A trained canine olfactory system can detect prostate cancer specific volatile organic compounds in urine samples with high estimated sensitivity and specificity. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential predictive value of this procedure to identify prostate cancer.

The electronic nose is able to provide useful information through the analysis of the volatile organic compounds in body fluids, such as exhaled breath, urine and blood. This paper focuses on the review of electronic nose studies and applications in the specific field of medical diagnostics based on the analysis of the gaseous headspace of human urine, in order to provide a broad overview of the state of the art and thus enhance future developments in this field. The research in this field is rather recent and still in progress, and there are several aspects that need to be investigated more into depth, not only to develop and improve specific electronic noses for different diseases, but also with the aim to discover and analyse the connections between specific diseases and the body fluids odour. Further research is needed to improve the results obtained up to now; the development of new sensors and data processing methods should lead to greater diagnostic accuracy thus making the electronic nose an effective tool for early detection of different kinds of diseases, ranging from infections to tumours or exposure to toxic agents.

Let f be a modular eigenform of even weight k ≥ 2 and new at a prime p dividing exactly the level with respect to an indefinite quaternion algebra. The theory of Fontaine-Mazur allows to attach to f a monodromy module D F M f and an L-invariant L F M f. The first goal of this paper is building a suitable p-adic integration theory that allows us to construct a new monodromy module D f and L-invariant L f , in the spirit of Darmon. We conjecture both monodromy modules are isomorphic, and in particular the two L-invariants are equal.For the second goal of this note we assume the conjecture is true. Let K be a real quadratic field and assume the sign of the functional equation of the L-series of f over K is −1. The Bloch-Beilinson conjectures suggest that there should be a supply of elements in the Mordell-Weil group of the motive attached to f over the tower of narrow ring class fields of K. Generalizing work of Darmon for k = 2, we give a construction of local cohomology classes which we expect to arise from global classes and satisfy an explicit reciprocity law, accounting for the above prediction.

No abstract

No abstract

Despite years of intensive investigation that has been made in understanding prostate cancer, it remains one of the major men's health issues and the leading cause of death worldwide. It is now ascertained that prostate cancer emerges from multiple spontaneous and/or inherited alterations that induce changes in expression patterns of genes and proteins that function in complex networks controlling critical cellular events. It is now accepted that several innate and adaptive immune cells, including T- and B-lymphocytes, macrophages, natural killer cells, dendritic cells, neutrophils, eosinophils, and mast cells (MCs), infiltrate the prostate cancer. All of these cells are irregularly scattered within the tumor and loaded with an assorted array of cytokines, chemokines, and inflammatory and cytotoxic mediators. This complex framework reflects the diversity in tumor biology and tumor-host interactions. MCs are well-established effector cells in Immunoglobulin-E (Ig-E) associated immune responses and potent effector cells of the innate immune system; however, their clinical significance in prostate cancer is still debated. Here, these controversies are summarized, focusing on the implications of these findings in understanding the roles of MCs in primary prostate cancer.

Abstract. Darmon cycles are a higher weight analogue of Stark-Heegner points. They yield local cohomology classes in the Deligne representation associated with a cuspidal form on Γ 0 (N) of even weight k 0 ≥ 2. They are conjectured to be the restriction of global cohomology classes in the Bloch-Kato Selmer group defined over narrow ring class fields attached to a real quadratic field. We show that suitable linear combinations of them obtained by genus characters satisfy these conjectures. We also prove p-adic Gross-Zagier type formulas, relating the derivatives of p-adic L-functions of the weight variable attached to imaginary (resp. real) quadratic fields to Heegner cycles (resp. Darmon cycles). Finally we express the second derivative of the MazurKitagawa p-adic L-function of the weight variable in terms of a global cycle defined over a quadratic extension of Q.

Study Type – Diagnosis (RCT) Level of Evidence 1b What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? Transrectal gray‐scale ultrasonography guided prostate biopsy sampling is the method for diagnosing prostate cancer (PC) in patients with an increased prostate specific antigen level and/or abnormal digital rectal examination. Several imaging strategies have been proposed to optimize the diagnostic value of biopsy sampling, although at the first biopsy nearly 10–30% of PC still remains undiagnosed. This study compares the PC detection rate when employing Colour Doppler ultransongraphy with or without the injection of SonoVueTM microbubble contrast agent, versus the transrectal ultrasongraphy‐guided systematic biopsy sampling. The limited accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and the additional cost of using the contrast agent do not justify its routine application in PC detection. OBJECTIVE • To compare prostate cancer (PC) detection rate employing colour Doppler ultrasonography with or without SonoVueTM contrast agent with transrectal ultrasonography‐guided systematic biopsy sampling. PATIENTS AND METHODS • A total of 300 patients with negative digital rectal examination and transrectal grey‐scale ultrasonography, with PSA values ranging between 2.5 and 9.9 ng/mL, were randomized into three groups: 100 patients (group A) underwent transrectal ultrasonography‐guided systematic bioptic sampling; 100 patients (group B) underwent colour Doppler ultrasonography, and 100 patients (group C) underwent colour Doppler ultrasonography before and during the injection of SonoVueTM. • Contrast‐enhanced targeted biopsies were sampled into hypervascularized areas of peripheral, transitional, apical or anterior prostate zones. • All the patients included in Groups B and C underwent a further 13 systematic prostate biopsies. The cancer detection rate was calculated for each group. RESULTS • In 88 (29.3%) patients a histological diagnosis of PC was made, whereas 22 (7.4%) patients were diagnosed with high‐grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia or atypical small acinar proliferation. • No significant differences were found among the three groups for cancer detection rate (P= 0.329). • Additionally, low sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of colour Doppler with or without SonoVueTM contrast agent were found. CONCLUSIONS • Prostate cancer detection rate does not significantly improve with the use of colour Doppler ultrasonography with or without SonoVueTM. • Although no collateral effects have been highlighted, the combined use of colour Doppler ultrasonography and SonoVueTM determines adjunctive costs and increases the mean time for taking a single prostate biopsy.