This study aimed to investigate the safety of sorafenib for the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in Chinese patients. A subgroup of 345 Chinese patients from the international database of the Global Investigation of therapeutic DEcisions in hepatocellular carcinoma and Of its treatment with sorafeNib (GIDEON) study was included in this analysis. Safety assessment measures were adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) graded using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria version 3.0. Of 331 evaluable patients, 98% started sorafenib at 800 mg/day. The median treatment duration was 22 weeks (range, 0.1–116 weeks), and median overall survival (OS) was 322 days (10.7 months). Approximately 50% of patients had at least one adverse event, and 6% had grade 3–4 adverse events. Drug-related adverse events were experienced by 29% of patients, and 3.6% had grade 3–4 drug-related adverse events. Overall, 23% of patients (n = 77) experienced serious adverse events, among which only 1 event was drug-related (0.3%). No differences in overall adverse events, serious adverse events, and deaths were observed between Child-Pugh A and Child-Pugh B patients. The most frequent drug-related adverse events were dermatological/skin (24%), hand-foot skin reaction (20%), gastrointestinal (11%), and diarrhea (11%). The majority of adverse events occurred within 30 days of beginning sorafenib. Sorafenib has satisfactory efficacy and safety in Chinese Child-Pugh A and B patients with unresectable HCC using the recommended dosage of 800 mg/day, and the safety of sorafenib is not affected by liver function. Prophylaxis for gastrointestinal adverse events may help to decrease dose interruptions or discontinuation. ClinicalTrials.gov ; Identifier: NCT00812175. Date of registration: December 19, 2008.

PURPOSE This study aims to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the percutaneous cryoablation for subcapsular hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS A total of 57 patients with subcapsular (<1 cm form the liver edge) HCCs (68 lesions), who were treated with CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation in the Department of Interventional Radiology of our hospital between July 1, 2016 and September 1, 2018, were retrospectively included. Complete ablation rate, local tumor progression (LTP) and treatment-related complications were evaluated. Furthermore, the degree of intraoperative and postoperative pain was measured with the visual analog scale (VAS), and laboratory findings were compared before and after the procedure. RESULTS All patients successfully completed the treatment. The mean follow-up period was 12.8 months (range, 3-27 months), and the complete ablation rate was 97% (66/68). Local tumor progression occurred in 11 lesions (16.2%), and the 6-, 12- and 18-month cumulative LTP rates were 4.0%, 8.2% and 20.5%, respectively. Two patients (3.5%, 2/57) developed major complications, and 12 patients had minor complications (22.8%, 12/57). The mean VAS score during the operation was 1.65 points (range, 1-3 points). Postoperative pain worsened in 3 patients, and the VAS scores reached 4-5. Transient changes in biochemical and hematologic markers were observed. CONCLUSION Percutaneous cryoablation for subcapsular HCC is safe and effective, the procedure is simple and the patients suffer less pain.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common types of malignant tumor. Although radical surgery and liver transplantation are possible cures for the disease, most patients are beyond the optimum stage for radical treatment at the time of diagnosis. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first choice of treatment for advanced HCC. Owing to the widespread use of conventional TACE (cTACE), the problems with this treatment cannot be ignored. Drug-eluting beads (DEBs), a new type of embolization material, appear to overcome the problems of cTACE, and they have other advantages such as synchronous controlled continuous drug release after chemotherapy and embolization and low blood concentrations after treatment. This review summarizes the recent advances in the use of DEB-TACE to treat HCC.

NF-kappa B activating protein (NKAP) is a highly conserved protein involved in transcriptional repression, immune cell development, maturation, T cell acquisition of functional competency and maintenance of hematopoiesis. Here, we first explore the function of NKAP in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We found that NKAP was highly expressed in HCC tissues and associated with a poor patient survival. CCK8 assay showed that NKAP knockdown significantly decreased cell viability of HuH7 and Hep3B HCC cell lines. Cell invasion, tested by transwell assays, was significantly inhibited by NKAP knockdown in HuH7 and Hep3B cells (p<0.05). Percentage of cell apoptosis was significantly increased by NKAP knockdown in HuH7 cells (6.5% to 12.5%) and in Hep3B cells (8.3% to 27.3%). Furthermore, western blot results indicated that NKAP silencing upregulated the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins Bax and Caspase3-P17 while downregulated anti-apoptotic protein Bcl2. Finally, AKT signaling pathway was evaluated to reveal the underlying mechanism of NKAP in HCC cells. It was suggested that NKAP knockdown decreased the phosphorylation level of AKT and the expression of its downstream members p70S6K and Cyclin D1. Furthermore, we demonstrated that NKAP knockdown also played an oncogenic role in human gastric cancer AGS and MKN45 cells. In conclusion, our study for the first time reveals that NKAP promotes the proliferation and invasion in HCC cell lines at least partly through AKT signaling pathway.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of computed tomography (CT) guided percutaneous cryoablation (CA) for the management of lung metastases in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Methods: Retrospective analysis was performed on 38 mCRC patients with lung metastases, who underwent CT-guided percutaneous CA at our center from May 1, 2020 to November 1, 2021. The technical success rate, 1-year local control (LC) rate, recurrence-free survival (RFS) and treatment-related complications were analyzed. Results: The CA procedure was successfully performed in all patients, with a technical success rate of 100%. The 1-year LC rate was 94.7% (36/38), while 16 patients experienced new distant lung metastases during the follow-up period. The median RFS was 20 months (95% CI: 13.0-27.0). The median RFS of patients with and without extrapulmonary metastasis was 15 and 23 months, respectively. Complications were reported in 18 (47.4%) patients following the CA procedure. Pneumothorax was discovered in 15 (39.5%) patients, and five of these patients (13.2%) required chest tube intubation. Two patients (5.3%) presented with hemoptysis during the CA procedure. One patient developed subcutaneous emphysema as detected in the post-procedure follow-up imaging. All patients tolerated the peri-procedural pain well under local anesthesia, and the mean visual analog scale (VAS) score was 2.8. Conclusion: Lung CA is a safe and well-tolerated treatment with a satisfactory local control rate for patients with lung metastases derived from mCRC.