This review article explores the possibility of developing an integrated approach to the management of the different needs of endometrial cancer (EC) patients seeking to become pregnant. Life preservation of the woman, health preservation of the baby, a precocious and—as much as possible—minimally invasive characterization of the health and fertility parameters of the patient, together with the concerns regarding the obstetric, neonatal, and adult health risks of the children conceived via assisted reproductive techniques (ART) are all essential aspects of the problem to be taken into consideration, yet the possibility to harmonize such needs through a concerted and integrated approach is still very challenging. This review aims to illustrate the main features of EC and how it affects the normal physiology of pre-menopausal women. We also focus on the prospect of a miR-based, molecular evaluation of patient health status, including both EC early diagnosis and staging and, similarly, the receptivity of the woman, discussing the possible evaluation of both aspects using a single specific panel of circulating miRs in the patient, thus allowing a relatively fast, non-invasive testing with a significantly reduced margin of error. Finally, the ethical and legal/regulatory aspects of such innovative techniques require not only a risk-benefit analysis; respect for patient autonomy and equitable health care access allocation are fundamental issues as well.

Y RNA are a class of small non-coding RNA that are largely conserved. Although their discovery was almost 40 years ago, their function is still under investigation. This is evident in cancer biology, where their role was first studied just a dozen years ago. Since then, only a few contributions were published, mostly scattered across different tumor types and, in some cases, also suffering from methodological limitations. Nonetheless, these sparse data may be used to make some estimations and suggest routes to better understand the role of Y RNA in cancer formation and characterization. Here we summarize the current knowledge about Y RNA in multiple types of cancer, also including a paragraph about tumors that might be included in this list in the future, if more evidence becomes available. The picture arising indicates that Y RNA might be useful in tumor characterization, also relying on non-invasive methods, such as the analysis of the content of extracellular vesicles (EV) that are retrieved from blood plasma and other bodily fluids. Due to the established role of Y RNA in DNA replication, it is possible to hypothesize their therapeutic targeting to inhibit cell proliferation in oncological patients.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines infertility as the inability of a sexually active, non-contracepting couple to achieve spontaneous pregnancy within one year. Statistics show that the two sexes are equally at risk. Several causes may be responsible for male infertility; however, in 30–40% of cases a diagnosis of idiopathic male infertility is made in men with normal urogenital anatomy, no history of familial fertility-related diseases and a normal panel of values as for endocrine, genetic and biochemical markers. Idiopathic male infertility may be the result of gene/environment interactions, genetic and epigenetic abnormalities. Numerical and structural anomalies of the Y chromosome represent a minor yet significant proportion and are the topic discussed in this review. We searched the PubMed database and major search engines for reports about Y-linked male infertility. We present cases of Y-linked male infertility in terms of (i) anomalies of the Y chromosome structure/number; (ii) Y chromosome misbehavior in a normal genetic background; (iii) Y chromosome copy number variations (CNVs). We discuss possible explanations of male infertility caused by mutations, lower or higher number of copies of otherwise wild type, Y-linked sequences. Despite Y chromosome structural anomalies are not a major cause of male infertility, in case of negative results and of normal DNA sequencing of the ascertained genes causing infertility and mapping on this chromosome, we recommend an analysis of the karyotype integrity in all cases of idiopathic fertility impairment, with an emphasis on the structure and number of this chromosome.

According to data of the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization (Cancer Incidence in Five Continents, GLOBOCAN, and the World Health Organization Mortality), bladder is among the top ten body locations of cancer globally, with the highest incidence rates reported in Southern and Western Europe, North America, Northern Africa and Western Asia. Males (M) are more vulnerable to this disease than females (F), despite ample frequency variations in different countries, with a M:F ratio of 4.1:1 for incidence and 3.6:1 for mortality, worldwide. For a long time, bladder cancer was genetically classified through mutations of two genes, fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3, for low-grade, non-invasive papillary tumors) and tumor protein P53 (TP53, for high-grade, muscle-invasive tumors). However, more recently scientists have shown that this disease is far more complex, since genes directly involved are more than 150; so far, it has been described that altered gene expression (up- or down-regulation) may be present for up to 500 coding sequences in low-grade and up to 2300 in high-grade tumors. Non-coding RNAs are essential to explain, at least partially, this ample dysregulation. In this review, we summarize the present knowledge about long and short non-coding RNAs that have been linked to bladder cancer etiology.