Reliable neck sonography of nodal thyroglobulin to diagnose recurrent/persistent disease from papillary thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the correlation between the sonographic features and the nodal fine-needle aspiration thyroglobulin (FNA-Tg) in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients with the recurrent/persistent lymph node for the purpose of the reasonable selection of lymph nodes. METHODS: This study prospectively contained PTC patients with the suspicious cervical lymph nodes in one medical center from April 2018 to January 2019. Each suspected lymph node was aspirated with a 22-gauge needle and the value of FNA-Tg was measured as well. RESULTS: There were 136 lymph nodes related to the disease involved. The FNA-Tg levels of 89 (65.44%) metastatic lymph nodes were significantly higher than those of the benign. The median value of the former was 631.550 ng/mL while the latter was 0.056 ng/mL (p = 0.000). The cut-off value of the metastatic lymph nodes diagnosed by FNA-Tg was 2.71 ng/mL, and 6.5 by FNA-Tg/sTg. The suspicious ultrasonographic features including cystic, hyperechoic content, and lack of hilum were closely related to the high level of FNA-Tg value (p < 0.05). However, the round shape (Solbiati index <2) and calcification were not significantly correlated with the positive FNA-Tg (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: FNA-Tg is an effective supplement to fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology in the nodal metastasis diagnosis. The FNA-Tg level was much higher in the metastatic lymph nodes. The reliable sonographic features of lymph nodes suggested the positive FNA-Tg were cystic content, hyperechoic content and lack hilum. Solbiati index <2 and calcification did not show an exact correlation with the result of FNA-Tg.

In Silico Establishment and Validation of Novel Lipid Metabolism-Related Gene Signature in Bladder Cancer.

Background: Aberrant lipid metabolism is an alteration common to many types of cancer. Dysregulation of lipid metabolism is considered a major risk factor for bladder cancer. Accordingly, we focused on genes related to lipid metabolism and screened novel markers for predicting the prognosis of bladder cancer. Methods: RNA-seq data for bladder cancer were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. The nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm was used to classify the molecular subtypes. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) was applied to identify coexpressed genes, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) multivariate Cox analysis was used to construct a prognostic risk model. External validation data and in vitro experiments were used to verify the results from in silico analysis. Results: Bladder cancer samples were grouped into two clusters based on the NMF algorithm. A total of 1467 genes involved in coexpression modules were identified in WGCNA. We finally established a 5-gene signature (TM4SF1, KCNK5, FASN, IMPDH1, and KCNJ15) that exhibited good stability across different datasets and was also an independent risk factor for prognosis. Furthermore, the predictive efficacy of our model was generally higher than the predictive efficacy of other published models. Distinct risk groups of patients also showed significantly different immune infiltration cell patterns and associations with clinical variables. Moreover, the 5 signature genes were verified in clinical samples by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry, which were in agreement with the in silico analysis. For in vitro experiments, knockdown of IMPDH1 markedly inhibited cell proliferation in bladder cancer. Conclusion: We established a 5-gene prognosis signature based on lipid metabolism in bladder cancer, which could be an effective prognostic indicator.

A Cuproptosis-Related Gene Model For Predicting the Prognosis of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Despite advances in its treatment, patients diagnosed with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have a poor prognosis. The mechanism of cuproptosis has been found to differ from other mechanisms that regulate cell death, including apoptosis, iron poisoning, pyrophosphate poisoning, and necrosis. Cuproptosis is an essential component in the regulation of a wide variety of biological processes, such as cell wall remodeling and oxidative stress responses. However, cuproptosis-related genes' expression in ccRCC patients and their association with the patient's prognosis remain ambiguous. Evaluation of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) identified 11 genes associated with cuproptosis that were differently expressed in ccRCC and nearby nontumor tissue. To construct a multigene prognostic model, the prognostic value of 11 genes was assessed and quantified. A signature was constructed by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analysis, and this signature was used to separate ccRCC patients into different risk clusters, with low-risk patients having a much better prognosis. This five-gene signature, when combined with patients' clinical characteristics, might serve as one independent predictor of overall survival (OS) in ccRCC patients. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis demonstrated that cuproptosis-related genes were enriched in patients with ccRCC. Then, quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was employed to verify these genes' expression. Generally, research has indicated that cuproptosis-related genes are important in tumor immunity and can predict OS of ccRCC patients.

Ultrasound-Guided Fine-Needle Aspiration Versus Fine-Needle Capillary Sampling in Evaluation of Lymph Node Metastasis of Thyroid Cancer.

