MTA1 protein overexpression is common in early-stage NSCLC and is significantly associated with tumor angiogenesis and poor survival. These findings suggest that MTA1 may have clinical potential as a promising predictor to identify individuals with poor prognostic potential and as a possible novel target molecule of antiangiogenic therapy for patients with early-stage NSCLC.

Studies have shown that genetic activation of TFIIB-related factor 2 (BRF2) represents a unique mechanism of tumorigenesis through the increase in Pol III-mediated transcription. Several studies have shown that BRF2 is overexpressed in several types of cancer and suggest the oncogenic role of BRF2. This study aimed to examine the expression of TFIIB-related factor 2 (BRF2) in patients with esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) and explore the relationship of BRF2 expression with clinicopathologic factors, tumor angiogenesis and prognosis. We found that increased BRF2 protein expression was prevalent in esophageal squamous cell cancer and was significantly associated with deeper tumor invasion (P = 0.039) and microvessel density (P = 0.007). Additionally, expression of BRF2 was found to be an independent prognostic factor in ESCC patients. Furthermore, a significant correlation between high BRF2 expression and shorter overall survival time was found in different subgroups of ESCC patients stratified by the clinical stage, T classification and lymph node metastasis. High expression of BRF2 protein is closely associated with tumor progression and angiogenesis and poor survival of ESCC. BRF2 is a promising biomarker to identify individuals with poor prognostic potential and concludes the possibility of its use as a prognostic marker in patients with ESCC.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality all over the world. In recent years, pulmonary adenocarcinoma has surpassed squamous cell carcinoma in frequency and is the predominant form of lung cancer in many countries. Epidemiological investigations have shown an inverse relationship between garlic (Allium sativum) consumption and death rate from many cancers. Diallyl trisulfide (DATS) is one of the garlic-derived compounds (also known as: organosulfer compounds, OSC). DATS can induce apoptosis and inhibit the growth of many cancer cell lines. Our study demonstrated that the apoptotic incidents induced by DATS were a mitochondria-dependent caspase cascade through a significant decrease of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 that resulted in up-regulation of the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 and the activity of caspase-3, -8, and -9. Eventually, DATS induced the apoptosis and inhibited the proliferation in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, by establishing an animal model of female BALB/c nude mice with A549 xenografts, we found that oral gavage of DATS significantly retarded growth of A549 xenografts in nude mice without causing weight loss or any other side effects compared with the control group. All the evidence both in vitro and in vivo suggested that DATS could be an ideal anti-cancer drug.

In this study, we found that increased BRF2 protein expression was prevalent in NSCLC. Overexpression of BRF2 correlated with abnormal expression of E-cadherin, N-cadherin, and snail. Additionally, expression of BRF2 was found to be an independent prognostic factor in NSCLC patients. Furthermore, we showed that targeted knockdown of BRF2 expression could inhibit the migratory and invasive abilities of NSCLC cells and induced loss of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of NSCLC cells. These results suggested that BRF2 overexpression in tumor tissues is significantly associated with the poor prognosis of NSCLC patients through promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to examine BRF2 expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and explore the relationship of BRF2 protein with clinicopathologic factors, tumor angiogenesis and prognosis.MethodsBoth BRF2 protein and intratumoral microvessels were examined by immunohistochemical staining in 107 non-small cell lung cancer patients. Intratumoral m icrovessel density (MVD) was measured by counting CD-34 positive immunostained endothelial cells. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses were utilized to investigate the BRF2 expression status in tissuesResultsA notably higher level of BRF2 expression was found in NSCLC tissues at protein levels. In addition, univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated that BRF2 protein over-expression and high MVD were significantly associated with tumor relapse. Although BRF2 overexpression and high MVD indicated poor 5-year overall survival (p = 0.004 and p = 0.019, respectively), multivariate analysis demonstrated that only BRF2 overexpression was an independent prognostic factor for unfavorable overall survival (P = 0.021).ConclusionsBRF2 is a promising biomarker to identify individuals with poor prognostic potential and a possible target for anti-angiogenic therapy for patients with early-stage NSCLC.