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Background: Human placental allografts are widely used to promote wound healing. Placental (or amniotic membrane/umbilical cord) allografts are placed along the neurovascular bundles during radical prostatectomy to improve continence and erectile function recovery. It is unknown whether placental allografts impact biochemical recurrence (BCR)., Methods: This was a single-surgeon retrospective study of 566 robotic radical prostatectomies performed from April 2015 to March 2021. The patients were divided into three groups: the negative control, Brand A, and Brand B. Brand A and Brand B were both cryopreserved amniotic membrane (CAM) allografts. A total of 324 cases were included for BCR Kaplan-Meier and risk-adjusted multivariate analyses (362 for continence analysis). In vitro analyses were performed to determine the effect of CAM allografts on prostate cancer (PCa) cell line growth., Results: For propensity score-matched analysis (adjusting for pre-operative PSA, tumor stage, Gleason Grade, and margin status), (1) the allograft groups did not show differences in time to BCR vs. the negative control group ( p = 0.7), and (2) combined allograft treatment groups showed better continence recovery vs. the negative controls ( p = 0.01). In vitro, placental allografts reduced PCa cell line growth in co-culture assays., Conclusions: cryopreserved AM allografts (combined or individual brands) did not show a significant effect on BCR but improved continence recovery for PCa patients.

As cutting-edge technologies applied for the study of body fluid molecular biomarkers are continuously evolving, clinical applications of these biomarkers improve. Diverse forms of circulating molecular biomarkers have been described, including cell-free DNA (cfDNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and cell-free microRNAs (cfmiRs), although unresolved issues remain in their applicability, specificity, sensitivity, and reproducibility. Translational studies demonstrating the clinical utility and importance of cfmiRs in multiple cancers have significantly increased. This review aims to summarize the last 5 years of translational cancer research in the field of cfmiRs and their potential clinical applications to diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring disease recurrence or treatment responses with a focus on solid tumors. PubMed was utilized for the literature search, following rigorous exclusion criteria for studies based on tumor types, patient sample size, and clinical applications. A total of 136 studies on cfmiRs in different solid tumors were identified and divided based on tumor types, organ sites, number of cfmiRs found, methodology, and types of biofluids analyzed. This comprehensive review emphasizes clinical applications of cfmiRs and summarizes underserved areas where more research and validations are needed., (© 2024 The Author(s). Molecular Oncology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Federation of European Biochemical Societies.)

Background: Inguinal lymph node dissection plays an important role in the management of melanoma, penile and vulval cancer. Inguinal lymph node dissection is associated with various intraoperative and postoperative complications with significant heterogeneity in classification and reporting. This lack of standardization challenges efforts to study and report inguinal lymph node dissection outcomes. The aim of this study was to devise a system to standardize the classification and reporting of inguinal lymph node dissection perioperative complications by creating a worldwide collaborative, the complications and adverse events in lymphadenectomy of the inguinal area (CALI) group., Methods: A modified 3-round Delphi consensus approach surveyed a worldwide group of experts in inguinal lymph node dissection for melanoma, penile and vulval cancer. The group of experts included general surgeons, urologists and oncologists (gynaecological and surgical). The survey assessed expert agreement on inguinal lymph node dissection perioperative complications. Panel interrater agreement and consistency were assessed as the overall percentage agreement and Cronbach's α., Results: Forty-seven experienced consultants were enrolled: 26 (55.3%) urologists, 11 (23.4%) surgical oncologists, 6 (12.8%) general surgeons and 4 (8.5%) gynaecology oncologists. Based on their expertise, 31 (66%), 10 (21.3%) and 22 (46.8%) of the participants treat penile cancer, vulval cancer and melanoma using inguinal lymph node dissection respectively; 89.4% (42 of 47) agreed with the definitions and inclusion as part of the inguinal lymph node dissection intraoperative complication group, while 93.6% (44 of 47) agreed that postoperative complications should be subclassified into five macrocategories. Unanimous agreement (100%, 37 of 37) was achieved with the final standardized classification system for reporting inguinal lymph node dissection complications in melanoma, vulval cancer and penile cancer., Conclusion: The complications and adverse events in lymphadenectomy of the inguinal area classification system has been developed as a tool to standardize the assessment and reporting of complications during inguinal lymph node dissection for the treatment of melanoma, vulval and penile cancer., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of BJS Foundation Ltd.)

Background: The incidence of patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is increasing. There are no approved biofluid biomarkers for routine diagnosis of RCC patients. This retrospective study aims to identify cell-free microRNA (cfmiR) signatures in urine samples that can be utilized as biomarkers for early diagnosis of sporadic RCC patients., Methods: Tissue, plasma, and urine samples (n = 221) from 56 sporadic RCC patients and respective normal healthy donors were profiled for 2083 microRNAs (miRs) using the next-generation sequencing-based HTG EdgeSeq miR Whole Transcriptome Assay. DESeq2 (FC |1.2|, false discovery rate <0.05) was performed to identify differentially expressed miRs. Data from RCC tissue samples of The Cancer Genome Atlas database were used for miR validation., Results: We found a 10-miR signature that distinguished RCC tissues from remote normal kidney tissue or benign kidney lesion samples. Additionally, we identified subtype-specific miRs (miR-122-5p, miR-210-3p, and miR-21-3p) and miRs specific for all RCC subtypes (miR-106b-3p, miR-629-5p, and miR-885-5p). We observed that miR-155-5p was associated with tumor size. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas data sets, we validated the miRs found in RCC tissue samples. In plasma or urine analysis, we found cfmiRs that were consistently and significantly upregulated in RCC tissue samples. A 15-cfmiR signature was proposed in urine samples of RCC patients, of which miR-1275 was consistently upregulated in tissue, plasma, and urine samples., Conclusions: This integrative study found diagnostic miRs/cfmiRs for RCC patients, which were validated using The Cancer Genome Atlas data sets. Distinctive cfmiR signatures found in urine may have clinical utility for the diagnosis of RCC., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine.)