Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common malignant tumours of the head and neck, and improving the efficiency of its diagnosis and treatment strategies is an important goal. With the development of the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and medical imaging in recent years, an increasing number of studies have been conducted on image analysis of NPC using AI tools, especially radiomics and artificial neural network methods. In this review, we present a comprehensive overview of NPC imaging research based on radiomics and deep learning. These studies depict a promising prospect for the diagnosis and treatment of NPC. The deficiencies of the current studies and the potential of radiomics and deep learning for NPC imaging are discussed. We conclude that future research should establish a large-scale labelled dataset of NPC images and that studies focused on screening for NPC using AI are necessary.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer in the world, yet current treatment options are associated with limited success. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of ferritin in HNSCC and clarify whether it may serve as a biomarker for predicting HNSCC metastasis. The chemiluminescent immunoassay method was used to investigate the differences in the serum ferritin (SF) levels between patients with and without tumors, and between HNSCC with and without lymph node metastasis. The iron content and expression levels of ferritin were detected to verify the differences between tumor and normal tissues, and between HNSCC without and with lymph node metastasis. Data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) dataset was used to support the aforementioned results. No statistically significant difference in the SF level was observed between patients with and without tumors. Iron content and expression levels of ferritin heavy chain (FTH) and ferritin light chain (FTL) were higher in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. The iron content and expression levels of SF, FTH and FTL were increased in HNSCC with metastasis compared with HNSCC without metastasis. The GEO dataset further verified the results and reported that the expression level of FTH was correlated with the prognosis of patients with HNSCC. Ferritin may not be a biomarker for the early diagnosis of HNSCC. However, an association exists between the expression level of ferritin and HNSCC cervical metastasis. SF may be a potential biomarker for predicting cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with HNSCC.

Interleukin–23 (IL–23) is a conventional proinflammatory cytokine that plays a role in tumor progression by inducing inflammation in the tumor microenvironment. However, the role of IL–23 in thyroid cancer migration and invasion remains unclear. In the present study, we observed that the treatment with IL–23, induced migration and invasion in human thyroid cancer cells. Additional data demonstrate that SOCS4 negatively regulates IL-23-mediated migration and invasion. On investigating the mechanisms involved in IL–23 mediated migration and invasion, we observed that miR–25 promotes the migration and invasion of thyroid cancer cells by directly binding to the 3′-UTR of SOCS4 that leads to the inhibition of SOCS4. In addition, we also demonstrated that IL–23 increases miR–25 expression levels, and overexpressed miR–25 is involved in IL-23-associated SOCS4 inhibition and cell migration and invasion. Together, our data suggest that IL–23 induces migration and invasion in thyroid cancer cells by mediating the miR–25/SOCS4 signaling pathway.

Aberrant microRNA (miRNA) expression has been linked to cancer development. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the anti‑cancer effect of miRNA‑299‑3p on laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells is mediated through targeting human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). The expression of miR‑299‑3p in laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells and human osteosarcoma U2OS cells was quantified by stem‑loop‑mediated reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. miR‑299‑3p mimic was transfected into Hep‑2 cells to induce overexpression of miR‑299‑3p. A CCK‑8 assay was performed to identify the effects of miR‑299‑3p overexpression on the proliferation of Hep‑2 cells. Western blot analysis was carried out to determine the expression of hTERT protein. A significant decrease was noted in the expression of miR‑299‑3p in Hep‑2 cells compared with that of U2OS cells (P0.05). The expression of miR‑299‑3p is downregulated in human laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells. Overexpression of miR‑299‑3p inhibits Hep‑2 cell growth by targeting the 3'‑untranslated region of hTERT mRNA.

Programmed death‑ligand 1 (PD‑L1), an immune co‑stimulatory molecule, is expressed on various cancer cells and the surface of immune cells. Its overexpression on tumor cells suppresses the immune response to promote tumor cell immune escape. The present study demonstrated that PD‑L1 was critical in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) carcinogenesis. Immunohistochemical analysis of HNSCC tissue microarrays revealed that PD‑L1 was overexpressed in tumor tissue, and its expression increased as tumor malignancy progressed (from grade I to IV). Subsequently, the expression of PD‑L1 was knocked down or overexpressed in the HNSCC cell lines Cal‑27 and Fadu. It was demonstrated that PD‑L1 significantly induced HNSCC cell proliferation and colony forming ability. Cell proliferation was also promoted in Cal‑27 cell xenograft BALB/c nude mice. In addition, it was determined by western blotting that the PD‑L1‑mediated increase in HNSCC cell proliferation may have been associated with the activation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Furthermore, mTOR inhibitor (rapamycin) prevented the increase in proliferation. Based on these results, it was concluded that PD‑L1 promoted cell proliferation of HNSCC cells through mTOR signaling, and blocking PD‑L1 may be conducive in HNSCC therapy.