• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.101-105
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• 2014

Background and Purpose: Human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) has been suggested to be a novel biomarker of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The present study aimed to evaluate and compare HE4 with the commonly used marker, carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125), in prediction and therapy-monitoring of EOC. Patients and Methods: Serum HE4 concentrations from 123 ovarian cancer patients and 174 controls were measured by Roche electrochemiluminescent immunoassay (ECLIA). Risk of ovarian malignancy algorithm (ROMA) values were calculated and assessed. In addition, the prospects of HE4 detection for therapy-monitoring were evaluated in EOC patients. Results: The ROMA score could classify patients into high- and low-risk groups with malignancy. Indeed, lower serum HE4 was significantly associated with successful surgical therapy. Specifically, 38 patients with EOC exhibited a greater decline of HE4 compared with CA125. In contrast, elevation of HE4 better predicted recurrence (of 46, 11 patients developed recurrence, and with it increased HE4 serum concentrations) and a poor prognosis than CA125. Conclusions: This study suggests that serum HE4 levels are closely associated with outcome of surgical therapy and disease prognosis in Chinese EOC patients.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.24
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• pp.10773-10777
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• 2015

Background: Treatment for breast cancer is mainly performed by surgical resection of primary tumors and chemotherapy. However, after tumor invasion and metastases, breast cancer is hard to control. Clarification of the pathogenic mechanisms would be helpful to the prognosis or therapy for the breast cancer. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical and prognostic implications of legumain protein Materials and Methods: In this study, we examined mastectomy specimens from 114 breast cancer and matching, 26 adjacent non-cancerous tissues using immunohistochemistry. Results: The results indicated that positive expression of legumain protein in breast cancer was 51.8 % (59/114) and the positive expression of legumain protein in adjacent non-cancerous tissue was 11.5% (3/26). It appeared to be related with lymph node metastasis of breast cancer (p=0.02) and correlation analysis indicated that legumain expression was correlated positively with the estrogen receptor (ER) and mutant-type p53 expression (both p<0.05). Positive legumain expression was significantly associated with shorter overall survival time in breast cancer patients (log-rank p<0.01). Multivariate survival analysis suggested that the positive legumain expression was an independent predictor of poorer overall survival in patients with breast cancer (HR=0.24; 95%CI 0.11-0.65, p=0.03). Conclusions: Legumain might be a new potential biomarker for breast cancer, which may reflect the prognosis and overall survival.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2297-2299
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• 2016

Background: Early detection of malignant transformation with expression biomarkers has significant potential to improve the survival rate of patients as such biomarkers enable prediction of progression and assess sensitivity to chemotherapy. The expression of interferon inducible transmembrane protein 1 (IFITM1) has been associated with early invasion events in several carcinomas, including head and neck cancers, and hence has been proposed as a novel candidate biomarker. As the incidence of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is highest in the Indian population, we sought to investigate: 1) the expression pattern of IFITM1 in OSCC tissue samples obtained from Indian patients of Dravidian origin; and 2) the possibility of using IFITM1 expression as a potential biomarker. Materials and Methods: Total RNA extracted from thirty eight OSCC biopsy samples was subjected to semi-quantitative RT-PCR with IFITM1 and GAPDH specific primers. Results: Of the thirty eight OSCC samples that were analyzed, IFITM1 overexpression was identified in fifteen (39%). Seven expressed a low level, while the remainder expressed high level of IFITM1. Conclusions: The overexpression of IFITM1 in OSCC samples indicates that IFITM1 may be explored for the possibility of use as a high confidence diagnostic biomarker in oral cancers. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that IFITM1 overexpression is being reported in Indian OSCC samples.

• 대한약리학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.44-44
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• 2006

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.2511-2515
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• 2014

Objective: Lung cancer is one of the malignant tumors with greatest morbidity and mortality around the world. The keys to targeted therapy are discovery of lung cancer biomarkers to facilitate improvement of survival and quality of life for the patients with lung cancer. Translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) is one of the most overexpressed proteins in human lung cancer cells by comparison to the normal cells, suggesting that it might be a good biomarker for lung cancer. Materials and Methods: In the present study, the targeted efficacy of dihydroartemisinin (DHA) on TCTP expression in the A549 lung cancer cell model was explored. Results and Conclusions: DHA could inhibit A549 lung cancer cell proliferation, and simultaneously up-regulate the expression of TCTP mRNA, but down-regulate its protein expression in A549 cells. In addition, it promoted TCTP protein secretion. Therefore, TCTP might be used as a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for non-small cell lung cancers.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.336-343
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• 2023

