ß-Ga2O3nanotube arrays for high-performance self-powered ultraviolet photoelectrochemical photodetectors.

Self-powered ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) are critical for future energy-efficient optoelectronic systems due to their low energy consumption and high sensitivity. In this paper, the vertically alignedß-Ga2O3nanotube arrays (NTs) have been prepared on GaN/sapphire substrate by the thermal oxidation process combined with the dry etching technology, and applied in the UV photoelectrochemical photodetectors (PEC-PDs) for the first time. Based on the large specific surface area ofß-Ga2O3NTs on GaN/sapphire substrates and the solid/liquid heterojunction, the PEC-PDs exhibit excellent self-powered characteristics under 255 nm (UVA) and 365 nm (UVC) light illumination. Under 255 nm (365 nm) light illumination, the maximum responsivity of 49.9 mA W-1(32.04 mA W-1) and a high detectivity of 1.58 × 1011Jones (1.01 × 1011Jones) were achieved for theß-Ga2O3NTs photodetectors at 0 V bias. In addition, the device shows a fast rise/decay time of 8/4 ms (4/2 ms), which is superior to the level of the previously reported self-powered UV PEC-PDs. This high-performance PEC-PD has potential applications in next-generation low-energy UV detection systems.

Boosting the Curie temperature of GaN monolayer through van der Waals heterostructures.

The pursuit of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures with high Curie temperature and strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) is vital to the advancement of next generation spintronic devices. First-principles calculations are used to study the electronic structures and magnetic characteristics of GaN/VS2vdW heterostructure under biaxial strain and electrostatic doping. Our findings show that a ferromagnetic ground state with a remarkable Curie temperature (477 K), much above room temperature, exists in GaN/VS2vdW heterostructure and 100% spin polarization efficiency. Additionally, GaN/VS2vdW heterostructure still maintains PMA under biaxial strain, which is indispensable for high-density information storage. We further explore the electron, magnetic, and transport properties of VS2/GaN/VS2vdW sandwich heterostructure, where the magnetoresistivity can reach as high as 40%. Our research indicates that the heterostructure constructed by combining the ferromagnet VS2and the non-magnetic semiconductor GaN is a promising material for vdW spin valve devices at room temperature.

Construction of Hospital Infection Prevention and Control System in Lhasa Region Based on Failure Mode and Effect Analysis.

Objective: To explicitly apply Failure Model and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to enhance the effectiveness of hospital infection prevention and control in the Lhasa region, with a focus on reducing infection rates and improving emergency response strategies. Methods: This study utilized a hybrid FMEA approach, combining qualitative expert insights with quantitative data analysis, to assess hospital infection risks from January 2019 to June 2023 in Lhasa hospitals. Results: The FMEA analysis led to the development of targeted strategies for key prevention and control links. For instance, implementing a real-time monitoring system for early detection of infections and enhancing staff training on infection control protocols. Conclusion: The FMEA-based system, adaptable to various healthcare settings, demonstrated potential scalability beyond the Lhasa region, offering a promising framework for improved hospital infection control globally.

