Semirigid ureteroscopy prior retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) helps to select the right ureteral access sheath.

Objective: To evaluate ureteral compliance through semirigid ureteroscopy (sURS) in order to select the proper ureteral access sheath (UAS) size for retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS).

Patients And Methods: In a prospective study, 100 consecutive patients selected for elective sURS or RIRS were recruited. Each patient, initially underwent 9.

Identification of common differentially expressed genes in urinary bladder cancer.

Background: Current diagnosis and treatment of urinary bladder cancer (BC) has shown great progress with the utilization of microarrays.

Purpose: Our goal was to identify common differentially expressed (DE) genes among clinically relevant subclasses of BC using microarrays.

Methodology/principal Findings: BC samples and controls, both experimental and publicly available datasets, were analyzed by whole genome microarrays.

Implication of RAF and RKIP genes in urinary bladder cancer.

RKIP has been shown to regulate the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK kinase cascade acting as modulator of apoptosis and metastasis in prostate cancer. Our goal was to examine the expression of the RAF (A-RAF, B-RAF and RAF-1) and RKIP genes in urinary bladder cancer. Microarray analysis and qPCR was employed to investigate the expression of RAF and RKIP, in 30 patients with transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the urinary bladder vs.

Mutational analysis of the BRAF gene in transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.

Purpose: Mutational activation of the MAP kinase pathway is frequently found in many types of cancer. Recently, activating mutations in the BRAF gene, an important activator of this pathway, have been described in several tumor types including melanoma, colorectal and papillary thyroid cancer. The most frequent mutation in exon 15 (V600E) as well as several other mutations within exons 11 and 15 result in constitutive activation of the oncoprotein.