Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a membrane-associated proteoglycan that is specifically up-regulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) although rarely or not expressed in normal liver tissues, making it a perfect diagnostic and treatment target for HCC. Several GPC3-based clinical trials are ongoing and recently several innovative GPC3-targeted therapeutic methods have emerged with exciting results, including GPC3 vaccine, anti-GPC3 immunotoxin, combined therapy with immune checkpoint blockades (ICBs), and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T or NK cells. Here, we review the value of GPC3 in the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC, together with its signaling pathways, with a specific focus on GPC3-targeted treatments of HCC and some prospects for the future GPC3-based therapeutic strategies in HCC.

Over the past decade, immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has revolutionized the outlook for oncology with significant and sustained improvement in the overall patient survival. Unlike traditional cancer therapies, which target the cancer cells directly, ICB acts on the immune system to enhance anti-tumoral immunity. However, the response rate is still far from satisfactory and most patients are refractory to such treatment. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying such heterogeneous responses between patients to ICB therapy remain unclear. In addition, escalating costs of cancer care and unnecessary immune-related adverse events also are pertinent considerations with applications of ICB. Given these issues, identifying explicit predictive biomarkers for patient selection is an urgent unmet need to increase the efficacy of ICB therapy. The markers can be classified as tumor related and non-tumor-related biomarkers. Although substantial efforts have been put into investigating various biomarkers, none of them has been found to be sufficient for effectively stratifying patients who may benefit from immunotherapy. The present write up is an attempt to review the various emerging clinically relevant biomarkers affecting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors, as well as the limitations associated with their clinical application.

Accuracy of Raman spectroscopy in differentiating brain tumor from normal brain tissue

Clinical significance of circulating tumor cells in gastric cancer patients

Purpose: Immune checkpoint inhibitors have developed rapidly and have demonstrated antitumor activity in various cancers. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of atezolizumab in treating cancers, we conducted this meta-analysis. Methods: Embase, PubMed, MEDLINE, the Central Register of Controlled Trials of the Cochrane Library, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology database were searched for relevant studies. The primary outcomes were any grade adverse events (AEs) and grade ≥3 AEs. The secondary outcomes were overall objective response rate, pooled 6-month progression-free survival (PFS) rate, 1-year overall survival (OS) rate, median PFS, and median OS. Results: Our meta-analysis was based on 14 clinical trials with 3,266 patients. The total risk of any grade AEs reached 69%, while grade ≥3 AEs happened in only 13% of participants. The overall atezolizumab-related death rate was 0.17%. Major common AEs involved fatigue (24.5%), decreased appetite (13.2%), nausea (12.3%), diarrhea (10.8%), pyrexia (10.7%), pruritus (9.6%), cough (9.5%), edema peripheral (8.6%), and rash (8.4%). The most common severe AEs were fatigue (2.2%), anemia (1.9%), and dyspnea (1.9%). Meanwhile, we found that 6% patients reached complete response and 16% partial response. The pooled 6-month PFS rate and 1-year OS rate were 0.36 (95% CI: 0.31–0.41) and 0.55 (95% CI: 0.49–0.61), respectively. The median PFS varied from 1.5 to 6.1 months, and the median OS ranged from 5.9 to 28.9 months. Conclusion: Atezolizumab has a considerable potential in treating cancers with an acceptable risk profile.

Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to probe into clinicopathological features and prognosis of early-onset gastric cancer (EOGC) patients aged ≤ 45 years old.Methods: This study selected 154 young gastric cancer patients aged ≤ 45 years old and 158 elderly gastric cancer patients aged > 50 years old admitted to West China Hospital of Sichuan University in 2009-2019 as the research object. These patients were further divided into two groups according to whether tumor can be resected radically. The following parameters were analyzed: age, gender, helicobacter pylori (HP) infection status, Her-2 status, pathological type and stage, chemotherapy, tumor differentiation degree, overall survival (OS).Results: More than 3,000 patients with gastric carcinoma were screened, and 154 young gastric cancer patients aged ≤ 45 years old were identified as EOGC. Among them, the number of female patients in EOGC group was significantly higher than that of males, accounting for 63.6%. In addition, EOGC were associated with diffuse Laur´en type and poorly differentiated tumors. Interestingly, the Kaplan–Meier method showed that the OS of unresectable EOGC group was significantly lower than that of unresectable LOGC group (P = 0.0005) and chemotherapy containing paclitaxel tended to be more effective in the young people (P = 0.0511). Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in OS between young and elderly patients with gastric cancer in the radical resection group (P = 0.3881).Conclusion: EOGC patients have a worse prognosis than late-onset gastric cancer (LOGC) patients with advanced unresectable gastric cancer. Palliative surgery or chemotherapy containing paclitaxel may improve the OS of unresectable young individuals with gastric cancer. Additional randomized controlled trials are required for guiding clinical practice.