Clinical significance of cylindromatosis expression in primary hepatocellular carcinoma

Background and study aimThere is currently a lack of sensitive biomarkers for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Low expression of cylindromatosis (CYLD), a tumor suppressor gene that encodes a deubiquitinase, is associated with the development of HCC. The present study, therefore, aimed to determine the clinical utility of measuring CYLD expression in the early diagnosis of HCC.Patients and methodsThe present study comprised 257 patients from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University including 90 patients with HCC, 41 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), 46 patients with hepatitis B (HB), and 80 healthy controls. qPCR was used to measure the amounts of CYLD mRNA in stored blood samples. The sensitivity and specificity of CYLD mRNA in diagnosing HCC was analyzed using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. We also obtained HCC data from the Oncomine database to further verify our results.ResultsThe relative levels of CYLD mRNA in peripheral blood from patients with HCC (median, 0.060; interquartile range [IQR], 0.019–0.260) was significantly lower than in blood from patients with LC (median, 3.732; IQR, 0.648–14.573), HB (median, 0.419; IQR, 0.255–1.809) and healthy controls (median, 1.262; IQR, 0.279–3.537; P < 0.05). CYLD mRNA levels in peripheral blood were significantly higher in patients with LC compared to healthy controls and patients with HB. Oncomine data demonstrated that CYLD mRNA expression levels in HCC tissues were significantly lower than in normal liver tissues. ROC analysis demonstrated that the combined use of peripheral blood levels of CYLD and AFP had the greatest diagnostic accuracy for HCC (area under the curve (AUC), 0.897; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.853–0.942). CYLD had utility as a supplementary marker to AFP for diagnosing HCC.ConclusionCirculating levels of CYLD mRNA are significantly decreased in patients with HCC, indicating CYLD may have utility as a biomarker of HCC. Combined measurement of CYLD mRNA and AFP protein had the greatest diagnostic accuracy.     

Association of Life's Essential 8 with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among US adults: A prospective cohort study from the NHANES 2005–2014

Background and aimsThis study aims to investigate the association of Life's Essential 8 (LE8), the recently updated algorithm for quantifying cardiovascular health (CVH) by the American Heart Association (AHA), with long-term outcomes among US adults.Methods and resultsThis population-based prospective cohort study analyzed data of 23,110 participants aged 20 years or older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2014 and their linked mortality data through December 2019. LE8 score (range 0–100) was measured according to AHA definitions and was categorized into low (0–49), moderate (50–79), and high (80–100) CVH. The weighted mean age of the study population was 47.0 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 46.4–47.5 years), and 11,840 were female (weighted percentage, 51.5%; 95% CI, 50.9–52.1%). During a median follow-up period of 113 months (up to 180 months), 2942 all-cause deaths occurred, including 738 CVD deaths. The LE8 score was significantly and inversely related to mortality from all causes (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for per 10-score increase in LE8 score, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.82–0.90) and cardiovascular disease (adjusted HR for per 10-score increase in LE8 score, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75–0.87). Compared with participants having low CVH, those having high CVH had a reduction of 40% (adjusted HR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.48–0.75) in the risk for all-cause mortality and 54% (adjusted HR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.31–0.68) in the risk for cardiovascular mortality.ConclusionsHigher LE8 score was independently associated with lower risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among US adults.     

Association between nut consumption and prostate cancer risk in adults: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies

AimsData on the association between nut consumption and prostate cancer risk are conflicting. Therefore, this systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis aimed to summarize available findings from observational studies on the associations of nut intake with risk of total, advanced, non-advanced, and fatal prostate cancers.Data synthesisWe searched the online databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science as well as Google Scholar using appropriate keywords to identify eligible articles up to September 2022. In total, 11 articles with a total sample size of 287,786 participants and 32,213 cases of prostate cancer were included in the current systematic review and meta-analysis. By comparing the highest and lowest intake of total nuts, pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for total, advanced, non-advanced, and fatal prostate cancers were 0.94 (95% CI: 0.85–1.04, P = 0.22), 1.10 (95% CI: 0.98–1.24, P = 0.12), 0.97 (95% CI: 0.85–1.11, P = 0.69), 0.97 (95% CI: 0.79–1.18, P = 0.73), respectively, which indicated non-significant inverse associations for total, non-advanced, and fatal prostate cancers and a non-significant positive association for advanced prostate cancer. In the dose-response analyses, we found no evidence of a linear or non-linear association between total nut intake and prostate cancer risk. Data on other types of nuts, including walnut, tree nuts, peanut, and peanut butter, were not sufficient for performing a meta-analysis.ConclusionWe found no significant association between nut intake and risk of total, advanced, non-advanced, and fatal prostate cancer. Further studies are required to confirm our findings.Prospero registration codeCRD42022347094.Ethical approvalNot required.