Non-specific granulomatous prostatitis is the most common type of granulomatous prostatitis. There is no specific pattern of clinical, biochemical and ultrasound findings that allows the diagnosis of granulomatous prostatitis or differentiates it from prostatic carcinoma. Hence, histomorphological diagnosis is the gold standard in differentiating various prostatic lesions.
Introduction/Objective Adrenal Cortical Carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignant neoplasms originating from adrenal cortical tissue with an annual incidence rate of 1 to 2 cases per million individuals. These tumors have poor prognosis with 5-year disease free survival being 30% after complete resection in Stage I to Stage III patients. Hence, there is a need for identifying prognostic markers for effective management of disease in these patients. Methods We analyzed the data in The Cancer Genome Atlas of 1141 ACC individuals, using cbioportal.org, a web- based platform for analysis of large-scale cancer genomics data sets, and derived correlation between prognosis and genetic alterations in approximately 51,309 genes. Results We identified 15 signature genes (NOTCH1, TP53, ZNRF3, LRP1, KIF5A, MDM2, LETMD1, MTOR, NOTCH3, RERE, SMARCC2, LDLR, HRNR, AVPR1A and PCDH15), alterations in which indicated a poor prognosis for ACC individuals. Analysis of 15 signature genes demonstrated that disease specific median survival for the patients with ACC, was reduced to 39.5 months (p value < 8 x 10 -9 and sensitivity of 93%) when any one or more of these genes was altered. Whereas, disease specific median survival was greater than 180 months (90% survival being 180 months) with no alteration in our signature genes. In addition, our analysis of our signature genes demonstrates reduced overall survival, disease free survival and progression free survival in individuals having alterations in our signature genes. Moreover, our set of 15 genes belonged mainly to MDM2-TP53, NOTCH and mTOR pathways, and small molecule modulators of these pathways are in process of development. Conclusion Our 15 gene signature was not only able to predict poor prognosis in ACC, but also has the potential to serve as a molecular marker set for initiation of NOTCH and mTOR specific targeted therapies in these patients.
Introduction/Objective The anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene is a receptor tyrosine kinase gene located in the 2p23.2 region. Normally, dimerization of ALK receptor by binding to its ligand activates the ALK receptor by autophosphorylation of c-termius and activates downstream PI3K, MAPK and JAK3 pathways. The ALK gene is abnormally hyperactivated by fusion of the 3’ half containing the kinase domain with 5’ portion of other genes, resulting in the ligand independent dimerization and activation of the ALK receptor. The tumors harboring these translocations are termed as ALK-positive tumors and can be treated with ALK inhibitors. Methods We analyzed the status of clinically relevant ALK fusion driver mutations in 230 different cancer studies, containing tumors from 79222 different individuals, in The Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA) using the cbioportal web browser. Results We observed that, as expected ALK-positive mutations are predominantly present in NSCLC, with EML4- ALK being the most common. In addition, we were able to identify ALK positive mutations in colorectal carcinomas, papillary thyroid carcinomas, papillary renal cell carcinomas, sarcomas and invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast. Most important, our analysis identified extremely rare ALK positive cases in salivary duct carcinomas, urothelial carcinomas, cutaneous melanomas and prostatic adenocarcinomas. Conclusion Our analysis identified ALK positive cases were predominant in adenocarcinoma of lung with EML4-ALK being the most common ALK positive mutation, which is also consistent with the literature. However, the ALK positive mutations were at a lower prevalence rate than that described in the literature. We attribute the lower prevalence rate to underrepresentation of the Asian population in the TCGA database. In addition, we identified extremely rare ALK positive cases in salivary duct carcinomas, melanomas and prostate cancers, thus highlighting the need for testing for these mutations in these cancers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.