The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is one of the most commonly used markers of cancer stem cells (CSCs), but the clinical and prognostic significance of EpCAM in gastric cancer (GC) remains disputable. Motivated by heterogeneous and inconclusive results, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to systematically summarize and elucidate the association between EpCAM overexpression and GC patients.

Gastrointestinal cancers (GICs) mainly including esophageal, gastric and colorectal cancer, are the most common cause of cancer-related death and lead into high mortality worldwide. We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to elucidate relationship between multiple microRNAs (miRs) expression and survival of GIC patients.

Risk factors for small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors (SI-NETs) are not well understood. The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify risk factors for SI-NET and to further assess these by meta-analysis.

A recent advance in transcriptomics has spawned the 'Decade of non-coding RNAs' by potentiating the growing numbers of long non-coding RNA in cancer. LncRNA involvement in cancer denotes its significance beyond our perception as they participate in tumor suppression and promoting oncogenesis, which raises them as a mighty class of effectors or regulators. Aberrantly expressed lncRNAs interact with major protein and coding partners, which ultimately deregulate normal cellular processes and drive the cell towards malignant state. Identification of theses interactions are utmost important as lncRNAs can be ideal targets for therapy. Dysregulation of lncRNAs by genomic alterations like single nucleotide variations and gene fusions are also potential modulators of their secondary structure. In this review, we discuss the various molecular interactions of lncRNAs with major bio-molecules and genetic variations in lncRNA genes and their importance in cancer. This systematic review outlines the vivid role of lncRNAs in cancer context and opens up future conceptual applications.

Heparanase promotes tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Here, we conducted a study based on systematic review and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data that examined heparanase expression in clinical samples to determine its prognostic value. According to the meta-analysis and TCGA data, we found that heparanase expression was up-regulated in most breast cancer specimens, and elevated heparanase expression was associated with increased lymph node metastasis, larger tumor size, higher histological grade, and poor survival. These results suggest that targeting heparanase might improve treatments for breast cancer patients.

Parental alcohol consumption before and during pregnancy has been linked to adverse outcomes in the offspring including leukemogenesis. We, therefore, aimed to systematically assess and quantitatively synthesize published data on the association of paternal consumption during preconception and maternal consumption during pregnancy with leukemia risk in childhood (0-14 years). Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we searched PubMed (until February 2016) and the reference lists of the relevant studies. Observational studies examining the association between parental alcohol consumption and childhood leukemia were considered eligible. Data extracted from 39 case-control studies (over 16 000 leukemia cases and 30 000 controls) were pooled and summary-effect estimates were calculated. Subgroup analyses were carried out by main acute leukemia type [lymphoblastic or myeloid), cytogenetics/genetic polymorphisms, and specific alcohol beverages. We found a statistically significant dose-response association of any level of maternal alcohol consumption compared with nondrinking during pregnancy exclusively with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) [odds ratio (OR)moderate consumption: 1.64, 95% confidence intervals (CIs): 1.23-2.17 and ORhigh consumption: 2.36, 95% CI: 1.60-3.49]. In contrast, no association of paternal preconception consumption with any leukemia type was noted. In beverage-specific analyses, only a positive association of maternal wine drinking with childhood AML was found, which was more pronounced in analyses including only studies on infant leukemia (ORwine: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.16-3.90). The largest ever meta-analysis shows a sizeable, statistically significant dose-response association of maternal alcohol consumption during index pregnancy with AML risk. Future research exploring the role of genetic polymorphisms is anticipated to shed light on the underlying pathophysiology.

