Background: Malnutrition and systemic inflammatory response are frequently associated with prognosis in patients with several types of cancer, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The study is aimed to investigate the ability of preoperative serum albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) to predict the long-term mortality of RCC patients. Methods: The study is a retrospective study of an unselected cohort of 895 RCC patients who underwent a curative radical or partial nephrectomy at the Department of Urology in the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center between January 2000 and December 2012 and had documented preoperative serum total protein and albumin (ALB) levels. The preoperative AGR was calculated as the ratio of ALB to (total protein-ALB) and its association with other clinical indices was assessed using survival analysis. Results: Low preoperative AGR was associated with older population, lower hemoglobin, higher total protein, lower ALB, lower body mass index and advanced stage. The univariate and multivariate Cox analyses demonstrated that preoperative AGR was an independent prognostic indicator of overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio (HR): 0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.43 to 0.93, P=0.022). In addition, patients with low preoperative AGR at pT1-2, pT3-4, pN0, pN1, pM0 and pM1 stages had significantly shorter OS than patients with high preoperative AGR. Conclusion: Preoperative AGR is a proven objective, reproducible, inexpensive survival predictor of RCC patients following surgical resection and should be considered for routine clinical use.

Background Testis-sparing surgery is not popular in South China. This study aimed to investigate this procedure for pediatric testicular tumors. Methods Children with testicular benign tumors were retrospectively analyzed from January 2001 to June 2015 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) and the First Affiliated Hospital (SYSU-1st). Follow-up was performed until June 2016, and the proportions of TSS in the two hospitals during the different periods were compared. Results Forty-seven children with testicular benign tumors were enrolled, and 16 cases underwent testis-sparing surgery. All patients were cured and discharged, which included mature teratoma ( n = 37), testicular adrenal rest tumors ( n = 4), epidermal cysts ( n = 3), granulomatous inflammation ( n = 2) and adenomatoid tumors ( n = 1). Inguinal testis-sparing surgery was performed in 16 children, and no recurrence was detected during follow-up. It was performed more frequently in SYSUCC than in SYSU-1st ( P = 0.031), and the tumor size of these patients was smaller than those of patients who underwent radical orchiectomy ( P = 0.044). Moreover, testis-sparing surgery has become more common in the past 5 years, although differences over time have not reached significance ( P = 0.051). Conclusions Testis-sparing surgery is reliable, and tumor size and special hospitals affect its success. Additionally, its use has become more popular in recent years. However, advocacy is still needed for the use of this technique in pediatric testicular benign tumors that are small sized.

Protein tyrosine kinase 6 (PTK6) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase and works as an oncogene in various cancers. Recently, PTK6 has been used as a therapeutic target for breast cancer patients in a clinical study. However, the prognostic value of PTK6 in bladder cancer (BC) remains vague. Therefore, we retrieved 3 independent investigations of Oncomine database and found that PTK6 is highly expressed in BC tissues compared with corresponding normal controls. Similar results were also observed in clinical specimens at both mRNA and protein levels. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that PTK6 overexpression was highly related to the T classification, N classification, grade, recurrence, and poor prognosis of BC patients. Furthermore, we demonstrated that when PTK6 expression was knocked down by siRNAs, cell proliferation and migration were considerably inhibited in BC cell lines T24 and EJ. By these approaches, we are intended to elucidate PTK6 may be a reliable therapeutic target in BC and might benefit from PTK6 inhibitors in the future.

PURPOSE:The prognostic value of serum cystatin-C (Cys-C) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains unknown. The purpose of this study is to explore the prognostic value of Cys-C for RCC patients.PATIENTS AND METHODS:The levels of preoperative Cys-C, creatinine (CRE) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR) were retrospectively collected in 325 RCC patients undergoing surgery. The cutoff values of Cys-C, CRE and e-GFR were determined by the standardized Cutoff Finder algorithm. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and pairwise comparison were performed to compare the three variables. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to investigate the prognostic value of serum Cys-C in RCC.RESULTS:Based on the analysis of Cutoff Finder algorithm, ROC curve and pairwise comparison, the preoperative Cys-C was superior to CRE and e-GFR as a predictive factor in RCC. Multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that high preoperative Cys-C (>1.09 mg/L) was significantly associated with shorter overall survival (OS) in all RCC patients (hazard ratio [HR], 1.59; P = 0.012), patients at pT1-2 (P<0.001), pN0 (P<0.001) and pM0 stages (P<0.001). Moreover, Multivariate Cox regression analyses also showed that in the 306 patients without metastasis, high preoperative Cys-C was also associated with shorter disease-free survival (DFS) (HR, 3.50; P = 0.013).CONCLUSIONS:An elevated preoperative Cys-C level was demonstrated to be related with worse survival in patients with RCC. Measuring preoperative serum Cys-C might be a simple way for finding poor prognostic patients and patients with elevated preoperative Cys-C level should be more closely followed up.

Objective To analyze the outcome of intra-artery chemotherapy for T1G3 bladder cancer , and its effectiveness and safety. Methods From June 2003 to May 2014, 39 patients with T1G3 bladder cancer chose intra-artery chemotherapy (Gemcitabine plus cis-platin), and close follow-up was required after 2 cycles of chemotherapy. During the follow-up, transurethral resection of bladder tumor was performed for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, and cystectomy was performed for muscle invasive tumor. Results Of all patients, 32 were male and 7 were female. The median age was 56 years old (range: 32-82 years), and median follow-up time was 56 months (range: 12-136 months). Nineteen patients were primary bladder cancer, and 20 were recurrent tumor. During the follow-up, 17 patients developed recurrent tumors, including 8 progressed tumors and 3 died from tumor. Two-year and 5-year progressed-free survival were 88% and 74%, and 2-year and 5-year cancer-specific survival were 97% and 89%, respectively. During 5 years′ follow-up, 81% survivor preserved intact bladder, and only 1 patient cancelled chemotherapy for adverse effect. Conclusions Intra-artery chemotherapy (GC regimen) is a choice for T1G3bladder cancer, preventing from disease progression with good tolerance.