Introduction. Metaplastic breast carcinoma is a rare special type of breast cancer, which has distinguished clinical characteristics. We aimed to evaluate the clinicopathological features of metaplastic breast carcinoma compared with nonspecific invasive breast carcinoma and study the prognosis of metaplastic breast carcinoma. Methods. We reviewed metaplastic breast carcinoma cases (n = 37) from January 2000 to December 2021 and nonspecific invasive breast carcinoma cases (n = 433) from January 2019 to December 2020 extracted from our institution retrospectively. The following variables were recorded, including the patients’ general information, complications, T stage, expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, Ki-67, molecular subtyping, lymph node status, skin or chest wall involvement, vessel carcinoma embolus, therapy modality (surgical treatments, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy), and survival. Results. Patients with metaplastic breast carcinoma had more advanced disease than patients with nonspecific invasive breast carcinoma (T stage: ). A greater proportion of metaplastic breast carcinoma presented with triple-negative breast cancer than nonspecific invasive breast carcinoma (79.41% vs. 12.47%, ). Our study showed that the skin or chest wall invasion was more frequent in metaplastic breast carcinoma patients (11.76% vs. 1.62%, ). The 5-year survival rate for metaplastic breast carcinoma patients was 57.66% (95% CI: 0.3195∼0.7667). No local recurrence was observed while distant metastasis occurred in 33.33% of patients with metaplastic breast carcinoma. Death due to disease occurred in 24.24% of patients with metaplastic breast carcinoma. Conclusion. The majority of metaplastic breast carcinoma patients had more advanced disease and triple-negative disease than nonspecific invasive breast carcinoma patients. Also, metaplastic breast carcinoma patients had frequent skin or chest wall invasion and a high rate of distant metastasis and mortality.

Objectives. Stage IIIC breast cancer, as a local advanced breast cancer, has a poor prognosis compared with that of early breast cancer. We further investigated the risk factors of mortality in stage IIIC primary breast cancer patients and their predictive value. Methods. We extracted data from the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database of female patients with stage IIIC primary breast cancer (n = 1673) from January 2011 to December 2015. Results. Hormone receptor negativity ( and , respectively), aggressive molecular typing ( and , respectively), high T stage ( and , respectively), a high number of positive lymph nodes (≥14) ( and , respectively), and lymph node ratio (≥0.8148) ( and , respectively) were associated with poor disease-specific survival. The indicators of disease-specific survival included estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, molecular typing, T stage, number of positive lymph nodes, and lymph node ratio ( , , , , , and , respectively). Conclusion. Hormone receptor negativity, aggressive molecular typing, high T stage, high number of positive lymph nodes, and lymph node ratio are poor prognostic factors patients with stage IIIC primary breast cancer. The efficient indicators of disease-specific survival include estrogen receptor status, progesterone receptor status, molecular typing, T stage, number of positive lymph nodes, and lymph node ratio.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the association between gout and cancer risk. Methods: This study was registered with the Prospective Registry for International Systematic Reviews (ID: CRD42023465587). We searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases for studies related to gout and cancer risk, with a timeframe from the date the database was created to September 2023. We assessed the methodological quality of the included studies using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale and assessed heterogeneity between studies using the I ² statistic. Depending on the heterogeneity, we calculated pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using fixed-effects or random-effects models. In addition, we performed sensitivity analyses and publication bias tests. Results: In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis of 6 studies encompassing a total of 1279,804 participants. Our analysis revealed that individuals with gout are at a heightened risk of developing cancer in general (HR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.04–1.34, P < .001). Moreover, specific types of cancer displayed a significant correlation with gout, including gastric cancer (HR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.07–1.62, P = .012), liver cancer (HR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.01–1.52, P < .001), lung cancer (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.03–1.53, P = .001), and bladder cancer (HR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.02–2.41, P < .001). Furthermore, gout exhibited a marginally increased risk for other cancer types, such as head and neck cancer and esophageal cancer, although these associations did not attain statistical significance. Conclusion: Our study suggests that gout is a risk factor for cancer, especially for stomach, liver, lung, and bladder cancers. Patients with gout have an increased risk of developing overall cancers, lung cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, and bladder cancer. However, more high-quality epidemiologic studies are needed to explore the association between gout and individual cancers more accurately.

Objective: The immune system is involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia; here, we aimed to explore the relationship of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) with schizophrenia. Methods: CTLA4 gene structure was first analyzed, and then rs231779, rs733618, rs231775 and rs3087243 were selected as tag single nucleotide polymorphisms for the linkage disequilibrium blocks in CTLA4 in the Chinese Han population to study expression quantitative trait loci of CTLA4 gene in normal brain tissue. Additionally, membrane CTLA4 (mCTLA4) and soluble CTLA4 (sCTLA4) mRNA expression levels were evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 65 first-episode schizophrenia patients and 61 healthy controls. Results: After applying Bonferroni correction to the P values, only the minor C allele of rs733618 was significantly associated with increased expression of total CTLA4 (P_Bonf. = 0.019), but not mCTLA4 (P_Bonf. = 0.115), in the hippocampus. The sCTLA4 expression was significantly decreased in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, while mCTLA4 was not. Conclusion: These results suggest that the soluble form of CTLA4 may be associated with schizophrenia and that lower sCTLA4 expression may increase the risk of developing schizophrenia.