Huihui Sun

Background Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is generally considered an incurable disease, and patients require continuous systematic treatment. Receiving the diagnosis and treatment of MBC is a distressing experience that may accelerate an episode of psychological disorder. This study examined the performance of the distress thermometer (DT) and identified the risk factors associated with psychological distress (PD). Methods We assessed 337 patients diagnosed with MBC in Henan Cancer Hospital. All patients completed the electronic DT and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) online. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis compared DT accuracy against HADS-Total score (HADS-T) defined PD (HADS≥15). Multivariate regression identified PD-associated factors. Results DT average scores were significantly higher in HADS-T≥15 patients (4.27 vs 2.01, pConclusion The single-item DT has been determined to be a valid tool for screening distress in patients with MBC. We recommend using a cut-off score of 4 in this population. While our analysis revealed a significant association between poor treatment response and elevated distress scores, these findings cohere with the broader clinical imperative to prioritise distress management for all cancer patients regardless of treatment outcomes.

Background and Purpose As the only ionotropic receptor in 5-HT receptor family, 5-HT3 receptor (5-HT3R) involves in psychiatric disorders and its modulators have potential therapeutic effects for cognitive impairment in these disorders. However, it remains unclear how 5-HT3Rs shape synaptic plasticity for memory function. Experimental Approach Extracellular as well as whole-cell recordings were used to monitor hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and synaptic transmission in hippocampal slices from 5-HT3AR knock-out or 5-HT3AR-GFP mice. Immunocytochemistry, qRT-PCR and Western blot were used to measure receptor expression. We also assessed hippocampal dependent cognition and memory using the Morris water maze (MWM) and novel object recognition. Key Results We found that 5-HT3R dysfunction impaired hippocampal LTP in Schaffer collateral (SC)-CA1 pathway in hippocampal slices by facilitating GABAergic inputs in pyramidal cells. This effect was dependent on 5-HT3Rs on axon-terminals. It resulted from reduced expression and function of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) co-localized with 5-HT3Rs on axon terminals, which led to diminishment of tonic inhibition of GABA release by CB1Rs. Inhibition of CB1Rs mimicked the facilitation of GABAergic transmission by 5-HT3R disruption. Consequently, mice with hippocampal 5-HT3R disruption exhibited impaired spatial memory in Morris water maze tasks. Conclusion and Implications These results suggest that 5-HT3Rs are crucial in enabling hippocampal synaptic plasticity via a novel CB1R-GABA_A-dependent pathway to regulate spatial memory.

Objective This meta-analysis aimed to reach a summarised estimate of distress prevalence screened by Distress Thermometer (DT) among patients with breast cancer and compare different pooled prevalence estimated between different subgroups. Methods Two independent interviewers conducted a systematic search from PubMed, EMBASE, Ovid and Cochrane Library and checked related reviews and meta-analyses for eligible studies. The studies that identified distress of patients with breast cancer with DT were included. After extracting demographic characteristics and distress prevalence, the pooled analysis and the forest plot were completed by using STATA V.12.0 software. We conducted a subgroup analysis based on demographic and methodological characteristics of the studies. The publication bias was estimated by funnel plot. Results Seventeen studies describing 3870 patients with breast cancer were included in this meta-analysis. The distress prevalence of patients with breast cancer varied from 25.3% to 71.7% among these studies. The pooled distress prevalence was 50% (95% CI 49% to 52%) for the overall sample. The pooled distress prevalence rates in DT ≥7, DT ≥5 and DT ≥4 subgroups were 37% (95% CI 35% to 40%), 45% (95% CI 40% to 49%) and 62% (95% CI 60% to 65%), respectively. The distress prevalence had statistically significant differences between subgroups, which were differentiated by the initial time of distress identified, papers’ publication time, patients’ average age and country. There was no publication bias among the included studies. Conclusion The distress prevalence was high among patients with breast cancer. Routine and timely screening of distress for patients with breast cancer is of great significance in oncology management.

