Background and Objectives: Despite the discovery of cuproptosis as a new type of cell death, less is known about the role cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) may play in B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). There remained a lack of knowledge regarding the clinical and biological roles of CRG signatures and the therapeutic value of the potent copper ionophore (elesclomol) in B-cell NHL. In this study, the purpose is to investigate the prognostic value of CRGs and their relationship to the tumor immune microenvironment, as well as the mechanism of cuproptosis in B-cell NHL. Methods: B-cell NHL patients’ clinical and gene expression data were retrieved from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Our prognostic model was developed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis and univariate Cox analysis. Prediction accuracy of the model was estimated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Functional pathway enrichments and immune features were also analyzed. Vitro experiments were conducted to investigate the combination therapy of elesclomol and doxorubicin, and to explore the application value in B-cell NHL. Results: Seven CRGs were strongly associated with patient survival and 4 genes were identified to construct the prognostic model. ROC curves indicated great predictive sensitivity and specificity of the model in all cohorts. Patients were divided into low-and high-risk groups by median risk score in each cohort and the survival of the low-risk group was significantly superior than that of the high-risk group. Correlations with clinical features showed that higher Risk-Score was significantly associated with advanced Ann Arbor stages, which were further confirmed in two validation cohorts. We also observed a close relationship between functional pathways and immune features with risk scores. Moreover, we combined elesclomol and doxorubicin in our in vitro experiments and found synergetic antitumor effects of the two agents, and the underlying mechanism is the overgeneration of intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). Conclusions: We demonstrated the important value of CRG signatures in prognosis of B-cell NHL patients, and that may be a potential antitumor target for B-cell NHL.

Background: Thymoma is a rare tumor that originates from thymic epithelial cells and is usually associated with myasthenia gravis. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive and curative treatment for other tumors, but RFA has not been used for the early treatment of thymoma. Methods: The current study included 13 patients with stage I thymoma who were not candidates for surgical resection or video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). All patients underwent first-line CT-guided percutaneous RFA. The feasibility and therapeutic effects of the intervention were thoroughly documented. Results: All tumors were completely ablated (13 / 13, 100%). During follow-up (median 80.5 months, range, 64.6–116.9 months), only 1 of the 13 patients had recurrence of thymoma (1 / 13, 7.7%) at 35.5 months after the initial ablation. There were no surgery-related deaths after RFA treatment. The most common complications were fever (13 / 13, 100%) and pain (13 / 13, 100%). There was only one patient who occurred severe puncture-related bleeding during the procedure that needed blood transfusion and intravascular embolization of the punctured-injured vessel. Conclusion: CT-guided percutaneous RFA for treatment of stage I thymoma is associated with minor trauma, few complications and good treatment outcomes.

Purpose: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of combining hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) with lenvatinib (LEN) and PD-1 inhibitors in treating arterioportal shunt (APS) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT). Patients and Methods: Conducted retrospectively, the study enrolled 54 HCC patients with APS and PVTT treated with HAIC, LEN, and PD-1 inhibitors at our center between January 2021 and October 2023. APS improvement, APS recanalization, tumor response, PVTT response rate, overall survival (OS), intrahepatic progression-free survival (InPFS), and adverse events were evaluated. Results: APS improvement was observed in 42 patients (77.8%), with all improvement occurring within two treatment sessions. Complete APS occlusion was achieved in 40 patients (74.1%), and no recanalization occurred. The best objective response rate (ORR) and ORR after two HAIC sessions were 74.1% and 66.7%, respectively. The best PVTT response and PVTT response after two HAIC sessions were 98.1% and 94.4%, respectively. The median OS and InPFS were 10.0 months and 5.0 months, respectively. OS and InPFS were longer in patients with APS occlusion compared to those without (OS 12.1 vs 4.4 months, P< 0.001, InPFS 6.2 vs 2.3 months, P=0.049). ALBI grade, extrahepatic spread, APS disappearance were potential prognostic factors for OS, while APS grade and extrahepatic spread being independently associated with InPFS. No treatment-related mortality occurred. Conclusion: Combining HAIC with LEN and PD-1 inhibitors proves to be both effective and safe in managing APS in HCC with PVTT, potentially improving patient survival.

Objective: Our aim was to establish a valid new prognostic predictive tool for assessing the outcomes after TACE treatment in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with Child–Pugh A at Barcelona clinical liver cancer stage B (BCLC B) undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods and materials: We retrospectively analyzed 2529 HBV-related BCLC B HCC patients with Child–Pugh grade A who received initial TACE treatment, with 1075 in the primary cohort, 1076 in the internal validation cohort, and the remaining 378 in the multicenter external validation cohort. The NTAA prognostic model was constructed by Cox proportional hazards regression. The prognostic prediction performance of the NTAA prognostic model with AJCC staging and other criterion were compared by the time-dependent ROC and C-index. In addition, we included 305 patients of non-HBV-related BCLC stage B HCC who received TACE treatment in our center to further validate the predictive performance of the NTAA model. Results: Tumor size, tumor number, alpha-fetoprotein level, and albumin-bilirubin grade were found to be independent factors affecting overall survival (OS) after TACE in these patients. The NTAA prognostic model established accordingly divided patients into low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk groups, with a median survival of 68.1, 35.7, and 15.4 months, respectively. The time-dependent ROC and C-index showed that the NTAA prognostic model was better than other existing criterion and AJCC staging in predicting OS, especially in predicting early OS rates. Furthermore, the NTAA criteria were validated in the internal validation cohort, multicenter external validation cohort, and non-HBV-related HCC cohort. Conclusion: The proposed NTAA prognostic prediction model provides more accurate prognosis prediction of BCLC B HCC patients with Child–Pugh A who received TACE. The implementation of this model promises to improve the clinical decision-making process and provide more personalized treatment options for patients.