Expression prolife and role of miRNAs in prostate cancer / 中国医学科学院学报

miRNAs are a class of noncoding RNA molecules about 18-25 nt in length. As key gene expression regulatory factors, they may inhibit or degrade mRNA by incompletely or completely complement to mRNA. Their abnormal expressions are closely related with the carcinogenesis of prostate cancer (PCa). Some miRNAs trigger cancer, while others inhibit the malignant changes. In this article we summarize the latest information on miRNAs expression prolifing and potential biomarkers,in particular the roles of miRNAs in PCa.

Are Partin tables suitable for Chinese patients with prostate cancer? / 中华医学杂志(英文版)

<p><b>BACKGROUND</b>Recently, the number of patients with prostate cancer who needed to be treated with radical prostatectomy increased rapidly in China. There is still a difference between clinical staging and the post-operative final pathologic staging; hence, an excellent tool for accurately predicting the pathologic stages of prostate cancer is needed urgently in clinical practice. The Partin tables are the most popular and widely used tool for predicting the pathologic stages of prostate cancer because of its high accuracy and ease of implementation. The aim of this study was to externally validate the accuracy of the three versions of the Partin tables in predicting the post-operative pathologic stages in Chinese patients with prostate cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We retrospectively analyzed the data from 203 patients with prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomies between June 2000 and May 2012. The accuracies of the three versions of the Partin tables in predicting the post-operative pathologic stages in Chinese patients with prostate cancer were evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Using the 1997, 2001, and 2007 Partin tables for predicting the current cases, the AUC of organ confinement (OC) was 0.877, 0.788, and 0.726; the AUC of extracapsular extension (ECE) was 0.525, 0.615, and 0.608; the AUC of seminal vesicle invasion (SVI) was 0.875, 0.649, and 0.820; and the AUC of pelvic lymph node invasion (LNI) was 0.808, 0.758, and 0.735 respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The accuracies of the three versions of Partin tables in predicting OC, SVI, and LNI were good, especially the 2001 Partin table for SVI. In contrast, the accuracy of the three versions of the Partin tables in predicting ECE was fair. The 1997 Partin table was much better than the 2007 table in predicting OC, and the 2001 table in predicting SVI. The 2007 Partin table did not show any advantages.</p>

Estrogen receptor expression in adrenocortical carcinoma / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare but highly malignant tumor, and its diagnosis is mostly delayed and prognosis is poor. We report estrogen receptor (ER) expression in this tumor and our clinical experiences with 17 ACC cases.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The data of the 17 patients (9 females and 8 males, age range from 16 to 69 years, mean age of 42.6 years) with ACC were reviewed, and symptoms, diagnostic procedures, treatment, and results of follow-up were evaluated. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect ER expression in tumor samples from the 17 patients.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>At the time of diagnosis, 4 tumors were classified as Stage I, 4 as Stage II, 3 as Stage III, and 6 as Stage IV. Eight patients demonstrated positive nuclear immunostaining of ER. The prognosis of patients with ER positive was significantly better (P<0.05) than that of patients with ER negative, with 1- and 5-year survival rates at 86% and 60% for ER-positive patients, and 38% and 0% for ER-negative patients, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ER-positivity may be one of the factors associated with a worse prognosis of ACC.</p>