Cervical cancer is the second most common malignancy in women, and the novel therapeutic treatment is needed. Abemaciclib is a FDA‐approved drug for breast cancer treatment. In this work, we identified that abemaciclib has potent anti‐cervical cancer activity. We demonstrate that abemaciclib is the most effective drug against human papillomavirus (HPV)‐negative cervical cancer cells compared to ribociclib and palbociclib, with its IC50 at nanomolar concentration range. This is achieved by the inhibition of proliferation and induction of apoptosis, through specifically suppressing CDK4/6‐Rb‐E2F and mTOR pathways by abemaciclib in HPV‐negative cervical cancer cells. Of note, the combination of abemaciclib with paclitaxel and cisplatin at sublethal concentration results in much greater efficacy than chemotherapy alone. In addition, we confirm the efficacy of abemaciclib and its combination with paclitaxel or cisplatin at the doses that are not toxic to mice in HPV‐negative cervical cancer xenograft mouse model. Interestingly, we show that abemaciclib and other CDK4/6 inhibitors are not effective in targeting HPV‐positive cervical cancer cells, and this is likely to be associated with the high p16 and low Rb expression in HPV‐positive cervical cancer cells. Our work is the first to provide the preclinical evidence to demonstrate the potential of abemaciclib for the treatment of HPV‐negative cervical cancer. The mechanism analysis highlights the therapeutic value of inhibiting CDK4/6 in HPV‐negative but not HPV‐positive cervical cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality around world. Heat shock protein beta-1 (HSPB1) expression is aberrantly increased in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, the roles of HSPB1 expression in the prognosis of NSCLC are still elusive. In this study, we investigated the prognostic roles of HSPB1 in NSCLC by using "The Kaplan-Meier plotter" (KM plotter) database. Our data indicated that HSPB1 mRNA low expression was correlated to better overall survival (OS) for all NSCLC patients, hazard ratio (HR) 1.41 (1.24-1.61), p=1.1e-7, and better OS in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients, HR 1.81 (1.42-2.32), p=1.5e-06, but not in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) patients, HR 1.21 (0.94-1.55), p=0.14. In addition, mRNA low expression of HSPB1 is also significantly associated with better OS of NSCLC patients in different smoking status, in different chemotherapy status, in clinical stage I & II, as well as patients with successful surgery treatment. Our results indicated that HSPB1 expression may have distinct prognostic values in NSCLC patients, and may provide an effective clinical strategy to accurately predict the prognosis of NSCLC patients.

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