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Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate whether performing an ileal conduit (IC) versus a neobladder (NB) during radical cystectomy (RC) can play a role on the morbidity of the surgical procedure. Materials and Methods: At our institution since 2001, a database collecting the data of more than 450 patients who have undergone RC is perspectively maintained. The records of 246 patients submitted to RC and IC and 120 to RC and NB have been reviewed for the present study. By a binary logistic regression model, a propensity score was generated joining these factors: gender, age, smoking habit, Charlson' comorbidity score, platelet antiaggregants or oral anticoagulant therapy, ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) score, hydronephrosis, pathologic T stage, and lymphadenectomy. A group of patients submitted to IC and another to NB having the closer propensity score were created with a matching ratio of 1:1. The following features were compared between the two groups: operative time, blood loss, intraoperative complication rate, and postoperative complications rate (overall, clavien 1-2, clavien ≥3, related to RC, relate to urinary reconstruction). Results: One hundred thirty-four patients were selected, 67 submitted to NB, 67 to IC, well matched according to the desired features. No differences were noted for all the compared features. Conclusion: The morbidity of RC does not seem to be dependent on the choice to perform IC versus NB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy is one of the most feared problems. It can affect almost 40% of patients, with different degrees of severity according to each specific case. The aim of this work is to analyze our experience in ProACT (Adjustable Continence Therapy) implants, especially in case of failure of other techniques. METHODS: Between November 2007 and December 2010, 31 patients with post-radical prostatectomy incontinence underwent a ProACT implant. Eight patients had their device explanted (in local anesthesia): in two cases the device spontaneously broke, three of them migrated in the urethra (one patient received radiation therapy), another one was infected in the device site (one in BCG treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer), two devices were wrongly placed. Seven of these patients had had their device replaced with success. Using pad score, incontinence was classified as mild, moderate and severe. Overall, the total amount of procedures, most of them fluoroscopic-guided in spinal anesthesia, were 38; the average duration of the surgery was 37.6 minutes. In one patient with impaired balloon volume due to monolateral device malfunction, we noticed good results in controlling incontinence; therefore, we successfully applied the same technique in other four cases with previous partial results. RESULTS: With a total amount of 28 implants, we had 17 (60.7%) complete responses, 6 (25%) partial and 4 (14.3%) failures. We had 4 post-radiotherapy implants: one was completely dry, two were in balloon adjustment, and one of them had a replacement due to urethral erosion of the first implant. All patients with impaired balloon inflation were satisfied: one was completely dry and three had sensible improvement. CONCLUSIONS: The ProACT is a minimally invasive surgical therapy for post-radical prostatectomy urinary incontinence. Early failure is frequent and is mainly due to rupture and migration of the device. In these cases the solution can be the replacement, even with impaired balloon inflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urothelial bladder cancer (UBC) are classified into luminal and basal subtypes showing distinct molecular features and clinical behaviour. Recent in silico data have proposed the activation on the Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) as relevant transcription factor in UBC. To answer this question, we have combined the retrospective analysis of clinical samples, functional assays on cell lines, interrogation of public UBC datasets and a murine model of basal-type UBC. Immunohistochemistry on a retrospective UBC cohort uncovered that STAT3 Y705 phosphorylation (pSTAT3) is significantly increased in infiltrating basal-type UBC compared to luminal UBC. In vitro, STAT3 silencing in UBC cell lines significantly reduced tumor cell viability and invasion. Gene expression profile of UBC cell lines combined with the analysis of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and GSE32894 UBC datasets showed that increased expression of a set of STAT3 targets predicts basal-type, propensity to local progression and worse prognosis. MYC and FOSL1 represent relevant STAT3 downstream targets, as validated by their co-localization in pSTAT3+ UBC cancer cells. These findings were largely reproduced in the BBN-induced murine model of basal-type UBC. Of note, FOSL1 protein resulted strongly expressed in the non-papillary UBC pathway and FOSL1-regulated transcripts were significantly enriched in the transition from NMIBC to MIBC, as indicated by the interrogation of the GSE32894 dataset. The blockade of the STAT3 pathway might represent a novel treatment option for these neoplasms. Monitoring pSTAT3 and the downstream targets, particularly FOSL1, could provide meaningful levels of UBC stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: Evidence suggests that zoledronic acid (ZA) exerts direct antitumor effects on cancer cells but the underlying mechanisms of these actions are unknown. This study investigated the possible involvement of survivin in the antiproliferative effects of ZA in prostate cancer., Materials and Methods: 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazol)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) dye reduction assay was used to assess cell viability and acridine orange/ethidium bromide double staining to analyze cell death. Human Apoptosis Array evaluated the expression of apoptosis-related proteins. Survivin protein was measured by western blot technique and miR-203 levels were quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction., Results: ZA induced inhibition of cell proliferation and apoptosis activation, with down-regulation of survivin protein. A negative regulation at gene expression level may be hypothesized because we observed a significant decrease of survivin mRNA level and an increase of miR-203 expression after ZA exposure., Conclusion: This study provides evidence that ZA may directly inhibit cancer cell proliferation, identifying survivin as one of its downstream targets., (Copyright© 2016 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved.)