We aim to draw an objective conclusion of the association between MT1JP expression levels with OS for gastric cancer patients.

Background: Gastric cancer has multiple metastasis pathways, of which lymph node metastasis plays a dominant role. However, the specific mechanism of lymph node metastasis is still not unclear. Methods: The bioinformatics technology was utilized to mine gene chip data related to gastric cancer and Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in a high-throughput gene expression database (Gene Expression Omnibus, GEO), we screened out all genes that have differential expression levels in gastric cancer tissues and in adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissues. The corresponding function package of R language software were performed for gene annotation and cluster analysis, then enrichment analysis of genes with differential expression and protein interaction network diagram for correlation analysis were performed, we finally screened out the paired related homeobox 1 gene (PRRX1) related to EMT. Next, we collected 65 metastatic lymph node samples and 93 gastric cancer tissue samples. The expression levels of PRRX1 and EMT-related protein E-cadherin (E-ca) and vimentin (Vim) in gastric cancer tissues and metastatic lymph node tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining of streptavidin-peroxidase (SP). The expression differences of PRRX1, E-ca and Vim in gastric cancer tissues and metastatic lymph node tissues as well as the correlation were analyzed by the experimental data, and the clinical significance was analyzed in combination with the clinicopathological data. Results: The PRRX1 expression levels in gastric cancer tissues are significantly higher than that in adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissues. The positive expression rates of PRRX1, Vim and E-ca in gastric cancer and in metastatic lymph node tissues were significantly different. Comparing with that in gastric cancer, expression of PRRX1 and Vim was significantly down-regulated, and E-ca expression was significantly up-regulated in metastatic lymph nodes. Conclusion: PRRX1 may promote lymph node metastasis of gastric cancer by regulating EMT, and then affect the prognosis of patients. PRRX1 may be used as a new biological indicator to predict or prevent lymph node metastasis in gastric cancer.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of delay in gastrectomy on gastric cancer patients’ survival outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsDatabases including PubMed, MEDLINE (using the Ovid platform), Embase, the Cochrane Library, COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge, COVID-19 Research Database (WHO), ClinicalTrials.gov, and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform were searched for studies of any design and in any setting that included patients with gastric cancer from their inception to July 31, 2021. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of research endpoints in each study were calculated. Statistical analyses were performed with Stata 12.0.ResultsA total of 8 studies involving 4,052 gastric cancer patients were eligible and included in the present meta-analysis. The result of the meta-analysis was shown that delaying surgery for less than 8 weeks may not decrease OS (HR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.80~1.04, p = 0.167) and DFS (HR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.62~1.50, p = 0.872) in gastric cancer. Our meta-analysis also illustrated that delay in surgery for more than 4 weeks (HR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.56~1.27, p = 0.421), 6 weeks (HR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.61~1.27, p = 0.490), and 8 weeks (HR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.80~1.07, p = 0.314) was also not associated with a decreased OS.ConclusionA delay in surgery of less than 8 weeks is not associated with worse overall survival for patients with gastric cancer.

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Background N6-methyladenosine (m6A) methylation is known as the research hotspot for tumor epimodification, and its associated methyltransferase-like3 (METTL3) is significantly differentially expressed in gastric carcinoma, but its clinical value has not been summarized. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of METTL3 in gastric carcinoma. Material and methods Databases, including PubMed, EMBASE (Ovid platform), Science Direct, Scopus, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, were used to identify relevant eligible studies. The endpoints included overall survival, progression-free survival, recurrence-free survival, post-progression survival, and disease-free survival. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to correlate METTL3 expression with prognosis. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results Seven eligible studies involving 3034 gastric carcinoma patients were recruited for this meta-analysis. The analysis showed that high METTL3 expression was associated with significantly poorer overall survival (HR  =  2.37, 95% CI 1.66–3.39, P < 0.01) and unfavorable disease-free survival (HR  =  2.58, 95% CI 1.97–3.38, P  < 0.01), as did unfavorable progression-free survival (HR  =  1.48, 95% CI 1.19–1.84, P  < 0.01)/recurrence-free survival (HR  =  2.62, 95% CI 1.93–5.62, P  < 0.01)/post-progression survival (HR  =  1.53, 95% CI 1.22–1.91, P  < 0.01). Subgroup analysis found that high METTL3 expression was associated with worse overall survival in patients with Chinese (HR  =  2.21, 95% CI 1.48–3.29, P  < 0.01), in studies with sample source from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues (HR  =  2.66, 95% CI 1.79–3.94, P  < 0.01), and the reported directly from articles group (HR  =  2.42, 95% CI 1.66–3.53, P  < 0.01). The subgroup analysis that was performed based on sample size, detected method, and follow-up showed the same results. Conclusions High expression of METTL3 predicts poor prognosis in gastric carcinoma, indicating promise for METTL3 as a prognostic biomarker. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero , ID = CRD42023408519