[Correlation between methylation of interferon regulatory factor 6 gene promoter in renal tissues and overall survival of patients with Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prognostic value of methylation of interferon regulatory factor 6 (IRF6) gene promoter in patients diagnosed with Kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC). METHODS: The primary lesions of fifty KIRC patients who were diagnosed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2016 to January 2020 were collected. The expression of IRF6 protein was determined with an immunohistochemical method. The correlation between the level of IRF6 expression and survival and/or metastasis status was analyzed. The mRNA and protein levels of the IRF6 in KIRC and normal renal tissues were compared by using bioinformatic tools. The difference in the methylation rate of the IRF6 gene promoter between tumor and adjacent tissues was analyzed by searching the online databases. Statistical analysis was carried out for the methylation status of the IRF6 gene promoter region to select those negatively correlated with the overall survival (OS) among the patients. In vitro experiments were conducted with cell lines to verify the correlation between the status of promoter methylation and transcription level of the IRF6 gene. RESULTS: The mRNA and protein levels of the IRF6 gene in KIRC tissues were significantly lower than those of the normal controls, and this was more prominent in patients who had died or developed metastasis. The extent of IRF6 gene promoter methylation in the KIRC tissues was much higher compared with that of the adjacent normal renal tissues. There was a significant negative correlation between the methylation of the IRF6 gene promoter and mRNA level of the IRF6 (R = -0.52). The higher methylation degree in the IRF6 gene promoter regions cg12034118 and cg16030177, the shorter the OS and worse prognosis in the patients. Only twenty CpG sites in cg12034118 were confirmed to be highly methylated in KIRC cell lines. The transcription level of the IRF6 gene was upregulated in a time- and dose-dependent manner after the treatment with demethylation reagent 5-azadeoxycytidine. CONCLUSION: The methylation of IRF6 gene promoter in the renal tissues of KIRC patients is closely correlated with the OS. Cg12034118 may provide a promising biomarker for laboratory detection, and its high methylation rate has certain reference value for the prognosis.

Multimodal treatments for resectable esophagogastric junction cancer: A Bayesian network meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To comprehensively investigate the optimal multimodal treatment of resectable esophagogastric junction (EGJ) cancer. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science were searched until March 11, 2022. The outcomes were overall survival (OS), locoregional and distant recurrence, and R0 resection. Network plots, forest plots and league tables were drawn for each outcome. Rank probabilities for different treatments in each outcome were also depicted. RESULTS: A total of 23 studies with 18,319 EGJ participants were included. No significant differences in OS between any two of the 6 treatments. Perioperative chemoradiotherapy (pCRT) had the highest probability (36.03%) to be the optimal treatment as regards OS. Patients undergoing pCRT had a significantly lower incidence of locoregional recurrence than those undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy (aCT), neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT), perioperative chemotherapy (pCT), or surgery alone (S). Patients with pCRT had the greatest likelihood (68.86%) to have the lowest incidence of locoregional recurrence. Comparable impacts of the 6 treatments on the incidence of distant recurrence, and pCRT was most likely (46.65%) to be the optimal treatment with respect to distant recurrence. Neoadjuvant CRT (nCRT) was associated with a significantly increased incidence of R0 resection compared with nCT or S, and nCRT had the highest probability (97.68%) to be the best therapy regarding R0 resection. CONCLUSION: For patients with resectable EGJ cancer, pCRT may be the optimal multimodal treatment regarding survival and recurrence.

'Triple clear': a systematic and comprehensive surgical process for Campanacci grades II and III giant cell tumors of the bone, with or without pathological fracture and slight joint invasion.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, researchers have proposed a number of adjuvant methods for extended curettage of giant cell tumors of the bone. However, various schemes have significant differences in efficacy and safety. Therefore, this article will describe an empirical expanded curettage protocol, 'triple clear', in detail to show the effect of the efficient surgical protocol. METHOD: Patients with Campanacci grades II and III primary GCTB who were treated with either SR (n = 39) or TC (n = 41) were included. Various perioperative clinical indicators, including the therapy modality, operation time, Campanacci grade, and filling material were recorded and compared. The pain level was determined by the visual analog scale. Limb function was determined by the Musculoskeletal Tumour Society (MSTS) score. Follow-up time, recurrence rates, reoperation rates, and complication rates were also recorded and compared. RESULT: The operation time was 135.7 ± 38.4 min in the TC group and 174.2 ± 43.0 min in the SR group (P < 0.05). The recurrence rates were 7.3% in the TC group and 8.3% in the SR group (P = 0.37). The MSTS scores at three months after surgery were 19.8 ± 1.5 in the TC group and 18.8 ± 1.3 in the SR group. The MSTS scores at two years were 26.2 ± 1.2 in the TC group and 24.3 ± 1.4 in the SR group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: TC is recommended for patients with Campanacci grade II-III GCTB and for those with a pathological fracture or slight joint invasion. Bone grafts may be more suitable than bone cement in the long term.

