Spotlight on PSMA as a new theranostic biomarker for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (BCa) patients are diagnosed by cytology and cystoscopy. However, these diagnostic tests bear some limitations. We sought for reliable biomarkers to better determine BCa extension. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) appears to fulfill this requirement in prostate cancer but its role in BCa has not been established yet. We then analyzed 87 bladder tissue samples from 74 patients assessing PSMA expression by immunohistochemistry. The median PSMA expression, exclusively found in tumor neovasculature, in terms of H-score significantly differed between non-tumor samples and tumor samples (p = 0.00288) showing a higher neovasculature-related PSMA expression. No differences were observed in relation to tumor type, grade and stage. BCa neovasculature-related PSMA overexpression may be useful in defining the degree of extension of the neoplasm. In addition, testing PSMA expression by immunohistochemistry may hold theranostic implications both considering anti-angiogenesis agents and radio-labelled PSMA ligands for intracavitary radionuclide therapy. In our opinion, BCa neovasculature-related PSMA overexpression may be considered an apt target for anti-angiogenesis and radionuclide treatment in BCa, once the evaluation of tumor-retention time for the appropriateness of long half-life therapeutic PSMA ligands as radionuclide treatment will be performed.

Detection and Investigation of Extracellular Vesicles in Serum and Urine Supernatant of Prostate Cancer Patients.

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequently identified urological cancers. PCa patients are often over-diagnosed due to still not highly specific diagnostic methods. The need for more accurate diagnostic tools to prevent overestimated diagnosis and unnecessary treatment of patients with non-malignant conditions is clear, and new markers and methods are strongly desirable. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) hold great promises as liquid biopsy-based markers. Despite the biological and technical issues present in their detection and study, these particles can be found highly abundantly in the biofluid and encompass a wealth of macromolecules that have been reported to be related to many physiological and pathological processes, including cancer onset, metastasis spreading, and treatment resistance. The present study aims to perform a technical feasibility study to develop a new workflow for investigating EVs from several biological sources. Serum and urinary supernatant EVs of PCa, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients, and healthy donors were isolated and investigated by a fast, easily performable, and cost-effective cytofluorimetric approach for a multiplex detection of 37 EV-antigens. We also observed significant alterations in serum and urinary supernatant EVs potentially related to BPH and PCa, suggesting a potential clinical application of this workflow.

Analysis of Copy Number Variation in Urine: c-Myc Evaluation Using a Real-Time PCR Approach.

Urine cell-free DNA has been shown as an informative noninvasive source of biomarkers for a number of diseases, especially for urological cancers. Starting from the hypothesis that the gain of c-Myc gene is a frequent aberration in several cancer types, including prostate cancer, we analyzed c-Myc copy number variation in urine, studying a little case series of prostate cancer patients, to test its feasibility. Here we report a general protocol that may be considered to analyze gene copy number variation in the urine cell-free fraction.

PCA3 in Prostate Cancer.

Prostate cancer antigen 3 (PCA3) is a urinary biomarker for prostate cancer and has demonstrated a good specificity and sensitivity representing a minimally invasive test.PCA3 assay could be useful in combination with PSA to suggest an eventual rebiopsy in men who have had one or more previous negative prostate biopsies.Combination of multiple tumor biomarkers will be the trend in the near future to achieve the goal of evaluate the aggressiveness of cancer and at the same time reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies.

The androgen receptor/filamin A complex as a target in prostate cancer microenvironment.

