Wanbin He

Malignant ascites-derived exosomes promote proliferation and induce carcinoma-associated fibroblasts transition in peritoneal mesothelial cells

Malignant ascites-derived exosomes have been demonstrated to participate in tumor metastasis. In peritoneal metastasis, normal mesothelial cells (MCs) can be converted into carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) by mesothelial-mesenchymal transition (MMT). Herein, we evaluated the effect of malignant ascites-derived exosomes on peritoneal MCs in vitro and in vivo experiments to determine whether exosomes could educate MCs and contribute to peritoneal metastasis. Under the treatment of ascites-derived exosomes, peritoneal MCs showed increased ability to proliferate and migrate. Expression of CAFs specific proteins markers in MCs, including fibroblast activation protein (FAP), alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), and fibronectin, were increased after treatment of exosomes. In clinical samples test, TGF-β1 was found to be overexpressed in both malignant ascites and malignant ascites-derived exosomes, and the high volume of TGF-β1 may be responsible for peritoneum fibrosis. In addition, exosomes can increase xenograft tumor growth by suppressing the inhibitive ability on tumor cells by MCs. Besides, CAFs specific proteins markers including FAP, α-SMA, and vimentin were increased in clinical peritoneal biopsies. The immunohistochemical staining for mice tumor biopsies also revealed increased expression of fibronectin and FAP, along with decreased expression of E-cadherin and VCAM-1 after exosomes treatment. Thus, malignant ascites-derived exosomes may be of importance in the development of peritoneal metastasis by facilitating MCs to proliferate and convert into CAFs by TGF-β1 induced MMT.

Hand-assisted laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with complete mesocolic excision and central vascular ligation: a novel technique for right colon cancer.

BackgroundIt can be difficult to locate the superior mesenteric vein and dissect around middle colic vessels during laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with complete mesocolon excision due to a high rate of vascular variations in the superior mesenteric vessels. Therefore, we report a modified technique for hand-assisted laparoscopic right hemicolectomy with complete mesocolic excision and central vascular ligation, which addresses these two problems.MethodsThirty-one consecutive patients with right colon cancer underwent this procedure from March 2014 to August 2015. Extracorporeally, the transverse colon and distal ileum were excised with a transumbilical hand-port incision, and the distal part of the superior mesenteric vein was identified. Intracorporeally, with the assistance of the surgeon’s left hand inserted through the incision, D3-lymphadenectomy with central vascular ligation was performed, and the colon with the tumor, which had no blood supply, was removed. Patients’ demographic data and intraoperative, postoperative and pathological characteristics were examined.ResultsThe median operative time was 130.0 (range 115–180) minutes. The median blood loss was 45.0 (range 20–300) milliliters. The median length of the hand-port incision was 7.3 (range 6.0–8.2) centimeters. The median numbers of lymph nodes and central lymph nodes was 34.0 (range 18–91) and 13.0 (range 3–28), respectively. Five (16.1%) of 31 patients had positive central lymph nodes. Specimen morphometric quantitation was as follows: the median distances from the tumor and nearest bowel wall to the high tie were 10.5 (range 5.0–15.0) and 8.0 (range 6.0–12.0) centimeters, respectively; the median resected area of the mesentery was 200.0 (range 96.0–300.0) square centimeters; the median width of the chain of lymph-adipose tissue at the central lymph nodes area was 2.0 (range 0.8–8.0) centimeters; and the median length of the central lymph-adipose chain was 19.0 (range 3.0–26.0) centimeters.ConclusionsOur procedure confers technical advantages and is feasible for treatment of right colon cancer.

Do inflammatory markers predict prognosis in patients with synchronous colorectal cancer

Abstract Systematic inflammatory response markers are considered as the most informative prognostic factors in many types of cancer. However, in synchronous colorectal cancer (synCRC), the prognostic value of inflammatory markers, including prognostic nutritional index (PNI), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (d-NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), had rarely been evaluated. Thus, this present study reviewed our consecutive patients with synCRC to investigate the prognostic value of those factors. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), and disease-free survival (DFS) was considered as the secondary endpoint. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted to determine optimal cutoff levels for the 5 markers. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards models were applied to assess the relationship between OS, DFS, and inflammatory markers. In total, 114 patients with pathologically confirmed synCRC at initial diagnosis were identified among 5742 patients who underwent surgery for colorectal cancer from October 2009 to May 2013. In the multivariate analysis, elevated postoperative NLR (≥10.50) was confirmed as an independent prognostic factor for 3-year OS (P = .001; hazard ratio [HR] 4.123, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.750–9.567) and DFS (P = .001; HR 3.342, 95% CI 1.619–6.898). In addition, for 3-year OS, both tumor grade and pN stage were confirmed as independent prognostic factors. And pN stage was confirmed as an independent prognostic factor for 3-year DFS. In conclusion, this study identified elevated postoperative NLR is associated with a poor prognosis in patients with synCRC underwent surgery resection, and the NLR provides improved accuracy for predicting clinical outcomes to stratify patients into different risk categories.

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of schistosomal colorectal cancer

The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of schistosomal colorectal cancer.

Lymph node ratio is an independent prognostic factor for rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy: A meta-analysis

With neoadjuvant therapy increasingly used in advanced rectal cancer, the lymph node ratio (LNR) has been strongly considered to indicate cancer‐specific survival in recent years, and a comprehensive evaluation of a large number of studies is deficient. The objective of our study is to pool enough eligible studies to assess the relationship between LNR and prognosis of advanced rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy.

A novel hand-assisted laparoscopic versus conventional laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for right colon cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundAlthough conventional laparoscopic and hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer is widely used today, there remain many technical challenges especially for right colon cancer in obese patients. Herein, we develop a novel hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS) with complete mesocolic excision (CME), D3 lymphadenectomy, and a total “no-touch” isolation technique (HALS-CME) in right hemicolectomy to overcome these issues. According to previous clinic practice, this novel procedure is not only feasible and safe but has several technical merits. However, the feasibility, short-term minimally invasive virtues, long-term oncological superiority, and potential total “no-touch” isolation technique benefits of HALS-CME should be confirmed by a prospective randomized controlled trial.Methods/designThis is a single-center, open-label, noninferiority, randomized controlled trial. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to the HALS-CME group or to the laparoscopic surgery with CME, D3 lymphadenectomy, and total “no-touch” isolation technique (LAP-CME) group, or to conventional laparoscopic surgery with CME and D3 lymphadenectomy (cLAP) group at a 1:1:1 ratio using a centralized randomization list. Primary endpoints include safety, efficacy, and being oncologically clear, and 3-year disease-free, progression-free, and overall survival. Second endpoints include operative outcomes (operation time, blood loss, and incision length), pathologic evaluation (grading the plane of surgery, length of proximal and distal resection margins, distance between the tumor and the central arterial high tie, distance between the nearest bowel wall and the same high tie, area of mesentery resected, width of the chain of lymph-adipose tissue, length of the central lymph-adipose chain, number of harvested lymph nodes), and postoperative outcomes (pain intensity, postoperative inflammatory and immune responses, postoperative recovery).DiscussionThis trial will provide valuable clinical evidence for the feasibility, safety, and potential total “no-touch” isolation technique benefits of HALS-CME for right hemicolectomy. The hypothesis is that HALS-CME is feasible for the radical D3 resection of right colon cancer and offers short-term safety and long-term oncological superiority compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02625272. Registered on 8 December 2015.