Active surveillance (AS) is an increasingly prevalent treatment choice for low grade prostate cancer. Eligibility criteria for AS are varied and it is unclear if family history of prostate cancer should be used as an exclusion criterion when considering men for AS. To determine whether family history plays a significant role in the progression of prostate cancer for men undergoing active surveillance, PubMed searches of 'family history and prostate cancer', 'family history and prostate cancer progression' and 'factors of prostate cancer progression' were used to identify research publications about the relationship between family history and prostate cancer progression. These searches generated 536 papers that were screened and reviewed. Six publications were ultimately included in this analysis. Review of the six publications suggests that family history does not increase the risk of prostate cancer progression, whilst a subgroup analysis in one study found that family history increases the risk of prostate cancer progression only in African-Americans. A family history of prostate cancer does not appear to increase a patient's risk of having more aggressive prostate cancer and is therefore unlikely to be an important factor in determining eligibility for AS. Further studies are needed to better understand the relationship between race, family history, and eligibility for AS.

Mammary analog secretory carcinoma of the salivary glands (MASCSG ) is a newly introduced malignant tumor of the salivary glands. For decades, it has been confused with acinic cell carcinoma (ACC) of the salivary glands.

This systematic review provides an overview of publications concerning pharmacogenetic research in pediatric patients with medulloblastoma and low-grade glioma.

It has been suggested that long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) gene polymorphisms are associated with cancer risk. In this article, we conducted a systematic review related to studies on the association between lncRNA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the overall risk of cancer. A total 17 SNPs in four common lncRNA genes were included in the meta-analysis. In the lncRNA H19, the rs2735971 A/G, rs2839698C/T, and rs3024270 G/C polymorphisms, but not rs217727C/T, were correlated with overall cancer risk. The results also suggested that other SNPs were correlated with overall cancer risk, namely, two in HOTAIR (HOX transcript antisense RNA: rs920778C/T and rs7958904 G/C) and two in PRNCR1 (rs1016343C/T and rs16901946 A/G). No association was found between the three ZNRD1-AS1 (ZNRD1 antisense RNA 1) SNPs and the risk of cancer. In summary, our findings suggest that quite a few studied lncRNA SNPs are associated with overall cancer risk; therefore, they are potential predictive biomarkers for the risk of cancer. Moreover, other lncRNA SNPs investigated were also relevant to cancer but studies on them are limited, and they were also briefly reviewed as candidate cancer markers.

The mechanisms of lung carcinogenesis are not fully understood. Not all smokers develop lung cancer, indicating that genetic variations and other environmental factors may play an important role in its development. The human glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) have been associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. Glutathione S-transferases are phase II biotransformation enzymes that play a role in detoxifying a wide range of exogenous agents including carcinogens but also anticarcinogenic drugs.

The objective of this study was to review the role of bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy in BRCA mutation (mBRCA) carriers and alternative interventions in risk reduction of ovarian cancer (OC).

The aim of this systematic review is to study the features of cribriform-morular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (CMV-PTC) by analysing the 129 documented cases in the English literature. The disease occurred almost exclusively in women. The median age of presentation for CMV-PTC was 24 years. Slightly over half of the patients with CMV-PTC had familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). CMV-PTC presented before the colonic manifestations in approximately half of the patients with FAP. Patients with FAP often have multifocal tumours in the thyroid. Microscopic examination of CMV-PTC revealed predominately cribriform and morular pattern of cancer cells with characteristic nuclear features of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Psammoma body is rare. On immunohistochemical studies, β-catenin is diffusely positive in CMV-PTC. The morular cells in CMV-PTC are strongly positive for CD10, bcl-2 and E-cadherin. Pre-operative diagnosis of CMV-PTC by fine-needle aspiration biopsy could be aided by cribriform architecture, epithelial morules and β-catenin immunostaining. Mutations of APC gene are found in the patients with CMV-PTC associated with FAP. In addition, mutations in CTNNB1, RET/PTC rearrangement and PI3K3CA mutations have been reported. BRAF mutation is negative in all CMV-PTC tested. Compared to conventional papillary thyroid carcinoma, CMV-PTC had a lower frequency of lymph node metastases at presentation (12%) and distant metastases (3%) as well as lower recurrence rates (8.5%) and patients' mortality rates (2%). To conclude, patients with CMV-PTC have distinctive clinical, pathological and molecular profiles when compared to conventional papillary thyroid carcinoma.

