Shunsuke Shinmei

MicroRNA-155 is a predictive marker for survival in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

To investigate the clinical significance of micro‐ribonucleic acid‐155 in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, in particular focusing on the association of expression levels of micro‐ribonucleic acid‐155 with clinicopathological factors, cancer‐specific survival and therapeutic outcomes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients.

Transrectal high-intensity focused ultrasound for treatment for patients with biochemical failure after radical prostatectomy

Abstract:  Four patients with biochemical prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) failure with suspected local recurrence at the vesico‐urethral anastomotic site after radical prostatectomy were treated using a high‐intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) device (Sonablate 500) under caudal or spinal anesthesia. The pretreatment PSA levels ranged from 0.318 to 0.898 ng/mL and their Gleason scores ranged between 5 and 7. HIFU treatment was carried out six times in four patients. The median time of operation and follow‐up period were 30 min (range, 15–37) and 13 months (range, 7–18), respectively. In all patients, the median PSA levels decreased from 0.555 ng/mL (range, 0.318–0.898) to 0.137 ng/mL (range, 0.102–0.290). The median PSA nadir after each HIFU was 0.054 ng/mL (range, 0.008–0.097). No major complications were noted. HIFU may be useful for the therapy of vesicourethral anastomostic lesion in patients with PSA failure after prostatectomy.

MicroRNA-145 is a potential prognostic factor of scirrhous type gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. In particular, scirrhous type GC is highly metastatic and is characterized clinically by rapid disease progression and poor prognosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in cancer development and progression. We previously demonstrated by microarray analysis that microRNA-145 (miR-145) is one of the more highly expressed miRNAs in scirrhous type GC vs. non-scirrhous types of GC. In the present study, we investigated the role of miR-145 in scirrhous type GC. The expression levels of miR-145 assessed by quantitative RT-PCR were higher in scirrhous type GC tissue samples than in non-scirrhous type GC and corresponding normal tissues. GC patients with high miR-145 expression were at a more advanced tumor stage (P=0.0156) and had more scirrhous type histology (P=0.0054) than those with low miR-145 expression. Furthermore, miR-145 expression was significantly associated with poor prognosis in GC patients (P=0.0438). miR-145 expression was localized in stromal fibroblasts of scirrhous type GC but not in cancer cells. miR-145 was induced by treatment by transforming growth factor-β, and it enhanced the expression of α-smooth muscle actin, a marker of myofibroblasts, in both normal gastric fibroblasts and cancer-associated fibroblasts. These data suggest that miR-145 may contribute to the progression of scirrhous type GC by regulating activation of peri-tumoral fibroblasts.

The impact of change in serum C-reactive protein level on the prediction of effects of molecular targeted therapy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

To investigate the impact of pretreatment serum C‐reactive protein (CRP) level and its change after targeted therapy on the anti‐tumour effect of targeted agents in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Identification of PRL1 as a novel diagnostic and therapeutic target for castration-resistant prostate cancer by the Escherichia coli ampicillin secretion trap (CAST) method

OBJECTIVES Although chemotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) has been applied clinically in recent years, the effects are not sufficient. It is urgently necessary to develop novel therapeutics for CRPC. We previously generated Escherichia coli ampicillin secretion trap libraries of 2 prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines and normal prostate. By comparing the E. coli ampicillin secretion trap libraries of CRPC cell lines with those of androgen-sensitive PCa cell lines and normal prostate, we focused on the protein-tyrosine-phosphatase of regenerating liver 1 (PRL1) gene and analyzed its expression and biological function. MATERIALS AND METHODS The expression of PRL1 was examined by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry in clinical PCa samples. The effects of PRL1 on PCa cells were evaluated by cell growth, migration, and invasion assays. To investigate the effect of PRL1 on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling, PRL1 knockdown PC3 cells were examined by Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses. RESULTS Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that PRL1 was expressed much more highly in PCa than in nonneoplastic prostate samples. High expression of PRL1 detected by immunohistochemistry correlated with poor prognosis after prostatectomy and combined androgen blockade therapy. Functional analysis indicated that PRL1 stimulated cell growth, migration, and invasion in PCa cell lines. Expression EGFR and matrix metalloproteinase 9 was reduced by knockdown of PRL1 in the PC3 cell line. CONCLUSIONS PRL1 regulates expression of EGFR and modulates downstream targets. PRL1 has potential as a therapeutic target in PCa including CRPC.

