CYP3A4*1G has an impact on the analgesic effect of fentanyl in Chinese Han subjects. Further validation of our results in a well-powered study would be helpful.

Sepsis is a systemic inflammatory response syndrome to infection. Human b-defensin 1 (DEFB1) is a multifunctional mediator in infection and inflammation, which has been largely explored in ex vivo studies. The present case-control study was designed to investigate whether DEFB1 genomic variations are associated with the susceptibility to and the outcome of severe sepsis in 211 patients with severe sepsis and 157 ethnic-matched healthy controls. After correcting for multiple testing, the À44G/C was the only polymorphism found to show significant associations with both the susceptibility to and the fatal outcome of severe sepsis (P ¼ 0.0049, odd ratio (OR) 1.971 and P ¼ 0.002, OR 2.406, respectively). Haplotype À20A/À44C/À52G showed a protective role against severe sepsis (P ¼ 0.0066, OR 0.6751), whereas haplotype À20G/À44G/À52G served as a risk factor for the fatal outcome of severe sepsis (P ¼ 0.0052, OR 2.427). These findings provide further evidence that b-defensin 1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of severe sepsis.

Genetic variants in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) gene may influence the biological function of these enzymes and change their role in carcinogenesis and progression. The effect of MMP2 C-1306T and MMP9 C-1562T polymorphisms on genetic susceptibility has been investigated in various kinds of cancer. However, the relationship between these polymorphisms and risk of recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver transplantation (LT) has not been reported. The present study was designed to investigate the association of these two loci with the risk of HCC recurrence in 93 HCC patients treated with LT. Genotyping was performed using direct DNA sequencing. For MMP2 C-1306T variant, patients with CT heterozygous conferred a 58% reduction in recurrence risk (risk ratio: 0.419; 95% confidence interval: 0.177-0.994). The mean recurrence-free survival for CT genotype was significantly longer than that for homozygous CC patients (30.4 vs 19.3 months, p = 0.019). However, no association was found between MMP9 C-1562T polymorphisms and recurrence of HCC (p = 0.259). These findings suggest that MMP2 promoter polymorphisms may provide some predictive value for HCC recurrence after LT.

Surgical treatment for stage IV breast cancer remains controversial. Therefore, we aimed to further explore the impact of surgery on survival in patients with stage IV breast cancer using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. We selected 3,822 patients diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer from 2010 to 2012 in the SEER database who were divided into surgery and non-surgery groups. We assessed the breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) of the two groups using Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazard regression models. In addition, we performed stratification analyses of breast subtype, tumor size and status of distant metastasis to identify the effects of these factors on surgical outcomes. The median survival times were 30 and 24 months in the surgery and non-surgery groups, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier curves showed that the surgery group survived longer than the non-surgery group. The hazard ratios (HR) of the surgery group were 0.504 for BCSS and 0.507 for OS (P<0.001). Furthermore, patients in the surgery group still experienced significantly better survival than those in the non-surgery group when stratified according to breast subtype, tumor size and status of distant metastasis. Surgical treatment appears to be associated with improved survival in patients with stage IV breast cancer, independently of breast subtype, tumor size and status of distant metastasis. Citation Format: Song C-G, Lin Y-X, Zhang J, Zeng Q, Chen M-Y, Chen L-L, Wang X-X, Chen Q-X. Impact of surgery on survival in patients with stage IV breast cancer: A population-based study from the SEER database [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-14-27.