Increased neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is associated with disease-specific mortality in patients with penile cancer.

BACKGROUND: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a simple marker of the systemic inflammatory response, has been demonstrated to correlate with patient outcomes for various solid malignancies. We investigated the utility of the pretreatment NLR as a prognosticator in patients who presented with penile cancer. METHODS: A total of 41 patients who underwent complete blood count with differential and subsequent radical penectomy from 1988 to 2014 were analyzed. We assessed the correlation between the NLR and the prognosis of penile cancer. RESULTS: The median and mean (± SD) NLRs in 41 penile cancer patients were 3.42 and 5.03 ± 4.99, respectively. Based on the area under receiver operator characteristic curve, the cut-off value of NLR was determined to be 2.82. Patients with a high NLR (≥2.82) showed a significantly poorer cancer-specific survival (p = 0.023) than those with a low NLR. CONCLUSIONS: The pretreatment NLR may function as a biomarker that precisely predicts the prognosis in patients with penile cancer.

Solution-Plasma Synthesis and Characterization of Transition Metals and N-Containing Carbon-Carbon Nanotube Composites.

Lithium-air batteries (LABs) have a theoretically high energy density. However, LABs have some issues, such as low energy efficiency, short life cycle, and high overpotential in charge-discharge cycles. To solve these issues electrocatalytic materials were developed for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which significantly affect battery performance. In this study, we aimed to synthesize electrocatalytic N-doped carbon-based composite materials with solution plasma (SP) using Co or Ni as electrodes from organic solvents containing cup-stacked carbon nanotubes (CSCNTs), iron (II) phthalocyanine (FePc), and N-nethyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP). The synthesized N-doped carbon-based composite materials were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). TEM observation and XPS measurements revealed that the synthesized carbon materials contained elemental N, Fe, and electrode-derived Co or Ni, leading to the successful synthesis of N-doped carbon-based composite materials. The electrocatalytic activity for ORR of the synthesized carbon-based composite materials was also evaluated using electrochemical measurements. The electrochemical measurements demonstrated that the electrocatalytic performance for ORR of N-doped carbon-based composite material including Fe and Co showed superiority to that of N-doped carbon-based composite material including Fe and Ni. The difference in the electrocatalytic performance for ORR is discussed regarding the difference in the specific surface area and the presence ratio of chemical bonding species.

Measurement of serum isoform [-2]proPSA derivatives shows superior accuracy to magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of prostate cancer in patients with a total prostate-specific antigen level of 2-10 ng/ml.

OBJECTIVE: More accurate diagnostic procedures for prostate cancer are needed to avoid unnecessary biopsy due to the low specificity of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Recent studies showed that the percentage of serum isoform [-2]proPSA (p2PSA) to free PSA (%p2PSA), the Prostate Health Index (PHI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were more accurate than PSA. The aim of this study was to test the accuracy of %p2PSA, PHI and MRI in discriminating patients with and without prostate cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects were 50 consecutive men with a PSA level of 2.0-10.0 ng/ml, who underwent prostate biopsy from October 2012 to July 2014. These patients underwent multiparametric MRI before biopsy, and their serum samples were measured for PSA, free PSA and p2PSA. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of PHI, %p2PSA and MRI were compared with PSA in the diagnosis of biopsy-confirmed prostate cancer. RESULTS: In a univariate analysis, %p2PSA [area under the curve (AUC): 0.811] and PHI (AUC 0.795) were more accurate than MRI (AUC: 0.583) and PSA (AUC: 0.554) for prostate cancer detection. At 60% sensitivity, the specificity of PHI (76.5%) was higher than that of MRI (52.9%). For significant cancer detection, %p2PSA (AUC: 0.745), PHI (AUC: 0.791) and MRI (AUC: 0.739) were marginally more accurate than PSA (AUC: 0.696). At 85% sensitivity, the specificity of MRI (62.1%) was higher than that of PHI (34.5%). CONCLUSION: PHI and %p2PSA can be used for screening the general population and MRI can be used for detection of significant cancer in patients suspected, from screening tests, of having prostate cancer.