=0.035), and cancer subtype (P=0.008). In addition, patients with low miR-768-3p expression had a shorter overall survival time (log-rank P=0.022) compared with those with high expression and miR-768-3p may be a potential prognostic marker (hazard ratio=4.637; 95% confidence interval=1.296-16.597; P=0.018). When transfected with miR-768-3p inhibitor, cell viability, migration and invasion were significantly promoted compared with the control group (P<0.05). In addition, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) was the target gene of miR-768-3p in breast cancer. All experiments confirmed that miR-768-3p, a tumor suppressor, inhibited the viability, migration and invasion of breast cancer cells through eIF4E. miR-768-3p may be a potential prognostic marker of breast cancer and may participate in the progression of breast cancer.

Translational Potential of Epigenetic-Based Markers on Fine-Needle Aspiration Thyroid Specimens

The awareness of epigenetic alterations leading to neoplasia attracted the attention of researchers toward its potential use in the management of cancer, from diagnosis to prognosis and prediction of response to therapies. Our group has focused its attention on the epigenomics of thyroid neoplasms. Although most of the epigenetic studies have been applied on histological samples, the fact is that cytology, through fine-needle aspiration, is a primary diagnostic method for many pathologies, of which thyroid nodules are one of the most paradigmatic examples. This has led to an increasing literature report of epigenetic studies using these biological samples over the past decade. In this review, our group aimed to document recent research of epigenetic alterations and its associated assessment techniques, based on cytology material. Our review covers the main epigenetic categories—DNA methylation, histone modification, and RNA-silencing—whose evidence in thyroid cytology samples may represent solid soil for future prospectively designed studies aiming at validating patterns of epigenetic alterations and their potential use in the clinical management of thyroid neoplasms.

Epigenomics in Hurthle Cell Neoplasms: Filling in the Gaps Towards Clinical Application

It has been widely described that cancer genomes have frequent alterations to the epigenome, including epigenetic silencing of various tumor suppressor genes with functions in almost all cancer-relevant signalling pathways, such as apoptosis, cell proliferation, cell migration and DNA repair. Epigenetic alterations comprise DNA methylation, histone modification, and microRNAs dysregulated expression and they play a significant role in the differentiation and proliferation properties of TC. In this review, our group assessed the published evidence on the tumorigenic role of epigenomics in Hurthle cell neoplasms (HCN), highlighting the yet limited, heteregeneous and non-validated data preventing its current use in clinical practice, despite the well developed assessment techniques available. The identified evidence gaps call for a joint endeavour by the medical community towards a deeper and more systematic study of HCN, aiming at defining epigenetic markers in early diagnose, allowing for accurate stratification of maligancy and disease risk and for effective systemic treatment.

Liquid Biopsy as a Minimally Invasive Source of Thyroid Cancer Genetic and Epigenetic Alterations

In the blood of cancer patients, some nucleic acid fragments and tumor cells can be found that make it possible to trace tumor changes through a simple blood test called “liquid biopsy”. The main components of liquid biopsy are fragments of DNA and RNA shed by tumors into the bloodstream and circulate freely (ctDNAs and ctRNAs). Tumor cells which are shed into the blood (circulating tumor cells or CTCs), and exosomes that have been investigated for non-invasive detection and monitoring several tumors including thyroid cancer. Genetic and epigenetic alterations of a thyroid tumor can be a driver for tumor genesis or essential for tumor progression and invasion. Liquid biopsy can be real-time representative of such genetic and epigenetic alterations to trace tumors. In thyroid tumors, the circulating BRAF mutation is now taken into account for both thyroid cancer diagnosis and determination of the most effective treatment strategy. Several recent studies have indicated the ctDNA methylation pattern of some iodine transporters and DNA methyltransferase as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in thyroid cancer as well. There has been a big hope that the recent advances of genome sequencing together with liquid biopsy can be a game changer in oncology.

