Background: Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer. This study sought to investigate the association between the preoperative c-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CRP/Alb) and oncological outcomes in ovarian cancer patients. Methods: Two hundred patients with histologically verified ovarian cancer between June 2006 and July 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. Overall survival was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. The significance of risk factors for overall survival was evaluated with the Cox proportional hazards model. Additionally, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to compare the predictive ability of CRP/Alb, Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), modified GPS (mGPS), neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), prognostic index (PI) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI). Results: The optimal cutoff value of CRP/Alb was 0.68. Increased CRP/Alb (≥0.68) was associated with advanced stage, residual tumor, ascites, elevated serum carbohydrate antigen(CA)-125 level, GPS, and mGPS (all p < 0.05). Patients with high CRP/Alb had poor overall survival compared to those with low CRP/Alb (p < 0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that CRP/Alb (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.330, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.131-1.564, p = 0.001), tumor stage (HR 1.577, 95% CI 1.189-2.091, p = 0.002), residual tumor (HR 2.337, 95% CI 1.518-3.597, p < 0.001) and age (HR 1.017, 95% CI 1.000-1.035, p = 0.046) were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. Additionally, the CRP/Alb showed greater AUC values at 1 year (0.692), 3 years (0.659), and 5 years (0.682) than GPS, mGPS and PNI. Conclusions: The CRP/Alb is a novel independent marker of poor prognosis among ovarian cancer patients and shows superior prognostic ability compared to the established inflammation-based prognostic indices.

Not applicable.

BackgroundMultiple studies proved that miRNAs have a causal role in tumorigenesis. Some miRNAs are regulated by epigenetic alterations in their promoter regions and can be activated by chromatin- modifying drugs.MethodsWe treated cervical cancer cells with 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine and get a microarray analysis. Dysregulation of miRNAs was measured by qPCR in cervical cell lines and methylation status of them in cervical cancer tissue were performed with MeDIP-qPCR assay.ResultsWe found hypermethylation of miR-432, miR-1286, miR-641, miR-1290, miR-1287 and miR-95 may have some relationship with HPV infection in cervical cell lines. In primary tumors of cervix with paired normal tissue, expression levels of miRNAs were inversely correlated with their DNA methylation status in the cervical cancer cell lines treated with 5-AZA.ConclusionsOur results indicate that miRNAs might play a role in the pathogenesis of human cervical cancer with HPV and identify altered miRNA methylation as a possible epigenetic mechanism involved in their aberrant expression.

BackgroundTo investigate the effect of pelvic floor Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) Therapy in improving endometrial thickness in women with thin endometrium.Methods41 patients undergoing assisted reproduction with a thin endometrium (less than or equal to7 mm) were recruited and advised to go for a pelvic floor NMES in frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycle. PHENIX Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Therapy System was used according to the manufacturer's recommended protocol for 20 to 30 minutes of intermittent vaginal electrical stimulation on the treatment days.ResultsA total of 20 and 21 were included in the NMES and non-NMES groups respectively. 12 out of 20 (60%) patients developed endometrial thickness equal to or more than 8 mm after the NMES therapy, which was the primary outcome. The mean thickness of endometrium before and after was respectively 5.60 mm (0.82 mm) and 7.93 mm (1.42 mm) in the therapy group versus 5.50 mm (1.00) and 6.78 mm (0.47) in the control group; the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.002). There was higher pregnancy rate in the NMES group (42% versus 35%) but the difference was not statistically significant.ConclusionNeuromuscular Electrical stimulation therapy may be effective for the patients with a thin endometrium. Further studies are needed to investigate its effectiveness.