Environmental explanation of prostate cancer progression based on the comprehensive analysis of perfluorinated compounds.

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are man-made chemicals used in the manufacture of many products with water and dirt repellent properties. Many diseases have been proved to be related to the exposure of PFCs, including breast fibroadenoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer and leydig cell adenoma. However, whether the PFCs promote the progression of prostate cancer remains unclear. In this work, through comprehensive bioinformatics analysis, we discovered the correlation between the prostate cancer and five PFCs using Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases. In addition, further analysis showed that several PFCs-related genes demonstrated strong prognostic value for prostate cancer patients. The survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves revealed that PFCs-related genes based prognostic model held great predictive value for the prognosis of prostate cancer, which could potentially serve as an independent risk factor in the future. In vitro experiments verified the promotive role of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) in the growth of prostate cancer cells. This study provided novel insights into understanding the role of PFCs in prostate cancer and brought attention to the environmental association with cancer risks and progression.

A comprehensive prostate biopsy standardization system according to quantitative multiparametric MRI and PSA value: P.R.O.S.T score.

BACKGROUND: Although most studies believe that systematic biopsy (SB) and targeted biopsy (TB) should be performed simultaneously in patients with suspected prostate cancer, we believe that patients with the Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) score of 4/5 may be able to perform TB only. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the pathological results of patients undergoing transperineal prostate biopsy with PI-RADS 4 and 5 in our center. We use the data from 2019 to 2020 as the training set to establish the prediction model and the data from 2021 as the verification set to test the effectiveness. Through stepwise logistics regression analysis, we integrate statistically significant clinical factors and establish a model to further predict whether the target area is tumor. RESULTS: The results showed that age (O), total number of lesions (T), histological region (R), PI-RADS score (S), and PSA density (P) were significantly correlated with the results of TB, and the formula was: p = 1/[1 + e^(- 11.387 + 0.058 × O + (- 0.736 × T) + 0.587 × R + 1.574 × S + 7.338 × P)]. The area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the prediction model was 0.840 (95% CI 0.802-0.877), with the optimal threshold of 0.762. And the corresponding specificity and sensitivity were 0.765 and 0.752. In the validation set, the AUC of the prediction model was 0.816 (95% CI 0.759-0.874), which means that it has good prediction efficiency. CONCLUSION: The P.R.O.S.T score can effectively screen PI-RADS 4/5 lesions, which may help physicians shunt patients who need prostate biopsy to reduce unnecessary systematic biopsies.

Autofluorescence detection and co-axial projection for intraoperative localization of parathyroid gland.

BACKGROUND: Near-infrared (NIR) autofluorescence detection is an effective method for identifying parathyroid glands (PGs) in thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy. Fiber optical probes provide quantitative autofluorescence measurements for PG detection owing to its high sensitivity and high excitation light cut-off efficiency at a fixed detection distance. However, an optical fiber probe lacks the imaging capability and cannot map the autofluorescence distribution on top of normal tissue background. Therefore, there is a need for intraoperative mapping of PGs with high sensitivity and imaging resolution. METHODS: We have developed a fluorescence scanning and projection (FSP) system that combines a scanning probe and a co-axial projector for intraoperative localization and in situ display of PGs. Some of the key performance characteristics, including spatial resolution and sensitivity for detection, spatial resolution for imaging, dynamic time latency, and PG localization capability, are characterized and verified by benchtop experiments. Clinical utility of the system is simulated by a fluorescence-guided PG localization surgery on a tissue-simulating phantom and validated in an ex vivo experiment. RESULTS: The system is able to detect indocyanine green (ICG) solution of 5 pM at a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Additionally, it has a maximal projection error of 0.92 mm, an averaged projection error of 0.5 ± 0.23 mm, and an imaging resolution of 748 µm at a working distance ranging from 35 to 55 cm. The dynamic testing yields a short latency of 153 ± 54 ms, allowing for intraoperative scanning on target tissue during a surgical intervention. The simulated fluorescence-guided PG localization surgery has validated the system's capability to locate PG phantom with operating room ambient light interference. The simulation experiment on the PG phantom yields a position detection bias of 0.36 ± 0.17 mm, and an area intersection over unit (IoU) of 76.6% ± 6.4%. Fluorescence intensity attenuates exponentially with the thickness of covered tissue over the PG phantom, indicating the need to remove surrounding tissue in order to reveal the weak autofluorescence signal from PGs. The ex vivo experiment demonstrates the technical feasibility of the FSP system for intraoperative PG localization with accuracy. CONCLUSION: We have developed a novel probe-based imaging and navigation system with high sensitivity for fluorescence detection, capability for fluorescence image reconstruction, multimodal image fusion and in situ PG display function. Our studies have demonstrated its clinical potential for intraoperative localization and in situ display of PGs in thyroidectomy or parathyroidectomy.

