[Supplemental role of thrombospondin-1 in the diagnosis of prostate cancer].

Objective: To employ enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to measure the serum level of thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) and analyze its diagnostic value for prostate cancer.

Methods: The serum levels of TSP-1 were measured by human TSP-1 ELISA kit in 50 patients with organ-confined prostate cancer (n = 22) and non-organ-confined prostate cancer (n = 28). And the subjects of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 16) were selected.

[Clinical features on chromophobe renal cell carcinoma].

Objectives: To explore the clinical, pathological features and prognosis of patients with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.

Methods: From January 1998 to January 2008, clinical data of 29 patients with chromophobe renal cell carcinoma including clinical manifestations, imaging examinations, treatment models, pTNM stages and follow-up results, were summarized to investigate its features and prognosis.

Results: All cases had no obvious clinical and preoperative imaging presentation.

Rapamycin regulates Akt and ERK phosphorylation through mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling pathways.

Numerous studies have shown that mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor activates Akt signaling pathway via a negative feedback loop while inhibiting mTORC1 signaling. In this report, we focused on studying the role of mTORC1 and mTORC2 in rapamycin-mediated Akt and ERK phosphorylation, and the antitumor effect of rapamycin in cancer cells in combination with Akt and ERK inhibitors. Moreover, we analyzed the effect of mTORC1 and mTORC2 on regulating cell cycle progression.