Prostate cancer represents the major cause of cancer-related death in men and patients frequently develop drug-resistance and metastatic disease. Most studies focus on hormone-resistance mechanisms related to androgen receptor mutations or to the acquired property of prostate cancer cells to over-activate signaling pathways. Tumor microenvironment plays a critical role in prostate cancer progression. However, the mechanism involving androgen/androgen receptor signaling in cancer associated fibroblasts and consequences for prostate cancer progression still remains elusive. We now report that prostate cancer associated fibroblasts express a transcriptional-incompetent androgen receptor. Upon androgen challenging, the receptor co-localizes with the scaffold protein filamin A in the extra-nuclear compartment of fibroblasts, thus mediating their migration and invasiveness. Cancer-associated fibroblasts move towards epithelial prostate cancer cells in 2D and 3D cultures, thereby inducing an increase of the prostate cancer organoid size. Androgen enhances both these effects through androgen receptor/filamin A complex assembly in cancer-associated fibroblasts. An androgen receptor-derived stapled peptide, which disrupts the androgen receptor/filamin A complex assembly, abolishes the androgen-dependent migration and invasiveness of cancer associated fibroblasts. Notably, the peptide impairs the androgen-induced invasiveness of CAFs in 2D models and reduces the overall tumor area in androgen-treated 3D co-culture. The androgen receptor in association with ß1 integrin and membrane type-matrix metalloproteinase 1 activates a protease cascade triggering extracellular matrix remodeling. The peptide also impairs the androgen activation of this cascade. This study offers a potential new marker, the androgen receptor/filamin A complex, and a new therapeutic approach targeting intracellular pathways activated by the androgen/androgen receptor axis in prostate cancer-associated fibroblasts. Such a strategy, alone or in combination with conventional therapies, may allow a more efficient treatment of prostate cancer.

Multidisciplinary teams for the proper management of patients with genitourinary tumors: When topics set scientific societies' agenda.

INTRODUCTION: The multidisciplinary management of oncologic patients is identified as the bottom line element of quality in tumor care. METHODS: In 2015, 7 Italian scientific societies representing the specialists involved in the diagnosis and treatment of genitourinary tumors joined efforts in the Italian uro-oncologic multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) project. The aims were to promote the reorganization of genitourinary cancer care, switching to a multidisciplinary approach, reach a consensus on the core elements for the setup of MDTs in genitourinary oncology, and support health policy makers and managers in remodeling of the assistance and care of uro-oncologic patients on a national level. RESULTS: The first activity was the setup of 5 working groups, given the task of exploring selected topics: general principles, organization of MDTs, minimal requirements, economic evaluation, and relations with authorities. The groups participated in the writing of a document that was approved by the scientific societies and published on their web sites. Moreover, a few items summarizing the extensive document were approved in the first MDT Consensus Conference held in Milan in December 2015. CONCLUSIONS: The experience of this initial phase led to the opening of the team to other professionals and societies, in line with a correct management of patients with genitourinary tumors, which need a multidisciplinary as well as a multiprofessional approach with emerging techniques and procedures, and with a new project work package on genitourinary paths of care and indicators.

Carcinosarcoma of the prostate: case report with molecular and histological characterization.

BACKGROUND:: We report a case of prostatic carcinosarcoma, a rare variant of prostatic cancer, which is composed of a mixture of epithelial and mesenchymal components with a generally poor outcome. AIMS AND METHODS:: We aim to identify molecular alterations, in particular copy number variations of AR and c -MYC genes, methylation and expression of glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1), programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), AR, and phosphorylated AR expression. RESULTS:: We found a distinct molecular pattern between adenocarcinoma and carcinosarcoma, which was characterized by high AR copy number variation gain; positive expression of PD-L1, AR, and phosphorylated AR; low espression of GSTP1 in epithelial component. The sarcomatoid component had a lower gain of the AR gene, and no expression of PD-L1, AR, phosphorylated AR, or GSTP1. Both components had a gain of c-MYC copy number variation. CONCLUSIONS:: Our findings suggest that carcinosarcoma has specific molecular characteristics that could be indicative for early diagnosis and treatment selection.

GSTP1 methylation in cancer: a liquid biopsy biomarker?

