Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma features a dense, desmoplastic tumor microenvironment (TME) dominated by cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). While gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (approximated as gemcitabine plus paclitaxel [GP]) and gemcitabine plus S-1 (GS) are standard regimens with distinct clinical indications, their specific effects on tumor suppression and CAF-associated stromal remodeling remain unclear. Using a hum...

Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) remains a clinically challenging malignancy with limited treatment options and poor prognosis. Although genomic profiling has identified potentially actionable alterations, optimal therapeutic strategies are often unclear. Here, we report the establishment and characterization of a patient-derived tumoroid from an EGFR -amplified CUP and evaluate its utility as a functional model for therapeu...

Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) ranks as the 6th most common malignancy among women. Emerging evidence indicates that the dysregulation of tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) is involved in the pathogenesis of multiple cancer types, including UCEC; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying the roles of tRFs in UCEC remain poorly characterized. Desmocollin3 (DSC3), a transmembrane protein, is predominantly expressed in...

β-Lapachone exhibits potent anticancer activity although its clinical application remains limited by toxicity and mechanisms of resistance. Therefore, structural modifications have been explored to improve its pharmacological profile. This study evaluated the cytotoxic, genotoxic, and toxicological effects of the oxime derivative β-lapachone oxime (Oxβ-Lp), together with its predicted pharmacokinetic properties and potential m...

Gallbladder cancer (GBC), the most common malignancy of the biliary tract, exhibits a high propensity for lymphatic system invasion. However, the mechanisms underlying lymphatic metastasis in GBC remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that C–C motif chemokine ligand 21 (CCL21) is significantly upregulated in GBC and positively correlates with lymphatic vessel density and lymph node metastasis. Both in vivo and in vitro...

Germline variants in leukemia predisposition genes are increasingly detected in pediatric patients. Nevertheless, the rare variants identified in diagnostic samples may be misinterpreted without variant-level functional evaluation and cautious clinical interpretation. Whole-exome sequencing was performed on 28 individuals from five kindreds in which at least two children developed acute leukemia. Results identified a rare ETV6...