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The majority of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients are treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in first-line treatment; however, a fraction are refractory to these antiangiogenic drugs. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulatory molecules proven to be accurate biomarkers in cancer. Here, we identified miRNAs predictive of progressive disease under TKI treatment through deep sequencing of 74 metastatic clear cell RCC cases uniformly treated with these drugs. Twenty-nine miRNAs were differentially expressed in the tumors of patients who progressed under TKI therapy (P values from 6 × 10-9 to 3 × 10-3). Among 6 miRNAs selected for validation in an independent series, the most relevant associations corresponded to miR-1307-3p, miR-155-5p, and miR-221-3p (P = 4.6 × 10-3, 6.5 × 10-3, and 3.4 × 10-2, respectively). Furthermore, a 2 miRNA-based classifier discriminated individuals with progressive disease upon TKI treatment (AUC = 0.75, 95% CI, 0.64-0.85; P = 1.3 × 10-4) with better predictive value than clinicopathological risk factors commonly used. We also identified miRNAs significantly associated with progression-free survival and overall survival (P = 6.8 × 10-8 and 7.8 × 10-7 for top hits, respectively), and 7 overlapped with early progressive disease. In conclusion, this is the first miRNome comprehensive study, to our knowledge, that demonstrates a predictive value of miRNAs for TKI response and provides a new set of relevant markers that can help rationalize metastatic RCC treatment.

KISS1 is a metastasis suppressor lost in several solid malignancies. We evaluated the clinical relevance of KiSS-1 methylation and its protein expression in colorectal cancer. The epigenetic silencing of KiSS-1 by hypermethylation was tested in colon cancer cells (n = 5) before and after azacytidine treatment. KiSS-1 methylation was evaluated by methylation-specific PCR in colorectal cancer cells, and normal, benign, and tumor tissues (n = 352) were grouped in a training set (n = 62) and two independent validation cohorts (n = 100 and n = 190). KiSS-1 protein expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry on tissue arrays. KiSS-1 hypermethylation correlated with transcript and protein expression loss, being increased in vitro by azacytidine. Methylation rates were 53.1, 70.0, and 80.0 % in the training and validation sets, respectively. In the training set, KiSS-1 methylation rendered a diagnostic accuracy of 72.7 % (p = 0.002). Combination of KiSS-1 methylation and serum CEA (p = 0.001) increased the prognostic utility of CEA alone (p = 0.022). In the first validation set, KiSS-1 methylation correlated with tumor grade (p = 0.011), predicted recurrence (p = 0.009), metastasis (p = 0.004), disease-free (p = 0.034), and overall survival (p = 0.015). In the second validation cohort, KiSS-1 methylation predicted disease-specific survival (p = 0.030). In the training set, cytoplasmic KiSS-1 expression was significantly higher in nonneoplastic biopsies as compared to colorectal tumors (p

Background Previous studies suggest that expression of hypoxia markers may be associated with response to antiangiogenic drugs. Thus, we aimed to identify predictors of sunitinib outcome in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Patients and methods The expression of eight key proteins related to hypoxia (CAIX, HIF1A, HIF2A, VEGFA, VEGFR1, VEGFR2, VEGFR3 and PDGFRB) and P-glycoprotein were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 67 primary ccRCC samples from prospectively recruited patients treated with first-line sunitinib. The proteins expression, VHL inactivation and EGLN3 mRNA content were compared with the patients' response to sunitinib. Results High expression of HIF2A and PDGFRB was associated with better sunitinib RECIST objective response (P = 0.024 and P = 0.026; respectively) and increased VEGFR3 expression was associated with longer progression-free survival (P = 0.012). VEGFR3 overexpression showed a negative correlation with VEGFR3 polymorphism rs307826 (P = 0.002), a sunitinib resistance predictor. With respect to overall survival (OS), high VEGFA was associated with short (P = 0.009) and HIF2A with long (P = 0.048) survival times. High EGLN3 mRNA content was associated with shorter OS (P = 0.023). Conclusions We found an association between several proteins involved in hypoxia and sunitinib efficacy. In addition, low VEGFR3 expression was associated with worse outcome and with VEGFR3 rs307826 variant allele, reinforcing VEGFR3 as a marker of sunitinib resistance.