Promoting cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and glycolysis: Glycometabolism-related genes act as prognostic signatures for prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: The Warburg effect seen in most solid tumors occurs only in the late stages of prostate cancer (PCa). Currently, the management of patients with low-risk localized PCa and patients after radical therapy remains a challenge. Our objective here was to evaluate glycometabolism-related genes as prognostic signatures for PCa. METHODS: The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) databases and glycometabolism-related gene sets were obtained online. Glycometabolic prognostic signatures were identified and validated in a TCGA cohort and tested in an ICGC cohort. We used the gene set enrichment analysis to reveal biological processes associated with the glycometabolism-related signatures. Novel glycometabolism-related genes were selected for verifying their oncogenic phenotypes in vitro. RESULTS: Two glycometabolic prognostic signatures were applied respectively to construct risk score formulas for PCa. Survival and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed to detect the value of these prognostic signatures. We performed univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses in the TCGA cohort, demonstrating the independence of the prognostic signatures. Three glycometabolism-related genes were found to be novel PCa-associated genes. These were shown to affect proliferation, cell cycle progression, and glycolysis of DU145 and PC3 cells in different degrees. CONCLUSION: The present research represents the first glycometabolic and high-throughput investigation on PCa, revealing potential biomarkers and treatment targets. We confirm the vital role of glycometabolism in PCa and provide essential resources for future exploration of metabolism in PCa.

Lower Cerebrovascular Reactivity Contributed to White Matter Hyperintensity-Related Cognitive Impairment: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study.

BACKGROUND: Impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). The pathogenesis of CVR in the development of WMH-related cognitive impairment (CI) remains poorly understood. PURPOSE: To detect the CVR status in WMH subjects with/without CI by using a resting-state blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) approach and to explore the mediating relationships among CVR, WMH, and cognitive level. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS: Subjects with moderate to severe WMH (with CI [WMH-CI], n = 68; without CI [WMH-no-CI, n = 63) as well as normal controls (NCs, n = 87). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3.0T with gradient-recalled echoplanar imaging and 3D fluid-attenuated inversion recovery. ASSESSMENT: The CVR, WMH volume, and cognitive level were assessed. The CVR map was derived using BOLD signal obtained from resting-state functional MRI data. STATISTICAL TESTS: CVR maps were compared among the three groups. Partial correlation analyses were performed to correlate impaired CVR with WMH volume and cognitive test scores. Mediation analysis was conducted to determine whether WMH acted as a mediating factor between CVR and cognitive function. RESULTS: Compared with the NC group, both WMH groups showed reduced CVR in the left hemisphere (P < 0.05). The WMH-CI group showed further decreased CVR in the left frontal area, when compared with the WMH-no-CI group (P < 0.05). In the WMH-CI group, the lower CVR in left frontal area was a strong indicator of poor performance on general cognition (r = 0.311), executive function (r = 0.362), and information processing speed (r = 0.399) (all P < 0.05). Periventricular WMH (PWMH) volume mediated these correlations, the ß and 95% bootstrap confidence intervals were (0.5097, [0.1498,1.1385]), (-0.4081, [-1.0256,-0.1363]), and (-0.5576, [-1.4666,-0.1538]), respectively. DATA CONCLUSION: WMH-CI subjects showed a greater reduction of CVR derived from a resting-state BOLD approach in the left frontal area than WMH-no-CI subjects. Cognition was highly dependent on the integrity of cerebrovascular reactivity and mediated by PWMH burden. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

