Surgical site infection (SSI) frequently occurs in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) after tumor resection and can lead to death in severe cases. Moreover, there is no de nitive conclusion about the risk factors of SSI. Therefore, it is of great clinical signi cance to study the factors affecting the SSI. MethodsThe HNC patients included in this study were all from the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery of the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University (CSU), and these patients received surgical treatment in the department from January 2018 to December 2019. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis was applied to determine the risk factors of SSI. To identify the key risk factors of SSI, the caret package was used to construct three different machine learning models to investigate important features involving 26 SSI-related risk factors. ResultsParticipants were 632 HNC patients who underwent surgery in our department from January 2018 to December 2019. During the postoperative period, 82 patients suffered from SSI and surgical site infection rate (SSIR) was about 12.97%. Diabetes mellitus, tumor site ( oor of mouth) and ap failure were consistently ranked the top three in the 26 SSI-related risk factors. In addition, SSI can increase postoperative hospital stays and ap failure rate. ConclusionDiabetes mellitus, tumor site ( oor of mouth), ap failure, preoperative radiotherapy, neck dissection (bilateral) are risk factors for SSI of HNC.Many risk factors of SSI have been reported in previous studies. Such as advanced age, diabetes, smoking, preoperative radiotherapy, prior surgery, preoperative chemotherapy, advanced American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade, low preoperative white blood cell (WBC) count, hypoalbuminemia, intraoperative blood transfusion, tracheotomy, contaminated wounds, lymph node metastasis and reconstruction with myocutaneous aps or microvascular-free aps, etc. [5,7,[10][11][12][13]. However, due to the differences in study methodology, number of patients and sample size, there are still some disputes in different studies. For example, whether diabetes, tumor location or previous radiotherapy can be regarded as potential risk factors for SSI causes controversy [5,14,15]. Coskun, et.al. found diabetes mellitus, tumor location and history of prior radiotherapy were not associated statistically with wound infection in head and neck surgery (HNS) [16]. Sepehr, et al. found diabetes was not a risk factor for infection after HNS [17]. Similarly, Hitomi, et.al indicated that age, body mass index, smoking, diabetes, sex, previous radiotherapy or ASA score were not correlated with SSI [12]. However, Milap D. et.al showed HNC patients with diabetes have signi cantly greater rates of postoperative infections [18]. Margita, et.al indicated that gender, smoking, tumor localization and neck dissection were signi cantly related to the occurrence of wound infection [19]. So far, there is no clear de nition of risk factors for SSI of HNC surgery.In addition, these SSI...

Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are related to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) progression. circRNA bicaudal D cargo adaptor 2 (circBICD2) has been reported to be abnormally expressed in OSCC. However, the function and mechanism of this circRNA in OSCC progression remain largely unknown. Methods circBICD2, microRNA‐149‐5p (miR‐149‐5p), and insulin‐like growth factor 2 mRNA‐binding protein 1 (IGF2BP1) abundances were examined via quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or Western blot. The function of circBICD2 was investigated by 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), colony formation, flow cytometry, wound healing, transwell, specific kits, Western blot, and xenograft analyses. Dual‐luciferase reporter analysis and RNA immunoprecipitation were carried out to analyze the binding interaction. Results circBICD2 expression was enhanced in OSCC tissues and cells. circBICD2 silence suppressed OSCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glutaminolysis and facilitated apoptosis. miR‐149‐5p was targeted via circBICD2 and decreased in OSCC tissues and cells. miR‐149‐5p knockdown attenuated silence of circBICD2 on the influence of OSCC cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, and glutaminolysis. IGF2BP1 was targeted via miR‐149‐5p, and circBICD2 could regulate IGF2BP1 via miR‐149‐5p. IGF2BP1 interference constrained OSCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glutaminolysis and promoted apoptosis. circBICD2 silence reduced OSCC cell growth in xenograft model. Conclusion circBICD2 knockdown repressed OSCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glutaminolysis and increased apoptosis via modulating miR‐149‐5p/IGF2BP1 axis, which might act as a potential target for OSCC treatment.

Purpose To investigate the colonization and susceptibility to antifungal drugs of oral yeasts in head and neck cancer patients in Hainan, China. Methods Oral mucosa samples from 211 head and neck cancer patients were collected. Oral yeasts were isolated and identified to species by rDNA ITS sequencing. The susceptibilities of all yeasts to amphotericin B, fluconazole, fluorocytosine, itraconazole, and ketoconazole were determined. Results Yeasts were isolated from 124 of the 211 oral swabs. The 124 yeast isolates were classified into following 10 species, from the most frequent to the least frequent, Candida albicans (53.2%), Candida tropicalis (22.6%), Candida krusei (6.5%), Kodamaea ohmeri (5.6%), Candida parapsilosis (4.8%), Hanseniaspora opuntiae (2.4%), Candida metapsilosis (1.6%), Pichia terricola (1.6%), Pichia norvegensis (0.8%), and Trichosporon asahii (0.8%). The overall frequencies of resistance among the yeasts to amphotericin B, fluconazole, flucytosine, itraconazole, and ketoconazole were 4.8%, 8.1%, 16.1%, 9.7%, and 9.7%, respectively. One C. albicans strain and one C. tropicalis strain were tolerant/resistant to all five drugs. Conclusion Given the high prevalence of oral yeast colonization in head and neck cancer patients and the observed resistance of certain yeast isolates to the five antifungal drugs, our results suggest that rapid identification and susceptibility testing should be implemented before antifungal treatment is applied among patients with head and neck cancer in Hainan.

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