• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7105-7112
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated oxidative stress and tumor marker levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 136 coke oven workers and in 60 control subjects, and evaluated the correlation between oxidative stress and tumor marker levels. Questionnaires on basic demographic information were also administered. Significant differences in employment time and percentages of alcohol drinkers were observed between the control and exposed groups. PAH exposure was assessed using urinary 1-hydroxy-pyrene (1-OHP) levels and was found to be significantly higher in workers than in the controls. Significant differences (P<0.001) of MDA, GST, LDH, NSE, Cyfra21-1, and of SCC and TNF-a (P<0.0001 and P<0.05, P<0.001, respectively) levels were observed among controls and coke-oven workers, except for bottom coke oven workers. Associations between age and risk of increased TNF-a, smoking and increased GST activities, and drinking with increased MDA concentrations, were marginal (P=0.055, P=0.048, P=0.057, respectively). The association between smoking with MDA (P=0.004), NSE (P=0.005), SCC (P=0.004) andTNF-a (P<0.001), and drinking with TNF-a levels was significant (P=0.012). In addition, a significant positive correlation between oxidative stress and tumor markers was found in the present study. These results suggest that a synergistic increase of oxidative stress and tumor markers induced by PAHs may play a role in toxic responses for PAHs in coke oven workers.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.63-73
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• 1990

Human exposure to environmental carcinogens can be detected by a number of methods including immunoassay, $^{32}P-postlabeling$ assay, and fluorescence technique. These assays have been applied to measure biological markers of carcinogen-adducts formed with macromolecules such as DNA, RNA and protein. In an attempt to investigate causal relationships between carcinogen exposure and tumor formation, specific carcinogen-adducts have been quantitated from human tissues and body fluids of cancer patients, occupational workers heavily exposed to certain carcinogens, smokers and controls. Carcinogens studied for biological human monitoring include benzo(a)pyrene, aflatoxin B1, UV light, ethylene oxide, 8-methoxypsoralen, 4-aminobiphenyl, vinyl choride, N-nitrosamine, cisplatin and other chemotherapeutic agents. Relevance of human monitoring for cancer research, progress in this field, methods to detect carcinogen-adducts are reviewed here. It is hoped that these approaches will be used for the risk assessment of carcinogen exposure, cancer etiology study and cancer prevention in humans.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.61-61
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• 1990

Human exposure to environmental carcinogens can be detected by a number of methods including immunoassay, $^{32}P$-postlabeling assay, and fluorescence technique. These assays have been applied to measure biological markers of carcinogen-adducts formed with macromolecules such as DNA, RNA and protein. In an attempt to investigate causal relation ships between carcinogen exposure and tumor formation, specific carcinogen-adducts have been quantitated from human tissues and body fluids of cancer patients, occupational workers heavily exposed to certain carcinogens, smokers and controls. Carcinogens studied for biological human monitoring include benzo(a)pyrene, aflatoxin B1, UV light, ethylene oxide, 8-methoxypsoralen, 4-aminobiphenyl, vinyl chloride, N-nitrosamine, cisplatin and other chemotherapeutic agents. Relevance of human monitoring for cancer research, progress in this field, methods to detect carcinogen-adducts are reviewed here. It is hoped that these approaches will be used for the risk assessment of carcinogen exposure, cancer etiology study and cancer prevention in humans.

• Proceedings of the Korean Biophysical Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.48-48
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• 2003

Electric field induces cell fusion, electroporation on biological cells, including apoptosis. Apoptosis is expressed in a series of natural enzymatic reactions for the natural elimination of unhealthy, genetically damaged, or otherwise aberrant cels that are not needed or not advantageous to the well-being of the organism. Its markers involve cell shringkage, activation of intracellular caspase proteases, externalization of phosphatidylserine at the plasma membrane, and fragmentation of DNA.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.804-809
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• 2019

Oncogenic gain-of-function mutations are clinical biomarkers for most targeted therapies, as well as represent direct targets for drug treatment. Although loss-of-function mutations involving the tumor suppressor gene, STK11 (LKB1) are important in lung cancer progression, STK11 is not the direct target for anticancer agents. We attempted to identify cancer transcriptome signatures associated with STK11 loss-of-function mutations. Several new sensitive and specific gene expression markers (ENO3, TTC39C, LGALS3, and MAML2) were identified using two orthogonal measures, i.e., fold change and odds ratio analyses of transcriptome data from cell lines and tissue samples. Among the markers identified, the ENO3 gene over-expression was found to be the direct consequence of STK11 loss-of-function. Furthermore, the knockdown of ENO3 expression exhibited selective anticancer effect in STK11 mutant cells compared with STK11 wild type (or recovered) cells. These findings suggest that ENO3-based targeted therapy might be promising for patients with lung cancer harboring STK11 mutations.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.879-890
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• 2007

