The epithelial-derived nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a rare tumor in most of the world; however, it is common in southern China, northern Africa, and Alaska. NPC is often left undiagnosed and untreated until a late stage of disease. Furthermore, while radiation therapy is effective against this tumor, local recurrence due to radioresistance is an important clinical problem. In this issue, L...

Whether the addition of induction chemotherapy (IC) or adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) is superior to CCRT alone for locally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer is unknown. A Bayesian network meta-analysis was performed to investigate the efficacy of CCRT, IC + CCRT, and CCRT + AC on locally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer. The overall survival (OS) with hazard ratio...

Oligometastases and oligo-recurrence are among the most important notions of metastatic and recurrent cancer. The concept of oligometastases is related to the notion that cancer patients with 1-5 metastatic or recurrent lesions that could be treated by local therapy achieve long-term survival or cure, while the concept of oligo-recurrence is related to the notion that cancer patients with 1-5 m...

Multiple studies show that, after treatment of invasive breast cancer with breast-conserving surgery, the risk of developing subsequent distant metastases and death is greater for women who experience a local recurrence than for women without a local recurrence1–5. The mortality rate is increased by a factor of 2 or 3 after local recurrence, but the risk varies between patients. For some patien...

BACKGROUND Rectal washout can prevent local recurrence after anterior resection of rectal cancer. Few studies have focused particularly on the association between irrigation fluids volume or agents and the risk of local recurrence after anterior resection of rectal cancer. OBJECTIVE To estimate the association between irrigation fluids types, volumes of rectal washout and risk of local recurr...

PURPOSE Several risk factors for local recurrence of breast cancer after breast-conserving therapy (BCT) have been identified. The identification of additional risk factors would be very useful in guiding optimal therapy and also in improving understanding of the mechanisms underlying local recurrence. We used cDNA microarray analysis to identify gene expression profiles associated with local r...

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a principal determinant of arterial blood pressure and fluid and electrolyte balance. RAS component dysregulation was recently found in some malignancies and correlated with poor patient outcomes. However, the exact mechanism of local RAS activation in tumors is still unclear. Here, we find that the local angiotensin II predominantly exists in the hypoxic r...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an Epstein-Barr virus-associated malignancy occurring at high incidence in Southeast Asia and southern China. In spite of the good response to radio- and chemo-therapy at the early stage, resistance and recurrence develop in NPC patients in the advanced setting. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in drug resistance and cancer recurrence. Here we re...

Despite improvements of the therapy for breast cancer, a proportion of the patients still get local recurrence. The status of the surgical margins is the most often used parameter for decision regarding additional treatment. However, a negative margin is not a guarantee that there is not residual cancer left in the breast; additional parameters are needed to better predict the risk of local rec...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is treated with radiotherapy and other modalities, but there is little information on individual genetic factors to help predict and improve patient outcomes. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in mature microRNA (miRNA) sequences have the potential to exert broad impact as miRNAs target many mRNAs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of SNPs in mature ...