Background: A number of studies have linked positive Ki-67 expression with the prognosis of osteosarcoma (OS) patients. However, the results have been conflicting. To address this controversy, we conducted an analysis using a meta-analysis and a TCGA dataset to estimate the value of Ki-67 expression in the prognosis of OS. Methods: A comprehensive search for relevant papers was conducted using NCBI PubMed, Embase, Springer, ISI Web of Knowledge, the Cochrane Library, and CNKI regardless of the publication year. The associations between Ki-67 expression and the clinical features and main prognostic outcomes of OS were measured. The TCGA dataset was also analyzed. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidential intervals (CIs) were utilized for statistical analysis. Results: Overall, a total of 12 studies with 500 cases were included, and the results indicated that the expression of Ki-67 was significantly associated with Enneking stage (OR = 6.88, 95% CI: 2.92–16.22, p < 0.05), distant metastasis (OR = 3.04, 95% CI: 1.51–6.12, p < 0.05) and overall survival (OR = 8.82, 95% CI: 4.68–16.65, p < 0.05) in OS patients. Additionally, we observed no significant heterogeneity among all retrieved studies. Associations between Ki-67 expression and overall survival and disease-free survival of sarcoma were confirmed using the TCGA and Kaplan-Meier plotter datasets. Conclusion: The present study strongly suggests that positive Ki-67 expression was associated with Enneking stage, distant metastasis, and overall survival of OS, and it may be used as a potential biomarker to predict prognosis and guide clinical therapy for OS.

To explore the prognostic value of the expression of genes encoding structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMCs) in human sarcoma. We found that the levels of SMC1A, SMC2, SMC3, SMC4, SMC5 and SMC6 mRNA were all higher in most tumors compared to normal tissues, and especially in sarcoma. According to the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE), SMC1A, SMC2, SMC3, SMC4, SMC5 and SMC6 are also highly expressed in sarcoma cell lines. Results of Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) indicated that high expression of SMC1A was significantly related to poor overall survival (OS) (p<0.05) and disease-free survival (DFS) in sarcoma (p<0.05). Additionally, strong expression of SMC2 was significantly related to poor OS in sarcoma (p<0.05). In contrast, SMC3, SMC4, SMC5, and SMC6 expression had no significant impact on OS or DFS in sarcoma. Expression of SMC family members is significantly different in sarcoma relative to normal tissues, and SMC1A and SMC2 may be useful as prognostic biomarkers. We performed a detailed comparison of cancer and normal tissues regarding the expression levels of mRNA for SMC family members in various cancers including sarcoma through ONCOMINE and GEPIA (Gene Expression Profile Interactive Analysis) databases.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease and leading cause of pain and disability in the elderly population. Most guidelines recommend the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and opioids for the non-operative treatment of OA. Monoclonal nerve growth factor (NGF) antibodies are new drugs with the potential to provide pain relief and functional improvement in OA. We compared the efficacy (pain reduction and functional improvement), and safety of monoclonal NGF antibodies with NSAIDs and opioids in the treatment of OA with a Bayesian network meta-analysis. 38 articles, comprising 41 trials and 20489 patients with OA were included. Overall from the network meta-analysis, anti-NGFs were the most effective drugs for pain relief (Standardized Mean Difference or SMD compared with placebo 4.25, 95% CI 2.87 to 5.63, Surface Under the Cumulative RAnking curve or SUCRA=93.7%) and for functional improvement (SMD 4.90, 95% CI 3.46 to 6.33, SUCRA=98.3%). Although anti-NGFs were associated with higher risk of peripheral sensation abnormality (paresthesia and pruritus), they were not associated with higher risk of other AEs (headaches and nausea) or with higher withdrawal rates related to AEs. Monoclonal NGF antibodies provide significantly greater pain relief and functional improvement in OA compared to NSAIDs and opioids. Monoclonal NGF antibodies are not associated with severe AEs. More studies are needed to confirm these findings. PubMed, CNKI, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant studies (OA treated with anti-NGFs, opioids, selective COX-2 inhibitors or NSAIDs) published between January 1999 to January 2020. Bayesian network and conventional meta-analyses were conducted. Pain relief, functional improvement and AEs were assessed.

Background: There are inconsistent results of cohort studies analyzing the association between fish intake and mortality. Objective: This study was performed to explore the association of oily fish consumption and nonoily fish consumption with all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality. Methods: A total of 431,062 participants from the UK Biobank who were without cancer or cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline between 2006 and 2010 were included in this study, and they were followed up through 2021. We constructed Cox proportional hazard models to calculate the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) to assess the correlation of oily fish and nonoily fish intakes with mortality. Then, we performed subgroup analyses, and sensitivity analyses were developed and performed to examine the robustness of this study. Results: Among the participants, 383,248 (88.9%) and 410,499 (95.2%) consumed oily fish and nonoily fish, respectively. Compared with the participants who did not consume oily fish, the adjusted HRs for the association of oily fish consumption (1 serving/week) with all-cause mortality and CVD mortality were 0.93 (0.87 to 0.98; p < 0.05) and 0.85 (0.74 to 0.98; p < 0.05), respectively. The multivariable-adjusted HRs of all-cause mortality for those who reported consuming < 1 serving/week of oily fish were 0.92 (0.86 to 0.98; p < 0.05). Conclusion: Compared with participants who reported never consuming oily fish, the consumption of oily fish with 1 serving/week was more beneficial for all-cause and CVD mortality.