BACKGROUND: To compare the sampling adequacy and diagnostic efficiency of ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration with 22-, 25-gauge needles and capillary sampling with 22-gauge needle in the biopsy of cervical lymph node. METHODS: A total of 130 cervical lymph nodes from 103 patients were consecutively included in the prospective study. Each suspected lymph node was aspirated with a 22-gauge needle, capillary sampled with a 22-gauge needle and aspirated with a 25-gauge needle. The adequacy rates and nondiagnostic rates of obtained specimen were calculated. RESULTS: Of the 130 suspected lymph nodes, there were 77 lymph nodes<6.0 mm and 53 lymph nodes≥6.0mm in the smallest dimension. Both FNA22G and FNC22G got significantly higher sampling adequacy than FNA25G for the total lymph nodes. For lymph nodes<6.0 mm, the sampling adequacy was significantly higher with FNA22G than with FNA25G for each parameter and the cumulative score (all P<0.05), while no difference were seen between FNA22G and FNC22G, and between FNC22G and FNA25G. There were higher nondiagnostic rates for FNA25G compared with FNA22G and FNC22G in all lymph nodes and in each size subgroups. FNA25G yielded more diagnostically inadequate specimens than FNA22G and FNC22G did in the total lymph nodes (P=0.002), in lymph nodes<6.0 mm (P=0.014), and in those ≥ 6.0 mm (P=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: FNA22G and FNC22G obtained more diagnostically adequate specimens than FNA25G in cervical lymph nodes. FNA22G and FNC22G may be more suitable than FNA25G in diagnosing cervical lymph nodes. FNA22G and FNC22G may yield specimens with similar quality.

Full Functional Sex Reversal Achieved Through Silencing of MroDmrt11E Gene in Macrobrachium rosenbergii: Production of All-Male Monosex Freshwater Prawn.

The freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii is one kind of important economic aquaculture species and displays remarkable sexual dimorphism. The molecular mechanism of sexual differentiation in M. rosenbergii has been primarily unraveled through the research efforts of the androgenic gland and its related genes. However, the understanding of conserved genes involved in the molecular mechanism underpinning sex determination and sexual differentiation of M. rosenbergii is still fragmentary. MroDmrt11E is a member of the doublesex and mab-3-related transcription factor (Dmrt) gene family and is prominently expressed in the testis. In the present study, in vivo knockdown of MroDmrt11E at the postlarva stage in male prawn induced a complete and functional sex reversal and achieved the production of an all-male monosex population. Furthermore, a great deal of new information of upregulated and downregulated transcriptions involved in sexual differentiation of MroDmrt11E knockdown was enriched by comparative transcriptomic analysis. The effects of RNAi-mediated gene knockdown of MroDmrt11E on the differentially expressed and sex-related candidate genes, such as transformer, fruitless, feminization, insulin-like androgenic gland gene, Dmrt gene family, were primarily focused on, and their possible molecular regulatory relationships in sexual differentiation were analyzed. Meanwhile, the response of primary Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) biological pathways was investigated to expound the potential roles of MroDmrt11E in male sexual differentiation, which provided a deeper understanding of the molecular regulatory network underlying sexual differentiation of M. rosenbergii. The finding provided a novel sexual manipulation technique through silencing of Dmrt gene family for achieving a complete and functional sex reversal and offered a new insight regarding the mechanism of the Dmrt gene family in the sexual differentiation of crustaceans.

The Application of Ultrasound and Fine-Needle Aspiration in Low-Volume Lateral Lymph Nodes of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Patients.

This research investigates the application of high-frequency ultrasound (US) examination and US-guided fine-needle aspiration (US-FNA) in diagnosing low-volume metastatic lateral lymph nodes (LLNs) from papillary thyroid carcinoma patients. This study reviewed the medical records of 996 LLNs from 858 patients with suspicious thyroid nodules or after thyroidectomy from January 2013 to January 2016. All patients took US-FNA. The US characteristics and the malignancy rate of LLNs classified into group A and group B based on size were analyzed and compared (group A, ≥6 mm; group B, <6 mm). Size was not an independent predictor for malignancy (P > 0.005) in multiple regression analysis, whereas the malignancy rate in the large LLNs (286/425; 67.3%) was slightly higher than that in the small LLNs (338/571; 59.2%) (P = 0.01). However, no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of calcification, absence of hilum, and peripheral vascularization. The prevalence of malignant LLNs was slightly higher in the small LLNs than that in the large ones when there were less than 3 suspicious US features (P < 0.05), and there was no significant difference between the small and large LLNs when there were 3 or more suspicious US features (P > 0.05). The results indicate that metastases may occur in the lymph nodes even when they were small. Ultrasound and US-FNA showed excellent performance in the diagnosis of low-volume metastatic lateral lymph nodes from papillary thyroid carcinoma patients.