Knockdown of ALPK2 blocks development and progression of renal cell carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the urinary system, whose molecular mechanism is still not clear. ALPK2 is a member of alpha protein kinase family, and its relationship with RCC is never reported. In this study, expression of ALPK2 in tumor tissues or cells of RCC was detected by qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. The effects of ALPK2 knockdown on cell proliferation, colony formation, cell migration and apoptosis were assessed by MTT, colony formation assay, wound-healing assay, Transwell assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The influence of ALPK2 knockdown on tumor growth in vivo was evaluated by mice xenograft models. The results demonstrated that ALPK2 was upregulated in tumor tissues of RCC and its high expression was significantly associated with advanced stage and poor prognosis. Knockdown of ALPK2 could inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation and cell migration of RCC cells, while promoting cell apoptosis. The suppression of tumor growth in vivo by ALPK2 knockdown was also showed by using mice xenograft models. Moreover, the regulation of RCC by ALPK2 may involve Akt, CDK6, Cyclin D1 and PIK3CA signaling. Therefore, our studies suggested that ALPK2 may act as a tumor promotor in the development and progression of RCC, and could be considered as a novel therapeutic target for RCC treatment.

Role of TSP-1 as prognostic marker in various cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Published studies present conflicting data regarding the impact of Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) expression on prognosis of various cancers. We performed this meta-analysis to illustrate the preliminary predictive value of TSP-1. METHODS: Twenty-four studies with a total of 2379 patients were included. A comprehensive literature search was performed by using PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, and hand searches were also conducted of relevant bibliographies. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for patient survival and disease recurrence were initially identified to explore relationships between TSP-1 expression and patient prognosis. RESULTS: A total of 24 eligible studies were included in this meta-analysis. Our results showed that high level of TSP-1 was correlated significantly with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.17 ~ 1.68; P<0.001). However, high TSP-1 expression predicted no significant impact on progression-free survival (PFS)/ metastasis-free survival (MFS) (HR = 1.35, 95%CI: 0.87-2.10; P = 0.176) and disease-free survival (DFS)/ recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 1.40, 95%CI: 0.77-2.53; P = 0.271). In addition, we performed subgroup analyses which showed that high TSP-1 expression predicted poor prognosis in breast cancer and gynecological cancer. Additionally, the relatively small number of studies on PFS/MFS and DFS/RFS is a limitation. The data extracted through Kaplan-Meier curves may not be accurate. Moreover, only English articles were included in this article, which may lead to deviations in the results. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated high TSP-1 expression may act as a promising biomarker of poor prognosis in cancers, especially in breast cancer and gynecological cancer.

Weakly-supervised convolutional neural networks of renal tumor segmentation in abdominal CTA images.

