Type B lactic acidosis is a rare complication of non-tissue perfusion abnormalities caused by solid tumors or hematologic malignancies. Herein, we present the case of a 42-year-old man with type B lactic acidosis and hypoglycemia who was found to have a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The cause of lactic acidosis and/or hypoglycemia is thought to be the Warburg effect, which is when the metabolic rate of a rapidly growing malignant tumor is very high and dominated by glycolysis. Systemic damage from type B lactic acidosis can occur when the increased rate of glycolysis exceeds the normal muscle and liver lactic acid clearance rate. The Warburg effect is a rare but serious condition that needs to be recognized, not only in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but also in other malignancies. The prognosis of lactic acidosis in patients with malignant tumors is very poor. Currently, effective chemotherapy seems to be the only hope for survival.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has one of the highest death rates of any cancer in the world, and its incidence is increasing worldwide. Early-stage diagnosis of HCC is thus crucial for medical treatment. Detection of tumor biomarkers is one of the main methods for the early diagnosis of HCC. At present, α-fetoprotein (AFP) is the most practical serum biomarker for HCC diagnosis. However, the diagnostic accuracy of HCC with serum AFP exhibits both sensitivity and specificity far below satisfaction, especially with small sizes of HCC. As a result, the discovery of new biomarkers and/or their combination to enhance both the sensitivity and specificity for laboratory diagnosis of HCC is a crucial goal. With the development of new technology and advances in research, a number of new and specific biomarkers of HCC have been discovered. These biomarkers and their applications for the diagnosis, treatment monitoring and prognosis prediction of HCC, are reviewed in this article.

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Although there has been significant progress in the development of tumor immunotherapies, many challenges still exist for the treatment of solid tumors. Natural killer (NK) cells possess broad-spectrum cytotoxicity against...

Background and Objectives: Carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4) is widely used and has been associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer (GC), but the prognostic significance of elevated preoperative CA72-4 that normalizes after resection remains unknown.Methods: This retrospective cohort analysis was conducted at the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC). Consecutive patients (n = 1179) with GC who had undergone curative resection for stage Ⅰto Ⅲ gastric adenocarcinoma. The patients were grouped into three cohorts: normal preoperative CA72-4 (C1), elevated preoperative but normalized postoperative CA72-4 (C2), and elevated preoperative and postoperative CA72-4 (C3).Results: In total, 1179 patients were identified. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with normal preoperative CA72-4 had a longer overall survival (OS) (p < .001) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) (p < .001) than those with elevated preoperative CA72-4. Patients with C1 had a longer OS and RFS than those with C2 or C3. Moreover, patients with C3 had the lowest OS, but had similar RFS to patients with C2. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that elevated pre-or postoperative CA72-4 was independently associated with shorter OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.273; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.026-1.580; p = .029) and RFS (HR = 1.333; 95% CI, 1.064-1.668; p = .012).Conclusions: Both elevated preoperative and postoperative CA72-4 can well predict the poor prognosis of patients with GC. Therefore, routine measurement of both postoperative and preoperative CA72-4 is warranted.