Lung cancer is one of the cancers with high mortality and incidence rates worldwide. Although, various anticancer research efforts are underway to completely treat cancer, the challenge against it remains in the inability to eliminate cancer stem cells (CSCs), leading to difficulties in curing the cancer and resulting in recurrence. As a result, there is a growing interest in the discovery of new biomarkers and therapeutic molecules that can simultaneously target both cancer cells and CSCs. From this point of view, we focused on fibronectin leucine rich transmembrane protein 3 (FLRT3), one of the genes known to be present in human lung cells and the discovery from our previous cancer proteomic analysis study. This study aimed to evaluate the potential of FLRT3 as a specific therapeutic biomarker for lung cancer and Lung Cancer-derived-Stem Cells (LCSC). Also, to estimate the biological function of FLRT3 in cancer and LCSC, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) was generated and showed the ability of the decreased-cell migration and cell proliferation of lung cancer through ERK signaling pathway when FLRT3 was knock-downed. In conclusion, our study is the first to report that FLRT3 has the potential as therapeutic biomarker for the treatment of lung cancer and LCSC.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7763-7763
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• 2013

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1339-1344
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• 2014

Aims: Alterations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have been implicated in carcinogenesis and tumor progression. We here evaluated the diagnostic and prognostic potential of mtDNA as a biomarker for breast cancer. Methods: Using multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction, nuclear DNA (nDNA) and mtDNA levels in serum, buffy coat, tumor, and tumor-adjacent tissue samples from 50 breast cancer patients were determined and assessed for associations with clinicopathological features. To evaluate mtDNA as a biomarker for distinguishing between the four sample types, we created receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: The mtDNA levels in buffy coat were significantly lower than in other sample types. Relative to tumor-adjacent tissue, reduced levels of mtDNA were identified in buffy coat and tumor tissue but not in serum. According to ROC curve analysis, mtDNA levels could be used to distinguish between buffy coat and tumor-adjacent tissue samples with good sensitivity (77%) and specificity (83%). Moreover, mtDNA levels in serum and tumor tissue were positively associated with cancer TMN stage. Conclusions: The mtDNA levels in blood samples may represent a promising, non-invasive biomarker in breast cancer patients. Additional, large-scale validation studies are required to establish the potential use of mtDNA levels in the early diagnosis and monitoring of breast cancer.

• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.361-367
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• 2019

Panax ginseng, known as Koran ginseng, one of the most commonly used traditional plants, has been demonstrated to show a wide range of pharmacological applications. Ginsenosides are the major active ingredients found in ginseng and are responsible for the biological and pharmacological activities, such as antioxidation, antiinflammation, vasorelaxation, and anticancer actions. Existing studies have mostly focused on identifying and purifying single ginsenosides and investigating pharmacological activities and molecular mechanisms in cells and animal models. However, ginsenoside studies based on clinical trials have been very limited. Therefore, this review aimed to discuss the currently available clinical trials on ginsenosides and provide insights and future directions for developing ginsenosides as efficacious and safe drugs for human disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2167-2172
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• 2013

Lung cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, accounting for more deaths than any other cause. All the clinical practice guidelines recommended against routine screening for lung cancer have cited lack of robust evidence, at least until a few years back. However, the potential to screen lung cancers has received renewed interest due to superior performance of low dose CT (LD-CT) in detecting early stage cancers. The incremental costs and risks involved due to the invasive procedures in the screened population due to a high false positivity rate questions the use of LD-CT scan as a reliable community based screening tool. There is therefore an urgent need to find a less invasive and a more reliable biomarker that is crucial to increase the probability of early lung cancer detection. This can truly make a difference in lung cancer survival and at the same time be more cost and resource utilization effective. Sampling blood serum being minimally invasive, low risk and providing an easy to obtain biofluid, needs to be explored for potential biomarkers. This review discusses the use of circulatory miRNAs that have been able to discriminate lung cancer patients from disease free controls. Several studies conducted recently suggest that circulating miRNAs may have promising future applications for screening and early detection of lung cancer.