microRNA-138-5p as a Worse Prognosis Biomarker in Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant bone tumor with two peaks of incidence, in early adolescence and the elderly. Patients affected with this malignancy often present metastatic disease at diagnosis, and despite multimodality therapy, survival has not improved substantially over the past 3 decades. Recently, miR-138-5p, proposed as a crucial intracellular mediator of invasion, has been recognized to target the Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase 2 (ROCK2).

Prognostic value and functional role of ROCK2 in pediatric Ewing sarcoma.

Ewing's sarcoma (EWS) is a highly aggressive bone cancer that affects children and adolescents. Despite advances in multimodal management, 5-year event-free survival rates for patients presenting with metastases at diagnosis remain at 25%. As key regulators of actin organization, the Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinases, ROCK1 and ROCK2, have been associated with cancer dissemination and poorer prognosis.

Perioperative conjunctival inflammation and trabeculectomy outcome.

Purpose: To correlate subclinical conjunctival inflammation and trabeculectomy results.

Methods: Prospective case series of 28 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (28 eyes) under topical anti-glaucoma medication who underwent trabeculectomy. During surgery, a sample from the inferior bulbar conjunctiva was collected and the expression of HLA-DR together with the presence of inflammatory cells was correlated with trabeculectomy outcomes after 24 months.

Chromosomal heterogeneity and instability characterize pediatric medulloblastoma cell lines and affect neoplastic phenotype.

Chromosomal heterogeneity is a hallmark of most tumors and it can drive critical events as growth advantages, survival advantages, progression and karyotypic evolution. Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant central nervous system tumor in children. This work attempted to investigate chromosomal heterogeneity and instability profiles of two MB pediatric cell lines and their relationship with cell phenotype.