Neoadjuvant intra-arterial chemotherapy using an original four-lumen double-balloon catheter for locally advanced uterine cervical cancer

SKA3 is a prognostic biomarker and associated with immune infiltration in bladder cancer

BACKGROUND

Spindle and kinetochore‑associated complex subunit 3 (SKA3) has recently been considered a key regulator of carcinogenesis. However, the connection between SKA3 and immune cell infiltration remains unknown.

METHODS

The current study investigated the expression mode, prognostic effect, and functional role of SKA3 in different tumors, particularly bladder cancer using numerous databases, comprising TIMER, GEPIA, HPA, UALCAN, PrognoScan, and Kaplan-Meier Plotter. Differentially expressed gene and enrichment analyses were implemented on SKA3 using R packages "edgR" and "clusterProfiler". Immunohistochemistry was further used to validate the expression of SKA3 gene in bladder cancer. Following that, the relevance of SKA3 expression to immune infiltration level in bladder cancer was evaluated using TIMER.

RESULTS

Overall, the level of SKA3 expression in tumor tissue significantly increased than in normal tissue. In bladder cancer and other tumors, patients with high SKA3 expression levels had worse overall survival (OS) (p = 0.016), disease-specific survival (DSS) (p = 0.00004), and disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.032). Additionally, the major molecular functions for SKA3 included nuclear division, mitotic nuclear division, mitotic sister chromatid segregation, humoral immune response, and cell chemotaxis. Additionally, SKA3 expression was found to be positively associated with enhanced M2 macrophage and T helper (Th) 2 cell infiltration in bladder cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study implies that SKA3 contributes to M2 macrophage and Th2 cell polarization by acting as an oncogene in bladder cancer. SKA3 might be a novel biomarker for evaluating prognosis and immune infiltration in bladder cancer.

Urodynamic outcomes after pelvic nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy with or without neoadjuvant chemotherapy

OBJECTIVE: Our purposes of this study were to characterize a group of bulky cervical cancer patients who underwent a nerve sparing radical hysterectomy (NSRH) with or without neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), to compare surgical outcomes and the preservation of bladder function, and to compare prognoses.

RESULTS: Fifty-three patients had NSRH without NAC (Group A), and 33 patients had NSRH after NAC (Group B). With regard to prognostic factors, there was only a significant difference between both groups with regard to lymph node metastasis (15% vs 42%, P = 0.01). Moreover, bladder function in Group B patients improved to the same extent as the preoperative rate three months postoperatively. These data were similar to the results in Group A. With regard to overall survival, the 5-year survival rate was 98.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 87.8–99.7) in Group A and 86.7% (95% CI 71.7–96.7) in Group B (P > 0.1).

METHODS: We retrospectively identified 86 patients with cervical cancer who underwent NSRH at Osaka Medical College from May 2009 to November 2016. NAC was performed via balloon occluded arterial infusion. We extracted data on the patient's stage of progress, tumor volume, histological subtype, bleeding volume, urodynamic study results, and postoperative complications. The data were divided into two groups - those patients who received NAC and those who did not - and then compared.

CONCLUSIONS: According to our analysis, NSRH surgery after NAC via balloon occluded arterial infusion brings beneficial results to patients with bulky IB2 to IIB cervical cancers.