The identification of tumor antigens is essential for the development of anticancer therapeutic vaccines and clinical diagnosis of cancer. SEREX (serological analysis of recombinant cDNA expression libraries) has been used to identify such tumor antigens by screening sera of patients with cDNA expression libraries. SEREX-defined antigens provide markers for the diagnosis of cancers. Potential diagnostic values of these SEREX-defined antigens have been evaluated. SEREX is also a powerful method for the development of anticancer therapeutics. The development of anticancer vaccines requires that tumor antigens can elicit antigen-specific antibodies or T lymphocytes. More than 2,000 antigens have been discovered by SEFEX. Peptides derived from some of these antigens have been evaluated in clinical trials. This review provides information on the application of SEREX for identification of tumor-associated antigens (TAA) for the development of cancer diagnostics and anticancer therapeutics.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.68 no.5
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• pp.290-293
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• 2010

A hidden primary tumor presenting as an isolated lung mass is a diagnostic challenge to physicians because the diagnosis of lung cancer is likely to be made if the histologic findings are not inconsistent with lung cancer. A large lung mass was found incidentally in a 59-year-old man. Although adenocarcinoma was diagnosed by percutaneous needle biopsy, thyroid transcription factor-1 (TTF-1) immunostaining was negative, raising suspicion that there was another primary site. There was no abnormal finding except for the lung mass on a $^{18}FDG$-PET/CT scan and the patient did not complain of any discomfort. Finally, prostatic cancer was confirmed through the study of tumor markers and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) immunostaining. Because of the rare presentation of a single lung mass in malignancies that have another primary site, physicians should carefully review all data before making a final diagnosis of lung cancer.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1149-1153
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• 2006

In this study, nuclease-resistant RNA aptamers that are specific for Jurkat T leukemia cells were selected by a subtractive systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) method. A randomized nuclease-resistant RNA library was incubated with normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in each round to preclude RNAs that recognize the common cellular components on the surface of normal and cancer cells. The precluded RNAs were used for the selection of Jurkat T cell-specific aptamers, and the specific RNAs were then gradually enriched from start to the following selections. After 16 rounds of the subtractive SELEX, the selected aptamers were found to preferentially bind to Jurkat T cells, but not to the normal PBMC, evidenced by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis. Thus, the subtractive SELEX can be used to identify ligands to cancer-specific biological markers without prior knowledge of the nature of markers. The aptamers could be applied to specific cell sorting, tumor therapy, and diagnosis, and moreover, to find cancer cell-specific markers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.3065-3070
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• 2014

Background: Neuroblastoma (NB), is a neuroectodermal tumor derived from neural crest cells, and it is the second most common pediatric malignant tumor. The biological and clinical behavior of NB is very heterogeneous. This study was conducted to evaluate the expression of Ki-67, p53 and VEGF markers in tissues obtained from NB patients with different histologic types and stage. Materials and Methods: Tissue microarray (TMA) blocks were constructed from paraffin blocks of the NB tissues. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on TMA sections to detect the expression of Ki-67, p53 and VEGF markers. The association between the expression of these markers and clinicopathological parameters were then analyzed. Results: We had 18 patients with NB, one patient with ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB) and one with ganglioneuroma. Ki-67 was expressed in 13 (65%) tumors, and negatively correlated with age, prognosis, histologic type and stage of NB (all p<0.05). High and moderate expression of VEGF was found in 5% (1/20) and 65% (13/20) of the tumors, respectively; and it was positively correlated with age, prognosis and histologic types (all p<0.05) and negatively correlated with MKI (mitosis-karyorrhexis index). p53 expression was observed in 10% (2/20) of the tumors, which showed a relative correlation with MKI (p value=0.07). Conclusions: VEGF as a candidate for anti-angiogenic targeted therapy was correlated with the development and progression of NB; therefore, VEGF along with Ki-67 can serve as a valuable marker for the prognosis of this tumor type.

• The Korean journal of helicobacter and upper gastrointestinal research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.162-167
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• 2018

Cancer specimens obtained via surgical resection or biopsy are generally used to understand tumor-associated alterations; however, those approaches cannot always be performed because of their invasive nature, and they may fail to reflect current tumor dynamics and drug sensitivity, which may change during the therapeutic process. Therefore, many research groups have focused on developing a non-invasive biomarker with the ability to monitor tumor dynamics. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are metastatic cells released from the primary tumor into the bloodstream. Hematogenous spreading of CTCs is a crucial step in the metastatic cascade, which leads to the formation of overt metastases. CTCs have attracted considerable attention because of their easy accessibility and their superiority over conventional tumor markers. Detecting CTCs is considered a valuable modality to determine prognosis and monitor response to systemic therapies in patients with gastric cancer. Moreover, molecular analyses of CTCs may provide important biological information for individual patients with cancer, which may lead to the development of personalized cancer treatment. In this article, we review potential roles and clinical applications of CTCs in patients with gastric cancer.