BACKGROUND: Renal cancer is one of the 10 most common cancers in human beings. The laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) is an effective way to treat renal cancer. Localization and delineation of the renal tumor from pre-operative CT Angiography (CTA) is an important step for LPN surgery planning. Recently, with the development of the technique of deep learning, deep neural networks can be trained to provide accurate pixel-wise renal tumor segmentation in CTA images. However, constructing the training dataset with a large amount of pixel-wise annotations is a time-consuming task for the radiologists. Therefore, weakly-supervised approaches attract more interest in research. METHODS: In this paper, we proposed a novel weakly-supervised convolutional neural network (CNN) for renal tumor segmentation. A three-stage framework was introduced to train the CNN with the weak annotations of renal tumors, i.e. the bounding boxes of renal tumors. The framework includes pseudo masks generation, group and weighted training phases. Clinical abdominal CT angiographic images of 200 patients were applied to perform the evaluation. RESULTS: Extensive experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a higher dice coefficient (DSC) of 0.826 than the other two existing weakly-supervised deep neural networks. Furthermore, the segmentation performance is close to the fully supervised deep CNN. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed strategy improves not only the efficiency of network training but also the precision of the segmentation.

Hybridization of Defective Tin Disulfide Nanosheets and Silver Nanowires Enables Efficient Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 into Formate and Syngas.

Integrating the defect engineering and conductivity promotion represents a promising way to improve the performance of CO2 electrochemical reduction. Herein, the hybridized composite of defective SnS2 nanosheets and Ag nanowires is developed as an efficient catalyst for the production of formate and syngas toward CO2 electrochemical reduction. The Schottky barrier in Ag-SnS2 hybrid nanosheets is negligible due to the similar Fermi level of SnS2 nanosheets and Ag nanowires. Accordingly, the free electrons of Ag nanowires participate in the electronic transport of SnS2 nanosheets, and thus give rise to a 5.5-fold larger carrier density of Ag-SnS2 hybrid nanosheets than that of SnS2 nanosheets. In CO2 electrochemical reduction, the Ag-SnS2 hybrid nanosheets display 38.8 mA cm-2 of geometrical current density at -1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode, including 23.3 mA cm-2 for formate and 15.5 mA cm-2 for syngas with the CO/H2 ratio of 1:1. A mechanistic study reveals that the abundant defect sites and carrier density not only promote the conductivity of the electrocatalyst, but also increase the binding strength for CO2 , which account for the efficient CO2 reduction.

ALDH1A3 correlates with luminal phenotype in prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common male malignancies in the United States. The specific characteristics of different disease stages have been deeply investigated. We present our data on ALDH1A3 as a potential therapeutic target for the prostate cancer based on several functional investigations. Also, we used The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets for primary prostate cancer to detect the relevance of ALDH1A3 and prostate cancer luminal phenotype. We found that ALDH1A3 correlated with androgen receptor signaling pathway in primary prostate cancer, which is consistent with its luminal layer localization. Then, from the genetic manipulation assay, we knocked out the ALDH1A3 in PC-3 cells and found significantly reduced proliferation rate as well as the invasion ability. Furthermore, we looked up our single center primary prostate cancer post-operative follow-up data and suggested that the high level ALDH1A3 expression could predict the poor progression-free survival in a 158-patient cohort. We concluded that ALDH1A3, localized in luminal layer in prostate epithelium, is highly expressed in prostate cancer. It played important role in maintaining the proliferation, invasion, and cell cycle. It can also become the potential biomarker in the future to guide the therapeutic manipulations for primary prostate cancer.

Retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with segmental renal artery clamping for cancer of the left upper calyx: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Currently, the standard treatment for renal pelvis carcinoma is radical nephroureterectomy with bladder cuff excision. To describe the feasibility of retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with segmental renal artery clamping for cancer of renal pelvis, we report this special case for the first time. CASE PRESENTATION: A 67-year-old woman received this operation. Preoperative ureteroscopy revealed a papillary neoplasm with a pedicle in the upper calyx of the left kidney. After entering the retroperitoneal space and dissociating the renal artery and renal vein, the target artery was clamped beyond the final bifurcation before entering the parenchyma. After incision of the left renal parenchyma and exposure of the upper calyceal neck, the tumor was found confined to the upper calyx. Thereafter, the renal calyx and parenchyma were sutured successively after complete resection of the neoplasm. Postoperative pathological examination confirmed that the Grade I papillary carcinoma was confined to the mucosal layer. Thus far, there is no evidence of recurrence during the follow-up period for more than 42 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with segmental renal artery clamping of the kidney provides a feasible treatment modality for noninvasive tumors that are limited to the calyx.

