Markers of local kidney cancer recurrence: A surgeon's mistake or a pattern? Review.

The influence of various morphological, anatomical, genetic and other factors on the local recurrence-free survival of patients who have undergone different renal cell cancer (RCC) treatment is still a rather complex, ambiguous and controversial issue for practicing oncourologists. This review evaluates the effect of several factors on both recurrence-free survival and local recurrence-free survival. The review includes articles, clinical cases, literature reviews, and meta-analyses highlighting the analysis of independent and interrelated predisposing factors for developing local recurrence of RCC from 1984 to 2020. The PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched in English, Spanish, and German. A review of the literature showed the role of the following indices in the local recurrence RCC: microvascular invasion (p = 0.001), tumor necrosis (p = 0.0001), high malignancy (Fuhrman III or IV) (HR = 38.3, 95% CI 3.1-467, p = 0.004) as histological factors, tumor size as an anatomical factor. Thus, the authors state that every centimeter of the tumor increases the risk of local recurrence (p < 0.05). A group from the Mayo Clinic showed the equivalence of different treatment methods in local RCC recurrence. Thus, in the group of patients with cT1a stage kidney cancer, the 5-year local recurrence-free survival rates were 97.7% (96.7-98.6), 95.9% (92.3-99.6), and 95.9% (92.3-99.6) for renal resection, RFA, and cryoablation, respectively. Surgical margin status is the most studied and controversial marker of local renal cell carcinoma recurrence. Researchers found a direct effect of PSM on the risk of local RCC recurrence (p < 0.01). The personalized approach with the search and evaluation of predisposing factors for the local recurrence, as well as further selection of the most optimal treatment, will allow oncourologists to improve both the effectiveness of primary treatment and the recurrence-free survival of patients.

Prognostic Value of Serum Transferrin Analysis in Patients with Ovarian Cancer and Cancer-Related Functional Iron Deficiency: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.

(1) Background: There are no reliable and widely available markers of functional iron deficiency (FID) in cancer. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of transferrin (Tf) as a marker of cancer of the ovary (CrO) and related FID. (2) Methods: The study groups consisted of 118 patients with CrO and 69 control females. Blood serum iron status was determined on a Beckman Coulter AU (USA) analyzer. Tf quantification was performed by immunoturbidimetry. The relative contents of apo- and holo-Tf (iron-free and iron-saturated Tf, respectively) were determined in eight patients and a control female by immunochromatographic analysis based on the use of monoclonal single-domain antibodies (nanobodies). (3) Results: Four groups of patients with different iron statuses were selected according to ferritin and transferrin saturation values: absolute iron deficiency (AID) (n = 42), FID (n = 70), iron overload (n = 4), normal iron status (n = 2). The groups differed significantly in Tf values (p < 0.0001). Lower values of Tf were associated with FID. Furthermore, FID is already found in the initial stages of CrO (26%). Immunosorbents based on nanobodies revealed the accumulation of apo-Tf and the decrease in holo-Tf in patients with CrO. (4) Conclusions: Tf may be a promising tool for diagnosing both CrO and associated FID.

MiRImpact, a new bioinformatic method using complete microRNA expression profiles to assess their overall influence on the activity of intracellular molecular pathways.

MicroRNAs (miRs) are short noncoding RNA molecules that regulate expression of target mRNAs. Many published sources provide information about miRs and their targets. However, bioinformatic tools elucidating higher level impact of the established total miR profiles, are still largely missing. Recently, we developed a method termed OncoFinder enabling quantification of the activities of intracellular molecular pathways basing on gene expression data. Here we propose a new technique, MiRImpact, which enables to link miR expression data with its estimated outcome on the regulation of molecular pathways, like signaling, metabolic, cytoskeleton rearrangement, and DNA repair pathways. MiRImpact uses OncoFinder rationale for pathway activity calculations, with the major distinctions that (i) it deals with the concentrations of miRs--known regulators of gene products participating in molecular pathways, and (ii) miRs are considered as negative regulators of target molecules, if other is not specified. MiRImpact operates with 2 types of databases: for molecular targets of miRs and for gene products participating in molecular pathways. We applied MiRImpact to compare regulation of human bladder cancer-specific signaling pathways at the levels of mRNA and miR expression. We took 2 most complete alternative databases of experimentally validated miR targets--miRTarBase and DianaTarBase, and an OncoFinder database featuring 2725 gene products and 271 signaling pathways. We showed that the impact of miRs is orthogonal to pathway regulation at the mRNA level, which stresses the importance of studying posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression. We also report characteristic set of miR and mRNA regulation features linked with bladder cancer.