Aberrant overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) is observed in urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB). Studies evaluating COX2 as a prognostic marker in UCB report contradictory results. We determined the prognostic potential of COX2 expression in UCB and quantitatively summarize the results with those of the literature through a meta-analysis. Newly diagnosed UCB patients recruited between 1998–2001 in 18 Spanish hospitals were prospectively included in the study and followed-up (median, 70.7 months). Diagnostic slides were reviewed and uniformly classified by expert pathologists. Clinical data was retrieved from hospital charts. Tissue microarrays containing non-muscle invasive (n = 557) and muscle invasive (n = 216) tumours were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using quantitative image analysis. Expression was evaluated in Cox regression models to assess the risk of recurrence, progression and disease-specific mortality. Meta-hazard ratios were estimated using our results and those from 11 additional evaluable studies. COX2 expression was observed in 38% (211/557) of non-muscle invasive and 63% (137/216) of muscle invasive tumors. Expression was associated with advanced pathological stage and grade (p

To assess the internal consistency, discriminative capacity and factorial composition of the Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire (QPL-35) in a population of primary care professionals.We performed a cross-sectional analytical study in a primary care area in Madrid from 2001 to 2003. Random sampling of 450 healthcare professionals was performed on 2 occasions. The sample was stratified into 3 groups: group I (clinicians, pharmacologists, psychologists), group II (nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, social workers) and group III (administrative staff, porters, auxiliary nurses). The self-administered questionnaire QPL-35 was sent in January 2001 and January 2003 and on each occasion the questionnaire was sent again 1 month later. The percentages of total responses and responses per item were studied. We also studied the distribution of each answer by examining the floor effect and ceiling effect, as well as the factorial composition based on a previous validation study.Five hundred sixty-three questionnaires (62.6%) were returned. All the questions had a response rate of more than 96%. At least one unanswered question was found in 22.0% of the questionnaires, and at least 2 were unanswered in 7.1%. The distribution of the answers did not fit normal distribution in any of the cases. The floor effect was present in questions related to management support and the ceiling effect was found in those related to motivation. The factorial analysis found 3 factors that explained 39.6% of the variance in the total number of questions. These factors were very similar to those of the previous validation study: management support, perception of workload and intrinsic motivation explained 17.0%, 13.2% and 9.4% of the variance, respectively. Internal consistency was high for each factor (Cronbach's alpha0.7) and for the total score (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81).The metric properties of the QPL-35 are maintained in different environments. This questionnaire can be recommended as a tool to measure and compare quality of professional life in primary care.

We sought to identify genetic variants associated with disease relapse and failure to hormonal treatment in hormone-receptor positive breast cancer (HRPBC). We analyzed a series of HRPBC with distant relapse, by sequencing pairs (n = 11) of tumors (primary and metastases) at >800X. Comparative genomic hybridization was performed as well. Top hits, based on the frequency of alteration and severity of the changes, were tested in the TCGA series. Genes determining the most parsimonious prognostic signature were studied for their functional role in vitro, by performing cell growth assays in hormonal-deprivation conditions, a setting that mimics treatment with aromatase inhibitors. Severe alterations were recurrently found in 18 genes in the pairs. However, only MYC, DNAH5, CSFR1, EPHA7, ARID1B, and KMT2C preserved an independent prognosis impact and/or showed a significantly different incidence of alterations between relapsed and non-relapsed cases in the TCGA series. The signature composed of MYC, KMT2C, and EPHA7 best discriminated the clinical course, (overall survival 90,7 vs. 144,5 months; p = 0.0001). Having an alteration in any of the genes of the signature implied a hazard ratio of death of 3.25 (p