In the article titled “Performance of Distress Thermometer and Associated Factors of Psychological Distress among Chinese Cancer Patients” [1], Dr. Ahmad Khalid Aalemi was missing from the authors’ list. Dr. Aalemi shared his knowledge and experience during the study design, data cleaning, data analysis, and report writing. The corrected authors’ list is shown above.

Objectives: This study aimed to compare depression, anxiety and quality of life (QoL) between cachexia and non-cachexia patients, and explore the relationship between cachexia and depression, anxiety and QoL in patients with cancer.Methods: A total of 528 patients from cancer centres of four hospitals were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. All patients were divided into cachexia and non-cachexia according to international consensus definition of cachexia. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Quality of Life Questionnaire-Cancer 30 (QLQ-C30) were used to evaluate depression, anxiety and QoL.Results: 285 patients (53.98%) were classified as cachexia. The prevalence of depression, anxiety, severe depression and severe anxiety in cachexia was 30.2%, 18.6%, 6.7% and 8.4%, respectively, which were significantly higher than in non-cachexia (all pB)=2.123, pB=1.123, p=0.024), and had a negative relationship with PF, CF, EF, SF and overall QoL (allB<0, all p<0.05).Conclusions: Cachexia was associated with greater depression and anxiety and poorer QoL in patients with cancer, which emphasised the importance of timely identification and management of cachexia to improve the psychological problems and QoL among patients with cancer.

We aimed to evaluate the clinical effect and safety of orthokeratology in controlling the development of myopia. We assessed the changes in visual acuity, diopter change, axial length, corneal endothelium count, intraocular pressure, and corneal Q value in 30 adolescents with 60 years of wearing an orthokeratology lens. In this study, no significant difference was observed between the naked eye vision and corrected visual acuity before wearing the lens (t = –0.23, P = 0.59); furthermore, no significant difference was observed in diopter, axial length, corneal endothelium count, and intraocular pressure 1 year before and after wearing the lens (t = 1.24, P = 0.45; t = –0.89, P = 0.25; t = –0.43, P = 0.57; t = 1.43, P = 0.61); by contrast, there was a significant difference in the corneal Q value before and after wearing the lens (t = –8.37, P = 0.001). These results suggest that the fluorosilicone acrylic breathable material corneal orthopedic lens is safe and effective in controlling myopia, and has little effect on the physiology of the eye.

Background: Cancer cachexia is a cancer-induced multifactorial debilitating syndrome directly accounting for 20% of cancer deaths without effective therapeutic approaches. It is extremely urgent to explore effective anti-cachexia drugs to ameliorate muscle and fat loss in cachexia patients. Methods: Lewis lung carcinoma bearing C57BL/6 mice were applied as the animal model to examine the therapeutic effect of Coix seed oil (CSO) on cancer cachexia. The food intake and body weight change were monitored every 3 days throughout the experiment. The IL-6 and TNF-α levels in serum were detected by ELISA assay. Several key proteins involved in muscle wasting and fat lipolysis were tested by Western blot to identify the potential mechanism of CSO. Results: Administration of CSO through gavage significantly prevented body weight loss and ameliorated systemic inflammation without affecting food intake and tumor size. The weight and histological morphology of gastrocnemius muscle and epididymal adipose tissue in CSO-treated mice were also improved. In mechanism, we found that CSO decreased the expression of MuRF1 and the ratio of phospho-p65 (Ser536) to p65 in muscle tissue. Meanwhile, cancer-induced activation of HSL and AMPK was also inhibited by CSO administration. Conclusion: Coix seed oil exerts an anti-cachexia pharmaceutical effect by counteracting muscle and adipose tissue loss most likely through regulating NF-κB-MuRF1 and AMPK-HSL pathway.

Lisha Yi, Haiqin Zhang, Huihui Sun, Lu Zhou, Ying Chen, Liqian Xuan, Yuanxi Jiang, and Shuchang Xu. J Neurogastroenterol Motil 1999;0:. https://doi.org/10.5056/jnm16089