Effect of Spatial Cognitive Ability on Gain in Robot-Assisted Surgical Skills of Urological Surgeons

BACKGROUND Although previous studies have demonstrated the needs for a spatial cognitive ability that can give an accurate understanding of the position, orientation, and size and form of the objects in endoscopic surgery, there has been no study on the relationship between the skills of robot-assisted surgery and spatial cognitive ability. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of spatial cognitive ability on gain in robot-assisted surgical skills of urological surgeons. MATERIALS AND METHODS The robot-assisted surgery skills of 24 urological surgeons who had no previous experience with the Mimic dV-Trainer (MdVT) and had not been the main surgeon in robot-assisted surgery and 20 volunteer medical students who had no previous experience of the MdVT were assessed by using a program consisting of 4 kinds of tasks. Their performances were recorded using a built-in scoring algorithm. Their spatial cognitive abilities were also assessed using a mental rotation test. RESULTS Although there was a significant correlation between the spatial cognitive ability and a score of 2 for the more difficult tasks for student groups using the MdVT, there was no significant correlation between them for all tasks for groups of urological surgeons. CONCLUSION The results of the present study indicate that differences in spatial cognitive ability in urological surgeons have no effect on the gain in fundamental robot-assisted surgery skills whereas there was a significant correlation between the spatial cognitive ability and fundamental robot-assisted surgical skills in the volunteers.

Oligophrenin-1 is associated with cell adhesion and migration in prostate cancer.

Objective: We performed Escherichia coli ampicillin secretion trap (CAST) analysis in prostate cancer (PCa) to identify novel biomarkers. We show here that OPHN1, which encodes oligophrenin-1 protein, is upregulated in PCa. OPHN1 was first determined to be one of the genes associated with X-linked mental retardation; however, neither the genes function nor the link between its expression and survival of patients has been investigated. Methods: We investigate the expression of oligophrenin-1 in 141 PCa tissue samples by immunohistochemistry and perform functional analysis using RNA interference. Results: Immunohistochemical analysis of oligophrenin-1 demonstrated that 60 (43%) PCa cases were positive for oligophrenin-1. Positive oligophrenin-1 expression was significantly correlated with a high Gleason score (p = 0.0198). Furthermore, patients with oligophrenin-1-positive PCa had a worse biochemical recurrence-free survival rate than patients with oligophrenin-1-negative PCa (p = 0.0079). Cell adhesion to fibronectin was significantly reduced in OPHN1 small interfering (si)RNA-transfected LNCaP and PC3 cells in comparison to negative-control siRNA-transfected cells. Knockdown of OPHN1 reduced the expression of ITGA5 and stress fiber formation in LNCaP and PC3 cells. Conclusion: These results suggest that oligophrenin-1 is involved in tumor progression in PCa.

Clinicopathological significance of RCAN2 production in gastric carcinoma

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading causes of cancer‐related death worldwide. Genes expressed only in cancer tissue may be useful biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics. The aims of the present study were to analyse regulator of calcineurin 2 (RCAN2) in a large number of GCs, and to investigate how these expression patterns correlate with clinicopathological parameters and various markers.

A comparison of clinicopathological features and prognosis in prostate cancer between atomic bomb survivors and control patients

An atomic bomb (A-bomb) was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. Although numerous studies have investigated cancer incidence and mortality among A-bomb survivors, only a small number have addressed urological cancer in these survivors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinicopathological features of prostate cancer (PCa) in A-bomb survivors. The clinicopathological features and prognosis of PCa were retrospectively reviewed in 212 survivors and 595 control patients between November 1996 and December 2010. The histopathological and clinical outcomes of surgical treatment of PCa were also evaluated in 69 survivors and 162 control patients. Despite the higher age at diagnosis compared with the control group (P=0.0031), survivors were more likely to have been diagnosed with PCa from a health check compared with the control group (P<0.0001). As a consequence, the survivors were found to exhibit metastasis significantly less frequently (199/212, 93.9%) compared with the control patients (521/595, 87.6%; P=0.0076). Prognosis in the two groups was examined, subsequent to a mean length of follow-up of 44 months. Overall survival (OS) and PCa-specific survival (CS) were similar between the two groups (OS, P=0.2196; CS, P=0.1017). A-bomb exposure was not found to be an independent predictor for prognosis by multivariate analysis (OS, P=0.7800; CS, P=0.8688). The clinicopathological features of patients who underwent a prostatectomy were similar except for the diagnosis opportunity between the two groups. Progression-free survival rates were similar between the two groups (P=0.5630). A-bomb exposure was not a significant and independent predictor for worsening of progression-free prognosis by multivariate analysis (P=0.3763). A-bomb exposure does not appear to exert deleterious effects on the biological aggressiveness of PCa and the prognosis of patients with PCa.

Serous adenocarcinoma of retroperitoneum: a case report

Primary retroperitoneal serous adenocarcinoma (PRSA) is an extremely rare malignancy, with only seven cases having been previously reported. We report a case of PRSA in a 42-year-old woman treated with surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy. The histopathological findings of PRSA resemble those of ovarian serous carcinoma, which indicates that a combination of complete surgical resection with adjuvant chemotherapy may be the best treatment option for PRSA.