The Role of Tumor Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Macrophage Crosstalk in Cancer Progression.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of this review is to summarize the recently published findings regarding the role of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in tumor progression, macrophages in the tumor microenvironment, and crosstalk that exists between tumor cells and macrophages. RECENT FINDINGS: EMT is a crucial process in tumor progression. In association with EMT changes, macrophage infiltration of tumors occurs frequently. A large body of evidence demonstrates that various mechanisms of crosstalk exist between macrophages and tumor cells that have undergone EMT resulting in a vicious cycle that promotes tumor invasion and metastasis. Tumor-associated macrophages and tumor cells undergoing EMT provide reciprocal crosstalk which leads to tumor progression. These interactions provide potential targets to exploit for therapy.

The Role of Epigenetic Change in Therapy-Induced Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer Lineage Plasticity.

The androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathway is critical for growth and differentiation of prostate cancer cells. For that reason, androgen deprivation therapy with medical or surgical castration is the principal treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. More recently, new potent AR signaling inhibitors (ARSIs) have been developed. These drugs improve survival for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), the lethal form of the disease. However, ARSI resistance is nearly universal. One recently appreciated resistance mechanism is lineage plasticity or switch from an AR-driven, luminal differentiation program to an alternate differentiation program. Importantly, lineage plasticity appears to be increasing in incidence in the era of new ARSIs, strongly implicating AR suppression in this process. Lineage plasticity and shift from AR-driven tumors occur on a continuum, ranging from AR-expressing tumors with low AR activity to AR-null tumors that have activation of alternate differentiation programs versus the canonical luminal program found in AR-driven tumors. In many cases, AR loss coincides with the activation of a neuronal program, most commonly exemplified as therapy-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer (t-NEPC). While genetic events clearly contribute to prostate cancer lineage plasticity, it is also clear that epigenetic events-including chromatin modifications and DNA methylation-play a major role. Many epigenetic factors are now targetable with drugs, establishing the importance of clarifying critical epigenetic factors that promote lineage plasticity. Furthermore, epigenetic marks are readily measurable, demonstrating the importance of clarifying which measurements will help to identify tumors that have undergone or are at risk of undergoing lineage plasticity. In this review, we discuss the role of AR pathway loss and activation of a neuronal differentiation program as key contributors to t-NEPC lineage plasticity. We also discuss new epigenetic therapeutic strategies to reverse lineage plasticity, including those that have recently entered clinical trials.

The Distribution of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma by Presenting Tumor Stage in the Modern Era.

INTRODUCTION: There is a stage migration for detection of kidney cancer, thus we aim to evaluate the distribution of metastatic renal cell carcinoma by presenting clinical T stage over time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The National Cancer Database was evaluated for patients with metastatic kidney cancer from 2010 to 2016. The primary outcome was the temporal trend of presenting clinical T stage over time. The secondary outcome was overall survival. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: The incidence of metastatic kidney cancer has increased, from 3426 new cases in 2010 to 4510 in 2016. While diagnosis of metastasis has increased for all tumor stages over time, there has been a more rapid increase in metastasis of localized renal masses (cT1-T2) as compared to locally advanced disease (cT3-T4). In 2010, 46% of the new metastatic cases diagnosed were cT3-T4, while in 2016 this proportion decreased to 38.2%. Conversely, metastatic cases with cT1-T2 tumors increased from 54% in 2010 to 61.9% in 2016. Cox regression noted an increased risk of death correlating with higher clinical T stage. On Kaplan Meier analysis, the 2-year survival was 29.3%, 30.3%, 28.3%, and 16.0% for cT1, cT2, cT3, and cT4, respectively (logrank P < .001). CONCLUSION: Metastatic kidney cancer is increasingly diagnosed at a lower presenting cT stage. Survival outcomes worsen with increasing cT stage in the setting of metastasis.

Successful Nonoperative Management of High-Grade Blunt Renal Injuries.

Current management of high-grade blunt renal trauma favors a nonoperative approach when possible. We performed a retrospective study of high grade blunt renal injuries at our level I trauma center to determine the indications and success of nonoperative management (NOM). 47 patients with blunt grade IV or V injuries were identified between October 2004 and December 2013. Immediate operative patients (IO) were compared to nonoperatively managed (NOM). Of the 47 patients, 3 (6.4%) were IO and 44 (95.6%) NOM. IO patients had a higher heart rate on admission, 133 versus 100 in NOM (P = 0.01). IO patients had a higher rate of injury to the renal vein or artery (100%) compared to NOM group (18%) (P = 0.01). NOM failed in 3 of 44 patients (6.8%). Two required nonemergent nephrectomy and one required emergent exploration resulting in nephrectomy. Six NOM patients had kidney-related complications (13.6%). The renal salvage rate for the entire cohort was 87.2% and 93.2% for NOM. Nonoperative management for hemodynamically stable patients with high-grade blunt renal trauma is safe with a low risk of complications. Management decisions should consider hemodynamic status and visualization of active renal bleeding as well as injury grade in determining operative management.

Antigen-responsive, microfluidic valves for single use diagnostics.

The growing need for medical diagnostics in resource limited settings is driving the development of simple, standalone immunoassay devices. A capillary flow device using polymerization based amplification is capable of blocking a microfluidic channel in response to target biomaterials, enabling multiple modes of detection that require little or no supplemental instrumentation.

Sensitive immunofluorescent staining of cells via generation of fluorescent nanoscale polymer films in response to biorecognition.

Immunofluorescent staining is central to nearly all cell-based research, yet only a few fluorescent signal amplification approaches for cell staining exist, each with distinct limitations. Here, the authors present a novel, fluorescent polymerization-based amplification (FPBA) method that is shown to enable similar signal intensities as the highly sensitive, enzyme-based tyramide signal amplification (TSA) approach. Being non-enzymatic, FPBA is not expected to suffer from nonspecific staining of endogenous enzymes, as occurs with enzyme-based approaches. FPBA employs probes labeled with photopolymerization initiators, which lead to the controlled formation of fluorescent polymer films only at targeted biorecognition sites. Nuclear pore complex proteins (NPCs; in membranes), vimentin (in filaments), and von Willebrand factor (in granules) were all successfully immunostained by FPBA. Also, FPBA was demonstrated to be capable of multicolor immunostaining of multiple antigens. To assess relative sensitivity, decreasing concentrations of anti-NPC antibody were used, indicating that both FPBA and TSA stained NPC down to a 1:100,000 dilution. Nonspecific, cytoplasmic signal resulting from NPC staining was found to be reduced up to 5.5-fold in FPBA as compared to TSA, demonstrating better signal localization with FPBA. FPBA's unique approach affords a combination of preferred attributes, including high sensitivity and specificity not otherwise available with current techniques.