The coding region of GSTP1 gene is preceded by a large CpG-rich region that is frequently affected by methylation. In many cancer types, GSTP1 is affected by hypermethylation and, as a consequence, it has a low expression. The aim of this review is to give an overview on GSTP1 methylation studies with a special focus on liquid biopsy, thus to summarize methods, results, sample types, different diseases, to have a complete information regarding this promising epigenetic biomarker. We used all the most valuable scientific search engines (PubMed, Medline, Scopus and Web of Science) searching the following keywords: GSTP1, methylation, cancer, urine, serum, plasma and blood. GSTP1 is a largely investigated tissue biomarker in several malignancies such as prostate, breast, lung and hepatocellular carcinoma with good performances especially for diagnostic purposes. As a liquid biopsy biomarker, it has been mainly investigated in prostate cancer (PCa) where it showed a high specificity but a low sensitivity; thus, it is recommended in combination with other biomarkers. Despite the large number of published papers and the promising results, GSTP1 has not yet entered the clinical practice even for PCa diagnosis. For this reason, further large and prospective studies are needed to validate this assay.

Immunotherapy for Prostate Cancer: Where We Are Headed.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common malignant neoplasms in men worldwide, and is the fifth cause of cancer-related death. In recent years, a new generation of therapies have been approved for the management of metastatic disease. Moreover, the development of new immunotherapeutic drugs has become a novel frontier for the treatment of several tumor types; to date, numerous studies have investigated their potential activity, including in prostate cancer. In this article, we discuss the role of emerging immunotherapeutic drugs in prostate cancer patients.

Italian Prostate Biopsies Group: 2016 Updated Guidelines Insights.

AIM: To present a summary of the updated guidelines of the Italian Prostate Biopsies Group following the best recent evidence of the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic review of the new data emerging from 2012-2015 was performed by a panel of 14 selected Italian experts in urology, pathology and radiology. The experts collected articles published in the English-language literature by performing a search using Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library database. The articles were evaluated using a systematic weighting and grading of the level of the evidence according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation framework system. RESULTS: An initial prostate biopsy is strongly recommended when i) prostate specific antigen (PSA) >10 ng/ml, ii) digital rectal examination is abnormal, iii) multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) has a Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PIRADS) ≥4, even if it is not recommended. The use of mpMRI is strongly recommended only in patients with previous negative biopsy. At least 12 cores should be taken in each patient plus targeted (fusion or cognitive) biopsies of suspicious area (at mpMRI or transrectal ultrasound). Saturation biopsies are optional in all settings. The optimal strategy for reducing infection complications is still a controversial topic and the instruments to reduce them are actually weak. The adoption of Gleason grade groups in adjunction to the Gleason score when reporting prostate biopsy results is advisable. CONCLUSION: These updated guidelines and recommendations are intended to assist physicians and patients in the decision-making regarding when and how to perform a prostatic biopsy.

Cell-Free DNA Integrity Analysis in Urine Samples.

Although the presence of circulating cell-free DNA in plasma or serum has been widely shown to be a suitable source of biomarkers for many types of cancer, few studies have focused on the potential use of urine cell-free (UCF) DNA. Starting from the hypotheses that normal apoptotic cells produce highly fragmented DNA and that cancer cells release longer DNA, the potential role of UCF DNA integrity was evaluated as an early diagnostic marker capable of distinguishing between patients with prostate or bladder cancer and healthy individuals. A UCF DNA integrity analysis is proposed on the basis of four quantitative real-time PCRs of four sequences longer than 250 bp: c-MYC, BCAS1, HER2, and AR. Sequences that frequently have an increased DNA copy number in bladder and prostate cancers were chosen for the analysis, but the method is flexible, and these genes could be substituted with other genes of interest. The potential utility of UCF DNA as a source of biomarkers has already been demonstrated for urologic malignancies, thus paving the way for further studies on UCF DNA characterization. The UCF DNA integrity test has the advantage of being non-invasive, rapid, and easy to perform, with only a few milliliters of urine needed to carry out the analysis.

GSTP1 Methylation and Protein Expression in Prostate Cancer: Diagnostic Implications.