Application and analysis of retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with sequential segmental renal artery clamping for patients with multiple renal tumor: initial experience.

BACKGROUND: To explore the feasibility and safety of retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with sequential segmental renal artery clamping for the patients with multiple renal tumor of who have solitary kidney or contralateral kidney insufficiency. METHODS: Nine patients who have undergone retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with sequential segmental renal artery clamping between October 2010 and January 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical materials and parameters during and after the operation were summarized. RESULTS: Nineteen tumors were resected in nine patients and the operations were all successful. The operation time ranged from 100 to 180 min (125 min); clamping time of segmental renal artery was 10 ~ 30 min (23 min); the amount of blood loss during the operation was 120 ~ 330 ml (190 ml); hospital stay after the operation is 3 ~ 6d (5d). There was no complication during the perioperative period, and the pathology diagnosis after the surgery showed that there were 13 renal clear cell carcinomas, two papillary carcinoma and four perivascular epithelioid cell tumors with negative margins from the 19 tumors. All patients were followed up for 3 ~ 60 months, and no local recurrence or metastasis was detected. At 3-month post-operation follow-up, the mean serum creatinine was 148.6 ± 28.1 µmol/L (p = 0.107), an increase of 3.0 µmol/L from preoperative baseline. CONCLUSIONS: For the patients with multiple renal tumors and solitary kidney or contralateral kidney insufficiency, retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy with sequential segmental renal artery clamping was feasible and safe, which minimized the warm ischemia injury to the kidney and preserved the renal function effectively.

Super-Selective Artery Embolization before Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy in Treating Renal Angiomyolipoma.

INTRODUCTION: To investigate the feasibility and efficiency of super-selective artery embolization (SAE) before laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) in treating renal angiomyolipoma (RAML). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 36 consecutive patients who underwent SAE before LPN (group A, n = 16) or LPN directly (group B, n = 20) from June 2010 to March 2016. Intraoperative blood loss, blood transfusion, operation time, warm ischemia time (WIT), and prognosis were compared between groups. RESULTS: SAE before LPN decreased operating time, intraoperative blood loss and WIT (p < 0.05), and improved postoperative renal function (p < 0.001). Complications in group B included intraoperative blood loss of 4 patients and postoperative hematuria of 2 patients who recovered a few days later. No complications were observed in group A. In the follow-up of 3 months, a patient in group B formatted retroperitoneal hematoma without any symptoms and received expectant treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The application of SAE before LPN can decrease the difficulty of the surgery, the complications, and the risk of rebleeding and RAMLs recurrence.

miRNA-154-5p Inhibits Proliferation, Migration and Invasion by Targeting E2F5 in Prostate Cancer Cell Lines.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs (18-25 nucleotides) which post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression by negatively regulating the stability or translational efficiency of their target mRNAs. This study aimed to determine the function of miR-154-5p in prostate cancer (PCa) cells and identify the novel molecular targets regulated by miR-154-5p. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effects of forced miR-154-5p expression or E2F transcription factor 5 (E2F5) knockdown on PCa cells were evaluated by cell proliferation, flow cytometry, cell migration and invasion assays as well as by Western blot analysis. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to verify the precise target of miR-154-5p. RESULTS: The forced expression of miR-154-5p or E2F5 knockdown significantly restrained cell growth, as well as the migratory and invasive capabilities. Such expression also induced G1 cell cycle arrest of PCa cells in vitro. Hence, E2F5 is a direct target gene of miR-154-5p. CONCLUSIONS: miR-154-5p may play an important role as an inhibitor of proliferation, migration and invasion of PCa by targeting E2F5 in PCa cell lines.