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Background: Accumulating evidences indicate significant alterations in the aerobic glycolysis in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). We aim to develop and validate a glycolysis-related genes signature for predicting the clinical outcomes of patients with ccRCC. Methods: mRNA expression profiling of ccRCC was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database. Univariate Cox regression analysis and lasso Cox regression model were performed to identify and construct the prognostic gene signature. The protein expression levels of the core genes were obtained from the Human Protein Atlas database. We used four external independent data sets to verify the predictive power of the model for prognosis, tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy, and immunotherapy responses, respectively. Finally, we explored the potential mechanism of this signature through gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). Results: Through the GSEA, glycolysis-related gene sets were significantly different between ccRCC tissues and normal tissues. Next, we identified and constructed a seven-mRNA signature (GALM, TGFA, RBCK1, CD44, HK3, KIF20A, and IDUA), which was significantly correlated with worse survival outcome and was an independent prognostic indicator for ccRCC patients. Furthermore, the expression levels of hub genes were validated based on the Human Protein Atlas databases. More importantly, the model can predict patients' response to TKI therapy and immunotherapy. These findings were successfully validated in the external independent ccRCC cohorts. The mechanism exploration showed that the model may influence the prognosis by influencing tumor proliferation, base mismatch repair system and immune status of patients. Conclusions: Our study has built up a robust glycolysis-based molecular signature that predicts the prognosis and TKI therapy and immunotherapy responses of patients with ccRCC with high accuracy, which might provide important guidance for clinical assessment. Also, clinical investigations in large ccRCC cohorts are greatly needed to validate our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background To compare the efficacy of patients undergoing esophagectomy for cancer in video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery ( VATS) versus traditional open surgery ( TOS) in the perioperative period, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Methods A retrospective analysis of 108 patients, who underwent esophagectomy between September 2011 and February 2012 in our department, was performed. Patients were divided into two groups based on operative technique ( VATS vs. TOS), with 50 patients in the VATS group and 58 patients in the TOS group. Operative duration, intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative blood transfusion, number of lymph nodes harvested, postoperative pain score, period of time requiring chest tube drainage, complications, hospital stay, and hospital costs, were all statistically analyzed between the two groups. Results There was no statistical difference between the two groups with regard to operative duration or number of lymph nodes harvested. The VATS group had significantly less intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative blood transfusion, postoperative pain, earlier ambulation, shorter postoperative hospital stay, and a shorter period of time requiring chest tube drainage. The amount of drainage was significantly lower in the TOS group (P < 0.05). Pulmonary complication (pneumonia and pleural effusion) was less prevalent among the VATS group. Conclusion Compared with TOS, VATS-assisted esophagectomy is less traumatic with lower intraoperative blood loss, faster recovery, and a better overall outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]