Inflammation is increasingly reported to be associated with the prognosis of patients with cancers. And the prognostic role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) remains inconsistent. Therefore, we conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to obtain a more reliable assessment of prognostic significance of NLR in PCa. A comprehensive literature research regarding the association of NLR and prognosis of PCa was performed through PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central, and Web of Science. The hazard ratios (HRs) and its 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for overall survival (OS), progression-free survival, or recurrence-free survival were extracted and pooled using fix-effects model or random-effects model. A total of 14 studies that met our criterion were included in this meta-analysis. Our pooled results demonstrated that elevated NLR was not significantly associated with the poor OS (HR = 1.45; 95% CI 0.77–2.71; P = 0.248) or recurrence-free survival (HR = 1.34; 95% CI 0.89–2.02; P = 0.155) of patients with localized PCa. Although elevated NLR predicted poorer OS (HR = 1.57; 95% CI 1.41–1.74; P < 0.001) and progression-free survival (HR = 1.97; 95% CI 1.28–3.04; P = 0.002) of patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Elevated NLR is a strong indicator of poorer prognosis of patients with mCRPC, whereas the NLR is not significantly associated with prognosis of patients with localized PCa. Therefore, NLR could be used in patients with mCRPC for risk stratification and decision making of individual treatment.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery has gained significant attentions due to its enhanced dexterity, improved precision, natural eye-hand coordination, etc. In these procedures, stick-like surgical tools with distal wrists are usually maneuvered by multiple patient-side manipulators to perform an operation. These patient-side manipulators shall realize remote center of motion movements and are subject to risks of mutual collisions during motion. On the other hand, the continuum surgical manipulators, often with multiple segments, usually have several degrees of freedom (DoFs) for the movements in a patient's cavity, and only need a lockable bedside stand, rather than a manipulator. However, the continuum segments inherently have limited bending curvature such that large orientation changes of the surgical end effector around confined anatomical features can be challenging. This letter, hence, proposes a modular continuum-articulated laparoscopic robotic tool design with simple and decoupled kinematics. An inverted dual-continuum mechanism is used in the tool to realize pure translations, while a 2-DoF cable-driven distal wrist is incorporated for orientations. The utilized dual-continuum mechanism maintains a constant length across its entire cross section to significantly facilitate maintaining tensions for the actuation cables of the distal wrist. Design concept, kinematics, system descriptions, actuation calibration, and experimental characterizations are reported, demonstrating effectiveness of the proposed idea.

Myeloid ecotropic viral integration site 1 (MEIS1) protein plays a synergistic causative role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, MEIS1 has also shown to be a potential tumor suppressor in some other cancers, such as non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and prostate cancer. Although multiple roles of MEIS1 in cancer development and progression have been identified, there is an urgent demand to discover more functions of this molecule for further therapeutic design. MEIS1 was overexpressed via adenovirus vector in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) cells. Western blot and real-time qPCR (quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction) was performed to examine the protein and mRNA levels of MEIS1. Cell proliferation, survival, in vitro migration and invasion were tested by MTT, colony formation, soft-agar, transwell (in vitro invasion/migration) assays, and tumor in vivo growthwas measured on nude mice model. In addition, flow-cytometry analysis was used to detect cell cycle arrest or non-apoptotic cell death of ccRCC cells induced by MEIS1. MEIS1 exhibits a decreased expression in ccRCC cell lines than that in non-tumor cell lines. MEIS1 overexpression inhibits ccRCC cells proliferation and induces G1/S arrest concomitant with marked reduction of G1/S transition regulators, Cyclin D1 and Cyclin A. Moreover, MEIS1-1 overexpression also induces non-apoptotic cell death of ccRCC cells via decreasing the levels of pro-survival regulators Survivin and BCL-2. Transwell migration assay (TMA) shows that MEIS1 attenuates in vitro invasion and migration of ccRCC cells with down-regulated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process. Further, in nude mice model, MEIS1 inhibits the in vivo growth of Caki-1 cells. By investigating the role of MEIS1 in ccRCC cells’ survival, proliferation, anchorage-independent growth, cell cycle progress, apoptosis and metastasis, in the present work, we propose that MEIS1 may play an important role in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) development.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has emerged as an alternative treatment to surgical partial nephrectomy (PN) in the treatment of small renal tumors (SRTs). But its safety and oncological efficacy are still controversial. We conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to compare the peritoperative and oncological outcomes of RFA and PN in the treatment of SRTs. Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane CENTRAL, and Web of Science were searched to identify eligible studies that compared the RFA and PN in the treatment of SRTs. Twelve retrospective studies that compared RFA with PN in the treatment of SRTs met our selection criterion and were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that the local recurrence rate (4.14% vs 4.10%, RR: 1.18, 95% CI: 0.68, 2.07, P = 0.550) and distant metastases rate (2.76% vs 1.89%, RR: 1.31, 95% CI: 0.70, 2.46, P = 0.686) were not significantly different between the RFA group and the PN group. In terms of perioperative outcomes, RFA was associated with shorter length of stay (LOS) (WMD: -2.02 days, 95% CI: -2.77, -1.27, P < 0.001), lower eGFR decline after treatment (WMD: -3.90, 95% CI: -6.660, -1.140, P = 0.006). However, the overall perioperative complication rate (7.5% vs 6.2%, RR:1.10, 95% CI: 0.64, 1.87, P = 0.740) and the major complication rate (3.7% vs 4.4%, RR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.43, 1.60, P = 0.579) were both similar between RFA and PN groups. Compared with PN, RFA achieves an equal oncological outcome for SRTs with similar local recurrence rate and distant metastases rate. Additionally, RFA is associated with a similar perioperative complication rate, lower decline of eGFR, and shorter LOS. Therefore, RFA is an effective option in the treatment of SRTs for selected patients.