Premalignant Changes in the Bronchial Epithelium Are Prognostic Factors of Distant Metastasis in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Clinical research progress of callisperes® of drug-loaded microsphere arterial chemoembolisation in the treatment of solid tumors

The incidence and mortality of cancer is ever-increasing, which poses a significant challengesto human health and a substantial economic burden to patients. At present, chemotherapy is still a primary treatment for various cancers. However, chemotherapy kills tumors but also induces the related side effects, whichadversely impacting patient quality of life and exacerbating suffering. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new and effective treatments that can control tumor growth while reducing the side effects for patients. Arterial chemoembolization has been attracted much attentionwhich attributed to the advantage of ability to embolize tumor vessels to block blood and nutrition supplies. Thus, to achieve local tumor control, it has become an effective means of local tumor control and has been widely used in clinical practice. Despite its efficacy, conventional arterial chemoembolization techniques, limited by embolization materials, have been associated with incomplete embolization and suboptimal drug delivery outcomes. Gradually, researchers have shifted their attention to a new type of embolic material called CalliSperes® drug-eluting embolic bead (DEB). DEB can not only load high doses of drugs, but also has strong sustained drug release ability and good biocompatibility. The integration of DEBs with traditional arterial chemoembolization (DEB-TACE) promises targeted vascular embolization, mitigated tumor ischemia and hypoxia, and direct intravascular chemotherapy delivery. It can prevent cancer cell differentiation and accelerate their death, meanwhile, directly injecting chemotherapy drugs into the target blood vessels reduced the blood concentration of the whole body, thus reduced the toxic and side effects of chemotherapy. Furthermore, DEB-TACE's sustained drug release capability elevates local drug concentrations at the tumor site, amplifying its antitumor efficacy. Therefore, DEB-TACE has become a hot spot in clinical research worldwide. This review introduces the pathogenesis of solid tumors, the background of research and biological characteristics of DEB, and the action mechanism of DEB-TACE, as well as its clinical research in various solid tumors and future prospects. This review aims to provide new ideas for the treatment of DEB-TACE in various solid tumors.

DNA methylome analysis reveals potential alterations contributing to the progression of bronchial hyperplasia

BACKGROUND

Squamous cell lung cancer (SCLC) arises from bronchial changes: basal cell hyperplasia (BCH), squamous metaplasia (SM), and dysplasia. However, the premalignant process preceding SCLC is not inevitable; it can stop at any of the bronchial lesions. Previously, we hypothesized that combinations of premalignant lesions observed in the small bronchi of SCLC patients can reflect the different "scenarios" of the premalignant process: BCHi-the stoppage at the stage of hyperplasia and BCHSM-the progression of hyperplasia to metaplasia.

METHODS AND RESULTS

In this study, using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing we analyzed the DNA methylome of two forms of BCH: isolated BCH (BCHi) and BCH co-occurred with SM (BCHSM) in the small bronchi of SCLC patients. It was shown that BCHi harbored differentially methylated regions (DMRs) affecting genes associated with regulating phosphatase activity. In BCHSM, DMRs were found in genes involved in PI3K-Akt and AMPK signaling pathways. DMRs were also found to affect specific miRNA genes: miR-34a and miR-3648 in BCHi and miR-924 and miR-100 in BCHSM.

CONCLUSIONS

Thus, this study demonstrated the significant changes in DNA methylome between the isolated BCH and BCH combined with SM. The identified epigenetic alterations may underlie different "scenarios" of the premalignant process in the bronchial epithelium.

Clinical and morphological features of non-small cell lung cancer in patients with different types of histological changes to the bronchial epithelium

Lung cancer occupies the leading position in the global structure of oncological diseases. Despite significant advances in its treatment, the survival remains low. Morphological changes to the bronchial epithelium outside the tumor may provide important cues on progression of the disease in patients with lung cancer. This study aimed to identify associations between morphological and clinical features of non-small cell lung cancer and morphological changes to the epithelium in small bronchi outside the tumor. The study encompassed tumor specimens collected from 90 patients, 75 (83%) men and 15 (17%) women, diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer. The average age of the patients was 67.8 ± 7.4 years. The results indicate higher frequency of lymphogenous metastasis in patients with combined basal cell hyperplasia and squamous metaplasia (BCH+SM+ group) compared to patients with isolated basal cell hyperplasia (BCH+SM– group, p = 0.05). The BCH+SM– group presented with higher rates of hematogenous metastasis compared to BCH+SM+ and BCH–SM– groups (p = 0.004 and p = 0.0019, respectively), as well as increased representation of low-differentiated structures in the primary tumors. The results suggest a commonality of parenchymal-stromal interactions in non-small cell lung cancers and their surroundings and a significant impact of these interactions on differentiation status and progression of the tumors.