Young women with endometrial cancer (EC) have an increased risk of synchronous ovarian cancer. The prognosis of women with synchronous endometrial and ovarian cancer (SEOC) is good. A high proportion of affected women have hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer syndrome (HNPCC).

Vitamin D has been linked with improved cancer outcome. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the relationship between cancer outcomes and both vitamin D-related genetic variation and circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) concentration.

Gefitinib, erlotinib and afatinib are three widely used epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR TKIs) for treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with proven efficacy. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesize existing studies with direct comparisons of EGFR TKIs in NSCLC in terms of both efficacy and safety. Eight randomized trials and 82 cohort studies with a total of 17,621 patients were included for analysis. Gefitinib and erlotinib demonstrated comparable effects on progression-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 1.00; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.95 to 1.04), overall survival (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.93 to 1.06), overall response rate (risk ratio [RR], 1.05; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.11), and disease control rate (RR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.01), which did not vary considerably with EGFR mutation status, ethnicity, line of treatment, and baseline brain metastasis status. Gefitinib was associated with more grade 3/4 liver dysfunction, but tended to cause lower rates of dose reduction, treatment discontinuation, total grade 3/4 adverse events (RR, 0.78; 95% CI 0.65 to 0.94), and a number of specific adverse events such as rash and diarrhea. No solid evidence was found that afatinib had greater efficacy than gefitinib or erlotinib in first-line treatment of EGFR-mutant NSCLC. However, afatinib was more effective than erlotinib as second-line treatment of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma. The grade 3/4 adverse events rate of afatinib was comparable to that of erlotinib but higher than that of gefitinib.

We examined the additional prognostic value for survival of cell-of-origin, and MYC, BCL2 and BCL6 translocation status to that provided by the International Prognostic Index in newly-diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients treated firstline with rituximab-containing immunochemotherapy. We searched Medline, Premedline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and ISI Proceedings (2000-2015) and assessed study risk-of-bias using a prognostic study checklist. Forty-four studies of moderate-high risk of bias with 100-712 participants were included. Immunohistochemistry-determined cell-of-origin, and BCL2 and BCL6 translocation status added no additional prognostic value. Half of the studies on gene expression profiling-determined cell-of-origin and MYC translocation status found that germinal center B-cell-like (GCB) and no translocation were associated with better overall survival (OS) whereas the remaining studies found no effect of these covariates. Further studies are required to ensure that biological information assessed using newer technologies can be reliably used for studies that incorporate newer agents targeting distinct molecular abnormalities identified in high-risk DLBCL patients.

Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer is an inherited syndrome associated with BRCA1/2 germline defects. The identified mutations are classified as missense, large deletion, insertion, nonsense and splice-site variants with a deleterious impact on BRCA1/2 function. Part of these forms the well-documented truncating mutations, and missense variants represent a clinical dilemma as the pathogenic role is yet to be clearly shown. In this systematic review, we collected these missense variations with a documented deleterious function. We focused on English language articles from MEDLINE. This study included all BRCA1/2 germline missense mutations identified in breast and ovarian cancer patients. The method of this study followed the 'PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses'. A total of 61 BRCA1/2 germline and pathogenic missense mutations were identified: 70.5% affected BRCA1 and 29.5% BRCA2, respectively. In BRCA1, the majority of mutations were located in the BRCA C-terminus (48.8%), leading to a disruption of function. Conversely, no specific associations were verified between mutations and the BRCA2 gene. The European population was the most affected by BRCA1 and the Asian population by BRCA2 mutant patterns. The identification of novel BRCA1/2 missense mutations requires specific genetic tests to assess pathogenicity. With this systematic review, we are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to collect the overall amount of data on these pathogenic mutants with the aim of improving the management of carriers and their kindred.

Compared with chemotherapy, significant improvement in survival outcomes with the programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors nivolumab and pembrolizumab and the programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab has been shown in several types of advanced solid tumors. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare safety and tolerability between PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors and chemotherapy.

Phosphatase and tensin homolog ( PTEN ), regarded as a tumor suppressor gene, may act as a prognostic biomarker in human cancers.