Recent works have reported that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in tumorigenesis and prognosis of cancers, suggesting the potential utility of lncRNAs as cancer prognostic markers. However, lncRNA signatures in predicting the survival of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remain unknown. In this study, we attempted to identify lncRNA signatures and their prognostic values in ccRCC. Using lncRNA expression profiling data in 440 ccRCC tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data, a five-lncRNA signature (AC069513.4, AC003092.1, CTC-205M6.2, RP11-507K2.3, U91328.21) has been identified to be significantly associated with ccRCC patients’ overall survival in both training set and testing set. Based on the lncRNA signature, ccRCC patients could be divided into high-risk and low-risk group with significantly different survival rate. Further multivariable Cox regression analysis suggested that the prognostic value of this signature was independent of clinical factors. Functional enrichment analyses showed the potential functional roles of the five prognostic lncRNAs in ccRCC oncogenesis. These results indicated that this five-lncRNA signature could be used as an independent prognostic biomarker in the prediction of ccRCC patients’ survival.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between prostate cancer (PCa) vascularity detected by superb microvascular imaging (SMI) and Gleason score in biopsy specimens. Material/Methods: A total of 119 patients with suspected PCa before biopsy underwent gray-scale ultrasound (US), color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS), and SMI imaging between June 2018 and March 2019. Vascularity quantity was assessed by SMI and compared with that of CDUS. The vessel parameter was also compared with the Gleason score. The sensitivity of PCa was compared between transrectal ultrasound guided systematic biopsy (SB) and SMI-guided targeted biopsy (SMI-guided TB). Results: Pathology confirmed 74 of 119 patients had PCa. The microvascular quantity of PCa patients was significantly higher than that of non-malignant patients. SMI detected blood vessels in 97.3% (72/74) in the malignant group, while CDUS identified blood flow signals in 90.5% (67/74) of the PCa group. SMI visualized enriched microvascular in PCa of Gleason 8 (54.5%) and Gleason 9 (92.3%). There was a positive correlation between microvascular quantity detected by SMI and Gleason score, with a correlation coefficient of 0.373 (P<0.001). SMI-guided TB cores were significantly more likely than SB cores to detect PCa (OR=12.83, P<0.001). Conclusions: SMI could be promising as a useful imaging technique in the detection and characterization of PCa. There was a positive correlation between microvascular quantity detected by SMI and Gleason score.

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Background: The present study aimed to assess the correlation between prostate volume and prostate cancer (PCa) detection by strain elastography (SE)-guided targeted biopsy (TB) compared with conventional transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided systematic biopsy (SB). Material/Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 357 patients suspected to have PCa. All patients received TRUS-guided 10-core SB and SE-guided TB. The sensitivity for PCa detected by SE-guided TB was compared with that by TRUS-guided SB, in combination with prostate biopsy pathology. The correlation between the prostate volume and the detection rate of SE-guided TB was investigated. Results: PCa was pathologically confirmed in 151 out of 357 patients. The by-patient detection rate of TRUS-guided SB was 72.8% (110/151). Subsequently, a further increase of 6.6% (10/151) in PCa determination was obtained by the SE-guided TB. The sensitivity of SE-guided TB for patients with prostate volume <30 ml, 30-50 ml, 51-80 ml, and >80 ml was 91.7% (44/48), 80.3% (53/66), 70.4% (19/27), and 40.0% (4/10), respectively (p=0.002). For patients with a prostate volume less than 30 ml, SE-guided TB (91.7%) had a higher sensitivity than SB (62.5%) (p<0.007). Conclusions: SE-guided TB has a higher detection rate of PCa in comparison with TRUS-guided SB. There was also a negative correlation between prostate volume and SE-guided TB. Therefore, use of SE-guided TB may complement use of conventional SB, especially for patients with smaller prostate volume.