GSTP1 belongs to the GSTs family, a group of enzymes involved in detoxification of exogenous substances and it also plays an important role in cell cycle regulation. Its dysregulation correlates with a large variety of tumors, in particular with prostate cancer. We investigated GSTP1 methylation status with methylation specific PCR (MS-PCR) in prostate cancer (PCa) and in benign tissue of 56 prostatectomies. We also performed immunohistochemistry (IHC) so as to correlate gene methylation with gene silencing. GSTP1 appears methylated in PCa and not in healthy tissue; IHC confirmed that methylation leads to protein underexpression (p < 0.001). GSTP1 is highly expressed in basal cell layer and luminal cells in benign glands while in prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) it stains only basal cell layer, whereas PCa glands are completely negative. We demonstrated that methylation leads to underexpression of GSTP1. The progressive loss of GSTP1 expression from healthy glands to PIN and to PCa glands underlines its involvement in early carcinogenesis.

Methylation pattern analysis in prostate cancer tissue: identification of biomarkers using an MS-MLPA approach.

BACKGROUND: Epigenetic silencing mediated by CpG island methylation is a common feature of many cancers. Characterizing aberrant DNA methylation changes associated with prostate carcinogenesis could potentially identify a tumour-specific methylation pattern, facilitating the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. The objective of the study was to assess the methylation status of 40 tumour suppressor genes in prostate cancer and healthy prostatic tissues. METHODS: We used methylation specific-multiplex ligation probe amplification (MS-MLPA) assay in two independent case series (training and validation set). The training set comprised samples of prostate cancer tissue (n = 40), healthy prostatic tissue adjacent to the tumor (n = 26), and healthy non prostatic tissue (n = 23), for a total of 89 DNA samples; the validation set was composed of 40 prostate cancer tissue samples and their adjacent healthy prostatic tissue, for a total of 80 DNA samples. Methylation specific-polymerase chain reaction (MSP) was used to confirm the results obtained in the validation set. RESULTS: We identified five highly methylated genes in prostate cancer: GSTP1, RARB, RASSF1, SCGB3A1, CCND2 (P < 0.0001), with an area under the ROC curve varying between 0.89 (95 % CI 0.82-0.97) and 0.95 (95 % CI 0.90-1.00). Diagnostic accuracy ranged from 80 % (95 % CI 70-88) to 90 % (95 % CI 81-96). Moreover, a concordance rate ranging from 83 % (95 % CI 72-90) to 89 % (95 % CI 80-95) was observed between MS-MLPA and MSP. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results highlighted that hypermethylation of GSTP1, RARB, RASSF1, SCGB3A1 and CCND2 was highly tumour-specific in prostate cancer tissue.

The role of intraoperative ultrasound in small renal mass robotic enucleation.

INTRODUCTION: As a result of the growing evidence on tumor radical resection in literature, simple enucleation has become one of the best techniques associated to robotic surgery in the treatment of renal neoplasia, as it guarantees minimal invasiveness and the maximum sparing of renal tissue, facilitating the use of reduced or zero ischemia techniques during resection. The use of a robotic ultrasound probe represents a useful tool to detect and define tumor location, especially in poorly exophytic small renal mass. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 22 robotic enucleations were performed on < 3 cm renal neoplasias (PADUA score 18 Pz 6/7 e 4 Pz 8) using a 12-5 MHz robotic ultrasound probe (BK Drop-In 8826). RESULTS: Once kidney had been isolated from the adipose capsule at the site of the neoplasia (2), the exact position of the lesion could be easily identified in all cases (22/22), even for mostly endophytic lesions, thanks to the insertion of the ultrasound probe through the assistant port. Images were produced and visualized by the surgeon using the TilePro feature of the DaVinci surgical system for producing a picture-in-picture image on the console screen. The margins of resection were then marked with cautery, thus allowing for speedy anatomical dissection. This reduced the time of ischemia to 8 min (6-13) and facilitated the enucleation technique when performed without clamping the renal peduncle (6/22). No complications due to the use of the ultrasound probe were observed. CONCLUSIONS: The use of an intraoperative robotic ultrasound probe has allowed for easier identification of small, mostly endophytic neoplasias, better anatomical approach, shorter ischemic time, reduced risk of pseudocapsule rupture during dissection, and easier enucleation in cases performed without clamping. It is noteworthy that the use of intraoperative ultrasound probe allows mental reconstruction of the tumor through an accurate 3D vision of the hidden field during surgical dissection.