Approach the Invasive Potential with Hurthle Cell Tumors of Thyroid

To observe the expression of P53, CyclinD1, Ki-67, Galectin-3, COX-2, Bcl-2 and approach their contribution on assessing the invasive potential for Hurthle cell tumors. Seventy-three cases of Hurthle cell tumor were collected for immunohistochemistry staining. The patients were followed up with 8 months to 5 years. Tumors were divided into four grades according to invasion and diameter:(1) extremely low risk (27 cases that less than 2 cm and without invasion), (2) low risk (18 cases that within 2-3.9 cm and without invasion), (3) moderate risk (21 cases that achieve 4 cm and without invasion), (4) high risk (7 cases that with invasion of capsule/vessel in spite of the diameter). Immunostaining presented that all 73 cases were positive with Galectin-3, COX-2 and Bcl-2. For each group, P53 positive were 29.6%, 55.6%, 90.5%, 100.0%; CyclinD1 stained with 7.4%,22.2%,52.4%,100.0% and Ki-67 were 0.0%,5.6%,9.5%,28.6%, respectively. The higher risk of tumor, the more cases that positive expressed P53 and CyclinD1. After following up within 49 patients, two of the recurring cases were positive with P53 and CyclinD1 and one of which was also highly expressed Ki-67. Detecting P53, CyclinD1 and Ki-67 might provide reference for invasive potential assessment with Hurthle cell tumors but not Galectin-3, COX-2 and Bcl-2.

MicroRNA-885-5p promotes osteosarcoma proliferation and migration by downregulation of cell division cycle protein 73 homolog expression

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant bone tumor. Numerous studies have strongly implicated the ectopic expression of microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs), including miR-885-5p, which is aberrantly expressed in several cancer types, in multiple cancer-related processes. However, the role of miR-885-5p in OS remains unknown. In the present study, it was found that the expression of miR-885-5p was markedly upregulated in OS cell lines and clinical tissues. Moreover, high expression of miR-885-5p was significantly associated with the development of OS. The human OS MG-63 cell line was transfected with recombinant lentivirus to regulate miR-885-5p expression. Overexpressed miR-885-5p significantly promoted the proliferation and migration of MG-63 cells in vitro, while downregulating miR-885-5p expression reversed these effects. Furthermore, bioinformatic analysis was used to predict the potential target genes of miR-885-5p, and cell division cycle protein 73 homolog (CDC73) was identified as a novel and direct target of miR-885-5p. This interaction was further confirmed using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, western blotting and luciferase activity assays. These findings suggest that miR-885-5p serves a critical role in facilitating OS proliferation and migration, and can regulate CDC73 expression in OS cells and tissues. Thus, miR-885-5p could be a promising novel therapeutic biomarker for OS.

CHL1 expression differentiates Hürthle cell carcinoma from benign Hürthle cell nodules

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Hürthle cell carcinoma (HCC) is an unusual and relatively rare type of differentiated thyroid cancer. Currently, cytologic analysis of fine-needle aspiration biopsy is limited in distinguishing benign Hürthle cell neoplasms from malignant ones. The aim of this study was to determine whether differences in the expression of specific genes could differentiate HCC from benign Hürthle cell nodules by evaluating differential gene expression in Hürthle cell disease.

METHODS

Eighteen benign Hürthle cell nodules and seven HCC samples were analyzed by whole-transcriptome sequencing. Bioinformatics analysis was carried out to identify candidate differentially expressed genes. Expression of these candidate genes was re-examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Protein expression was quantified by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS

Close homolog of L1 (CHL1) was identified as overexpressed in HCC. CHL1 was found to have greater than 15-fold higher expression in fragments per kilobase million in HCC compared with benign Hurthle cell tumors. This was confirmed by qRT-PCR. Moreover, the immunoreactivity score of the CHL1 protein was significantly higher in HCC compared with benign Hürthle cell nodules.

CONCLUSIONS

CHL1 expression may represent a novel and useful prognostic biomarker to distinguish HCC from benign Hürthle cell disease.

MicroRNAs as Biomarkers in Thyroid Carcinoma

Optimal management of patients with thyroid cancer requires the use of sensitive and specific biomarkers. For early diagnosis and effective follow-up, the currently available cytological and serum biomarkers, thyroglobulin and calcitonin, present severe limitations. Research on microRNA expression in thyroid tumors is providing new insights for the development of novel biomarkers that can be used to diagnose thyroid cancer and optimize its management. In this review, we will examine some of the methods commonly used to detect and quantify microRNA in biospecimens from patients with thyroid tumor, as well as the potential applications of these techniques for developing microRNA-based biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of thyroid cancers.

[New aspects in the treatment of thyroid cancer : Highlights of the ASCO Annual Meeting 2016]

The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) took place at the beginning of June 2016 in Chicago. This year a total of 28 studies on the treatment of patients with thyroid cancer were presented, described in this review article according to the degree of cancer cell differentiation. The leading curative treatment modality is still surgery. In contrast, kinase inhibitors are being used increasingly within palliative concepts. The latest state of the art of thyroid cancer treatment, both surgical and medical, is summarized in this review.