The infection by SARS-CoV-2 which causes the COVID-19 disease has widely spread all over the world since the beginning of 2020. On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency.Researchers of different disciplines work along with public health officials to understand the SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and jointly with the policymakers urgently develop strategies to control the spread of this new disease. Recent findings have observed imaging patterns on computed tomography (CT) for patients infected by SARS-CoV-2. In this paper, we build a public available SARS-CoV-2 CT scan dataset, containing 1252 CT scans that are positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) and 1230 CT scans for patients non-infected by SARS-CoV-2, 2482 CT scans in total. These data have been collected from real patients in hospitals from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The aim of this dataset is to encourage the research and development of artificial intelligent methods which are able to identify if a person is infected by SARS-CoV-2 through the analysis of his/her CT scans. As baseline result for this dataset we used an eXplainable Deep Learning approach (xDNN) which we could achieve an F1 score of 97.31% which is very promising. The proposed dataset is available www.kaggle.com/plameneduardo/sarscov2-ctscan-dataset and xDNN code is available at https://github.com/Plamen-Eduardo/xDNN-SARS-CoV-2-CT-Scan.

BackgroundExtracellular matrix homeostasis is strictly maintained by a coordinated balance between the expression of metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the expression of MMP-9, MMP-2 and its specific inhibitors, are expressed in a reproducible, specific pattern and if the profiles are related to prognosis in Bladder Cancer (BC).MethodsMMP-9, MMP-2 and its specific inhibitors expression levels were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in fresh-frozen malignant tissue collected from 40 patients with BC submitted to transurethral resection of bladder. The control group consisted of normal bladder tissue from five patients who had undergone retropubic prostatectomy to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia.ResultsMMP-9 was overexpressed in 59.0 % of patients, and MMP-2, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, MMP-14, RECK and IL-8 was underexpressed in most of the patients. Regarding prognostic parameters we observed that high-grade tumors exhibited significantly higher levels of MMP-9 and IL-8 (p = 0.012, p = 0.003). Invasive tumors (pT1-pT2) had higher expression levels of MMP-9 than superficial tumors (pTa) (p = 0.026). The same was noted for IL-8 that was more expressed by invasive tumors (p = 0.015, p = 0.048). Most importantly tumor recurrence was related with higher levels of both MMP-9 (p = 0.003) and IL-8 (p = 0.005).ConclusionWe have demonstrated that the overexpression of MMP-9 and higher expression of IL-8 are related to unfavorable prognostic factors of urothelial bladder cancer and tumor recurrence and may be useful in the follow up of the patients.

Our results show that MMP-9 is overexpressed and its negative regulators are underexpressed in PC tissue, emphasizing a possible role of MMP-9 in the carcinogenesis process. Additionally, we noticed a relationship between MMP-9 overexpression and increased levels of PSA, an important prognostic factor. In benign tissue adjacent to tumors, the MMP-9 equilibrium is likely maintained because the expression of its negative regulators is preserved.

Four miRNAs were differentially expressed in the 2 urothelial carcinoma groups. miR-100 and miR-10a showed under expression and over expression, respectively, in low grade pTa tumors. miR-21 and miR-205 were over expressed in pT2-3 disease. In addition, miR-10a and miR-21 over expression was associated with shorter disease-free and disease specific survival. miRNAs could be incorporated into the urothelial carcinoma molecular pathway. These miRNAs could also serve as new diagnostic or prognostic markers and new target drugs.

BackgroundClear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the third most common urological cancer in adults. Our aim is to evaluate genes and miRNAs expression profiles involved with angiogenesis and tumor characteristics in ccRCC.MethodsThe expression levels of miRNAs miR-99a, 99b, 100; 199a; 106a; 106b; 29a; 29b; 29c; 126; 200a, 200b and their respective target genes: mTOR, HIF1-α, VHL, PDGF, VEGF, VEGFR1 and VEGFR2 were analyzed using qRT-PCR in tumor tissue samples from 56 patients with ccRCC. Five samples of benign renal tissue were utilized as control. The expression levels of miRNAs and genes were related to tumor size, Fuhrman nuclear grade and microvascular invasion.ResultsmiR99a was overexpressed in most samples and its target gene mTOR was underexpressed, this also occurs for miRNAs 106a, 106b, and their target gene VHL. An increase in miR-200b was correlated with high-risk tumors (p = 0.01) while miR-126 overexpression was associated with Fuhrman’s low grade (p = 0.03).ConclusionsOur results show that in ccRCC there are changes in miRNAs expression affecting gene expression that could be important in determining the aggressiveness of this lethal neoplasia.

Purpose: The aim of our study is to evaluate the undergrading and understaging rates in patients with clinically localized insignificant prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy. Materials and Methods: Between July 2005 and July 2008, 406 patients underwent radical prostatectomy for clinical localized prostate cancer in our hospital. Based on preoperative data, 93 of these patients fulfilled our criteria of non-significance: Gleason score < 7, stage T1c, PSA < 10 ng/mL and percentage of affected fragments less than 25%. The pathologic stage and Gleason score were compared to preoperative data to evaluate the rate of understaging and undergrading. The biochemical recurrence free survival of these operated insignificant cancers were also evaluated. Results: On surgical specimen analysis 74.7% of patients had Gleason score of 6 or less and 25.3% had Gleason 7 or greater. Furthermore 8.3% of cases showed extracapsular extension. After 36 months of follow-up 3.4% had biochemical recurrence, defined by a PSA above 0.4 ng/mL. Conclusions: Despite the limited number of cases, we have found considerable rates of undergrading and understaging in patients with prostate cancer whose current definitions classified them as candidates for active surveillance. According to our results the current definition seems inadequate as up to a third of patients had higher grade or cancer outside the prostate.

No abstract

Introduction: The rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has dramatic effects on individuals and health care systems. In our institute, a tertiary oncologic public hospital with high surgical volume, we prioritize maintaining cancer treatment as well as possible. The aim of this study is to evaluate if uro-oncological surgeries at pandemic are safe. Materials and Methods: We evaluated patients who underwent uro-oncological procedures. Epidemiological data, information on COVID-19 infection related to surgery and clinical characteristics of non-survival operative patients with COVID-19 infections were analyzed. Results: From 213 patients analyzed, Covid-19 symptoms were noticed in 8 patients at preoperative process or at hospital admission postponing operation; 161 patients were submitted to elective surgery and 44 to emergency surgery. From patients submitted to elective surgeries, we had 1 patient with laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 (0,6%), with mild symptoms and quick discharge. From the urgencies group, we had 6(13%) patients tested positive; 5 were taken to ICU with 4 deaths. Conclusion: Elective uro-oncological procedures at the COVID-19 epidemic period in a COVID-19-free Institute are safe, and patients who need urgent procedures, with a long period of hospitalization, need special care to avoid COVID-19 infection and its outcomes.