BackgroundMinichromosome maintenance protein 2 (MCM2), which is a member of MCM family, has been found to be a relevant marker for progression and prognosis in a variety of human cancers. Due to lack of effective therapeutic target in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) patients, the aim of our study was to screen and identify biomarkers which are associated to clinicopathological characteristics including prognosis in LUSC patients.MethodsThe expression status of MCM2 in lung cancer was analyzed using the publicly available Gene Expression Omnibus databases (GSE3268 and GSE10245). The mRNA and protein expression of MCM2 in lung cancer tissues and cell lines was detected by quantitative real-time PCR and Western blot, and the association between MCM2 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. The loss-of-function study of MCM2 was conducted in LUSC cell lines.ResultsIn our study, we found MCM2 expression was increased in LUSC tissues compared with paired adjacent normal lung tissues or lung adenocarcinoma tissues through analyzing microarray data sets (GSE3268 and GSE10245), which confirmed that MCM2 mRNA and protein were overexpressed in LUSC tissues and cell lines. Meanwhile, we analyzed the association between MCM2 protein expression and clinicopathological characteristics of LUSC patients, and found high expression of MCM2 protein was obviously associated with malign differentiated degree, advanced clinical stage, large tumor size, more lymph node metastasis and present distant metastasis. The survival analysis showed MCM2 overexpression was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for LUSC patients.ConclusionMCM2 is involved in the development and progression of LUSC as an oncogene, and thereby may act as a potential therapeutic target for LUSC patients.

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ABSTRACT. This retrospective study aimed to observe the curative effect and adverse reactions of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy combined with topotecan chemotherapy in patients with platinum-resistant recurrent epithelial ovarian carcinoma. The chemoradiotherapy group (N = 22) received 15 mv X-rays with 1.8 to 2.0 Gy/f/d radiation, 5 times per week. The total dose was 45 to 65 Gy; the median dose was 52.5 Gy. Topotecan chemotherapy (2.0 mg/m 2 ) was administered after the first week of radiotherapy 2 ) in the first week, and the dose was administered on days 1, 8, and 15; it was repeated every 28 days. The median follow-up times were 18.5 months (2 to 37.7) and 10.8 months (1.5 to 29.6) in the chemoradiotherapy and in the only chemotherapy groups, respectively. The total response rates were 42.1% (8/19) and 11.1% (2/18), respectively. The clinical benefit rates were 68.4% (13/19) and 22.2% (4/18), respectively, with significant difference (P < 0.05). The median disease progression-free periods were 9.8 and 6.6 months, respectively, with significant difference (P < 0.001). The median survival times were 19.7 and 12.5 months, respectively, with significant difference (P < 0.05). The degrees of digestive tract reaction rates were 26.3% (5/19) and 16.7% (3/18), whereas the hematology toxicity rates were 21.1% (4/19) and 22.2% (4/18), respectively, with no significant difference (P > 0.05). As threedimensional conformal radiotherapy combined with topotecan chemotherapy had good curative effect on platinum-resistant recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer, with mild adverse reactions, this technique can be used as a remedial measure.