a b s t r a c tIt has been reported that expression of glucose transporter member 3 (GLUT3) is up-regulated in bladder cancers. However, the regulating mechanism remains unknown. Here, we assessed whether microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate GLUT3 expression in bladder cancers. In our study, miR-195-5p was identified to directly targeted GLUT3 3 0 -untranslated region (UTR) in bladder cancer T24 cells. Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-and miR-195-5p-mediated GLUT3 knockdown experiments revealed that miR-195-5p decreased T24 cells glucose uptake, inhibited cell growth and promoted cell apoptosis through suppression of GLUT3 expression. Therefore, miR-195-5p is a novel and also the first identified miRNA that targets GLUT3, and the aberrant decreased expression of miR-195-5p and consequent GLUT3 up-regulation may contribute to bladder carcinogenesis.

Despite recent advances in the understanding of the biology of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), successful surgical treatment and implementation of novel-targeted therapies, the prognosis for RCC patients remains poor. Late presentation, tumor heterogeneity and in particular the lack of molecular biomarkers for early detection, classification and the surveillance of RCC treatments are major obstacles. The increasing knowledge regarding the functional role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in pathophysiological processes may provide an important link to the identification of suitable therapeutic targets and diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers for RCC. The aim of this review was to provide new insight into the function of miRNAs in the pathogenesis of RCC and to emphasize their potential as diagnostic and prognostic markers, as well as therapeutic targets.

Background. It has been reported that circRNAs are differentially expressed in a wide range of cancers and could be used as a new biomarker for diagnosis. However, the correlation between circRNAs and gastric cancer (GC) it is still unclear. Materials and Methods. In this study, by using real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions (qRT-PCRs), we detected the expression level of hsa_circ_0001649 in tissue and serum samples from GC patients. Results. We found that hsa_circ_0001649 expression was significantly downregulated in GC tissue compared with their paired paracancerous histological normal tissues (PCHNTs) (P < 0.01). We next analyzed the expression level of hsa_circ_0001649 in serum samples between preoperative and postoperative GC patients. We found that its level in serum was significantly upregulated after surgery (P < 0.01). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.834. Moreover, the expression level of hsa_circ_0001649 was significantly correlated with pathological differentiation (P = 0.039). Conclusion. Our test suggested that hsa_circ_0001649 was significantly downregulated in GC and may become a novel potential biomarker in the diagnosis of GC.

In summary, lncRNA GAS5 was a prognostic biomarker of disease free survival in BTCC patients, and acted as a tumor-suppressing gene to inhibit malignant proliferation and resistance to doxorubicin in BTCC cells. LncRNA GAS5 might be a novel potential therapeutic target for BTCC.

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Background/Aims: Elevated pretreatment plasma D-dimer level has been reported as an unfavorable prognostic indicator in several malignancies. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the prognostic value of elevated D-dimer level in solid tumors. Methods: A comprehensive search of electronic databases up to June 10, 2017 was carried out by two independent reviewers. We included studies exploring the association between pretreatment plasma D-dimer level and patients’ survival outcomes in solid tumors. Overall survival (OS) was regarded as primary outcome and progression-free survival (PFS), disease-free survival (DFS) as well as cancer-specific survival (CSS) were chosen as secondary outcomes. Hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI) were extracted directly or indirectly from included studies. Results: 49 studies with 13001 patients were included in our meta-analysis. Elevated D-dimer was markedly associated with poor OS (pooled HR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.63 - 2.20, P < 0.001). The effect was observed in all different tumor sites, disease stages, cut-off values and ethnicities. Meanwhile, patients with a high plasma D-dimer had a shorter PFS (HR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.22–1.76; P < 0.001), DFS (HR = 2.02, 95% CI = 1.56–2.62) and CSS (HR = 2.04, 95% CI= 1.58 – 2.64). Conclusions: Analysis of the pretreatment plasma D-dimer might provide useful information to predict prognosis in patients with solid tumors.

BackgroundPlasma D-dimer levels have been shown to be high in advanced tumor stage patients and can be used to predict clinical outcome in cancer patients. As most advanced tumor stage patients exhibit asymptomatic metastasis, which contributes to early tumor recurrence after surgery, we hypothesized that plasma D-dimer levels can be used to predict patients with potential metastasis.MethodsWe enrolled 1042 primary gastric cancer patients in three multiple cancer centers in Northwest China and examined plasma D-dimer levels using the latex-enhanced immunoturbidimetric assay (LEIA) method. Plasma D-dimer levels were compared with the clinicopathological characteristics in this large-scale case-control study with follow up. We also performed regular follow-up studies for 395 patients to analyze the 2-year survival rate and early tumor recurrence.ResultsIn this large-scale clinical study, we found that plasma D-dimer levels were increased in patients with distant metastasis and especially hematogenous metastasis patients. The cut-off value of the D-dimer levels was determined to be 1.5 mg/ml based on the ROC curve, and the sensitivity and specificity for metastasis prediction were 61.9% and 86.6%, respectively. Additionally, patients with high D-dimer levels displayed early tumor recurrence and poor outcome during the follow-up study.ConclusionPlasma D-dimer may represent an easy to measure and lower cost marker for the testing of gastric cancer patients to predict asymptomatic hematogenous metastasis.

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