Endocan is a 50 kDa dermatan sulfate proteoglycan. Numerous previous studies have indicated that endocan might be an attractive prognostic tumor biomarker. However, the results of different studies are inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore the association between endocan expression and cancer prognosis. A systematic, comprehensive search of the PubMed, Embase, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed. Expression of endocan and its association with overall survival were evaluated by pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In total, 15 eligible studies of 1,464 patients were finally included in this meta-analysis. A significant association was found between elevated endocan expression and poorer overall survival (pooled HR: 2.48, 95% CI: 2.12–2.90, P<0.001). In the cancer-type subgroup, significant associations were detected for gastrointestinal (HR: 2.27, 95% CI: 1.77–2.91, P<0.001) and hepatocellular (HR: 2.61, 95% CI: 1.96–3.48, P<0.001) carcinoma. Our results demonstrate that endocan could be useful to exploit as a novel prognostic biomarker for patients with cancer.

// <![CDATA[ $('.header-date').hide();$('#titleAuthors').hide();$('#abstractHeader').hide(); // ]]> Xing Huang1, *, Qi Sun2, *, Chen Chen3, *, Yi Zhang1, Xin Kang4, Jing-Yuan Zhang1, Da-Wei Ma1, Lei Xia1, Lin Xu5, Xin-Yu Xu1 and Bin-Hui Ren5 1Department of Pathology, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Research, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital 2Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Southern Medical University 3Department of Oncology, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Research, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital 4Department of General Surgery, Drum Tower Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University 5Department of Thoracic Surgery, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Research, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Cancer Hospital *These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xin-Yu Xu, email: redxxy@163.com Bin-hui Ren, email: robbisen@163.com Keywords: mucin1, biomarker, NSCLC, prognosis, meta-analysis Received: February 28, 2017 Accepted: July 18, 2017 Published: August 03, 2017 ABSTRACT Background: Previous studies on the prognostic role of MUC1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to appraise the clinicopathological and prognostic effect of MUC1 in NSCLC patients. Materials and Methods: Searches of PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure) were conducted and relevant studies were extracted. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to estimate effects. Heterogeneity among studies and publication bias were also evaluated. Results: A total of 15 studies with 1,682 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled HRs indicated that elevated MUC1 expression was associated with poorer overall survival (HR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.47–3.05; P < 0.001) and progression-free survival (HR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.53-2.62; P < 0.001) in patients with NSCLC. Significant associations were also found in patients treated with epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) (HR = 3.16, 95% CI: 2.21–4.52, P < 0.001) and with a platinum-based regimen (HR = 4.35, 95% CI: 2.45–7.72, P < 0.001). Additionally, MUC1 overexpression was significantly associated with performance status (OR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.13–4.73, P = 0.021). Conclusions: MUC1 could be a valuable biomarker of the prognoses of NSCLC patients.

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is a common pancreatic precancerous lesion, with increasing incidence in recent years. However, the mechanisms of IPMN progression into invasive cancer remain unclear. The mRNA expression data of IPMN/PAAD patients were extracted from the TCGA and GEO databases. First, based on GSE19650, we analyzed the molecular alterations, tumor stemness, immune landscape, and transcriptional regulation of IPMN progression. The results indicated that gene expression changed dramatically, specifically at the intraductal papillary-mucinous adenoma (IPMA) stage. Gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (GSEA) pathway analyses showed that glycoprotein-related, cell cycle, and P53 pathways displayed the most significant changes during progression. With IPMN progression, tumor stemness increased continuously, and KRAS, ERBB3, RUNX1, and ELF3 are essential driver genes affecting tumor stemness. Motif analysis suggested that KLF4 may be a specific transcription factor that regulates gene expression in the IPMA stage, while MYB and MYBL1 control gene expression in the IPMC and invasive stages, respectively. Then, GSE19650 and GSE71729 transcriptome data were combined to perform the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method and Cox regression analysis to develop an 11-gene prediction model (KCNK1, FHL2, LAMC2, CDCA7, GPX3, C7, VIP, HBA1, BTG2, MT1E, and LYVE1) to predict the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. The reliability of the model was validated in the GSE71729 and TCGA databases. Finally, 11 additional IPMN patients treated in our hospital were included, and the immune microenvironment changes during IPMN progression were analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC). IHC results suggest that Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and macrophages may be key in the formation of immunosuppressive microenvironment of IPMN progression. Our study deepens our understanding of IPMN progression, especially the changes in the immune microenvironment. The findings of this work may contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies for IPMN.