Gastric cancer remains an incurable malignance and the second leading cause of cancer death globally. Recent progress in gastric cancer research has demonstrated the crucial roles of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in the development, metastasis, and drug resistance of this disease. Various studies have highlighted the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. In this study, through fluorescence-activated cell sorting, we isolated gastric CSCs (GCSCs) from MKN-45 cells and demonstrated for the first time that lncRNA ROR was highly expressed in CD133 GCSCs. Overexpression of lncRNA ROR significantly increased, but knockdown of lncRNA ROR inhibited the proliferation and invasion of GCSCs. Most importantly, lncRNA ROR led to upregulation of several key stemness transcriptional factors, such as OCT4, SOX2, and NANOG, as well as CD133 GCSC. Our data demonstrated that lncRNA ROR was associated with core stemness transcriptional factors and the pluripotent state of GCSCs. These results further improved our understanding of the functional cross talking network during development of GCSCs and may provide novel target for the diagnostics and therapeutics of gastric cancer.

Background: Thoracic radiation therapy plays an important role in the treatment of inoperable lung cancer. However, radiotherapy-induced toxicity poses an important challenge for radiation oncologists. Research has shown that Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) has anti-inflammatory activity and can reduce toxicity when given with chemotherapy. In the present trial, we investigated whether CKI also can decrease chemoradiotherapy-induced thoracic toxicity in lung cancer patients.Methods: A prospective, open, randomized, multi-center study was performed, in which a total of 296 patients were enrolled and randomly divided 1:1 into experimental and control groups. The control group received standard chemoradiotherapy including precise thoracic radiotherapy (60 Gy/30 fractions/6 weeks) plus concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy. The experimental group received standard chemoradiotherapy plus CKI via mainline treatments of 250 ml CKI (20 ml diluted in 0.9% normal saline) daily for 20 continuous days. The incidence of adverse events and severity of thoracic toxicity after treatment were observed according to version 4.0 of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and quality of life (QLQ-C30) also were compared between the two groups.Results: Two hundred ninety-one qualifying patients were included in the statistical analysis. Symptomatic radiation-induced thoracic toxicity was lower in the experimental group than in the control group (14.1% vs 25.6%, p=0.017). According to QLQ-C30 questionnaire findings, CKI provided superior outcomes related to pain relief, relieving fatigue, social functioning and emotional functioning (p<0.05). The rates of adverse events (26.4% vs 30.8%, p>0.05) and severe adverse events (5.4% vs 2.8%, p>0.05) did not differ significantly between the experimental and control groups.Conclusion: CKI significantly alleviated symptomatic radiation-induced thoracic toxicity, as well as pain, when given with chemoradiotherapy for lung cancer treatment.

Background: Thoracic radiation therapy plays an important role in the treatment of inoperable lung cancer. However, radiotherapy-induced toxicity poses an important challenge for radiation oncologists. Research has shown that Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) has anti-inflammatory activity and can reduce toxicity when given with chemotherapy. So, we hypothesis CKI can decrease chemoradiotherapy-induced thoracic toxicity in lung cancer patients and conducted this randomized, multi-center study. Methods: A prospective, open, randomized, multi-center，phase IV trial was performed, in which a total of 296 lung cancer patients were enrolled and randomly divided 1:1 into experimental and control groups. The control group received standard chemoradiotherapy including precise thoracic radiotherapy (60 Gy/30 fractions/6 weeks) plus concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy. The experimental group received standard chemoradiotherapy plus CKI via mainline treatments of 250 ml CKI (20 ml diluted in 0.9% normal saline) daily for 20 continuous days. The incidence of adverse events and severity of thoracic toxicity after treatment were observed according to version 4.0 of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and quality of life (QLQ-C30) also were compared between the two groups.Results: Two hundred ninety-one qualifying patients were included in the statistical analysis. Symptomatic radiation-induced thoracic toxicity was lower in the experimental group than in the control group (14.1% vs 25.6%, p=0.017). According to QLQ-C30 questionnaire findings, CKI provided superior outcomes related to pain relief, relieving fatigue, social functioning and emotional functioning (p<0.05). The rates of adverse events (26.4% vs 30.8%, p>0.05) and severe adverse events (5.4% vs 2.8%, p>0.05) did not differ significantly between the experimental and control groups.Conclusion: CKI significantly alleviated symptomatic radiation-induced thoracic toxicity, as well as pain, when given with chemoradiotherapy for lung cancer treatment.