An experimental study about haptic feedback in robotic surgery: may visual feedback substitute tactile feedback?

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the hypothesis that the experience of the surgeon is sufficient to partially compensate for the lack of haptic feedback of the robotic system da Vinci Si HD (Intuitive (®) ). Twenty-five international surgeons belonging to different areas of surgical specialization were divided into two groups of investigation: experts and non-experts in the use of da Vinci Platform. This allocation was made on the basis of the following criteria: the number of performed procedures, the number of robotic working days and the number of true console hours. All participants underwent a specific test to assess their ability to recognize the thickness of custom-made membranes, without the availability of haptic feedback. After the performance of the surgeons, score was given according to an appropriate evaluation system (time, preciseness, force of tension and finding a metallic object). The analysis of the performances of participants provided the following results: an average score of 8.87 for the experts compared to 3.57 of non-experts with significant difference (P < 0.05). Other parameters of interest as the average time to conduct the test showed a result of 28.8 s for experts and 71.3 s of non-experts. After our results, a significant difference between the two groups in terms of performance was found. Our hypothesis that the expertise ability of the experts might partially overcome the lack of haptic feedback was confirmed. Probably visual feedback may play a role.

Urine Cell-Free DNA Integrity Analysis for Early Detection of Prostate Cancer Patients.

INTRODUCTION: The detection of tumor-specific markers in urine has paved the way for new early noninvasive diagnostic approaches for prostate cancer. We evaluated the DNA integrity in urine supernatant to verify its capacity to discriminate between prostate cancer and benign diseases of the urogenital tract. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 131 individuals were enrolled: 67 prostate cancer patients and 64 patients with benign diseases of the urogenital tract (control group). Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were determined. Urine cell-free (UCF) DNA was isolated and sequences longer than 250 bp corresponding to 3 genes (c-MYC, HER2, and AR) were quantified by Real-Time PCR to assess UCF-DNA integrity. RESULTS: UCF-DNA was quantifiable in all samples, while UCF-DNA integrity was evaluable in all but 16 samples. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.5048 for UCF-DNA integrity and 0.8423 for PSA. Sensitivity was 0.58 and 0.95 for UCF-DNA integrity and PSA, respectively. Specificity was 0.44 and 0.69, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: UCF-DNA integrity showed lower accuracy than PSA and would not seem to be a reliable marker for early prostate cancer diagnosis. Despite this, we believe that UCF-DNA could represent a source of other biomarkers and could detect gene alterations.

Copy number analysis of 24 oncogenes: MDM4 identified as a putative marker for low recurrence risk in non muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) generally have a high risk of relapsing locally after primary tumor resection. The search for new predictive markers of local recurrence thus represents an important goal for the management of this disease. We studied the copy number variations (CNVs) of 24 oncogenes (MDM4, MYCN, ALK, PDGFRA, KIT, KDR, DHFR, EGFR, MET, SMO, FGFR1, MYC, ABL1, RET, CCND1, CCND2, CDK4, MDM2, AURKB, ERBB2, TOP2A, AURKA, AR and BRAF) using multiplex ligation probe amplification technique to verify their role as predictive markers of recurrence. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples from 43 patients who underwent transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) were used; 23 patients had relapsed and 20 were disease-free after 5 years. Amplification frequencies were analyzed for all genes and MDM4 was the only gene that showed significantly higher amplification in non recurrent patients than in recurrent ones (0.65 vs. 0.3; Fisher's test p=0.023). Recurrence-free survival analysis confirmed the predictive role of MDM4 (log-rank test p=0.041). Our preliminary results indicate a putative role for the MDM4 gene in predicting local recurrence of bladder cancer. Confirmation of this hypothesis is needed in a larger cohort of NMIBC patients.