Toward a More General Consent for the Use of Patients' Biological Material and Health Information for Medical Research-The Patient Perspective.

Biological material and health information from patients are valuable for medical research. Under a "broad" consent model, hospital patients in Norway can consent to their biological material and health information being stored in research biobanks and used for "specific, broadly defined research purposes" within a specified medical research area but not for medical research in general. Patients are asked to provide new consent each time researchers wish to use their material in a different medical research area.

RNA-Integrity and 8-Isoprostane Levels Are Stable in Prostate Tissue Samples Upon Long-Term Storage at -80°C.

Sampling of prostate tissue ( = 97) was performed in conjunction with planned radical prostatectomies, in collaboration with Biobank1. The tissue used in this study was collected during the period 2003-2016, quickly frozen, and kept at -80°C until assayed in 2018. RNA extraction was performed with two different protocols (miRNeasy and Vana™), and RNA quality was determined by measuring the RNA Integrity Number (RIN).

Increased levels of serum miR-148a-3p are associated with prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common types of cancer and the fifth leading cause of death among men worldwide. The tools for diagnosing PCa have limited value, and to improve correct diagnosis there is a need for markers that can contribute to a more precise diagnosis, which would lead to proper treatment of only those patients who need it. Micro RNA (miRNA) plays a key role in the development of cancer and is therefore a potential marker for PCa.

The proportion of CD16(+)CD14(dim) monocytes increases with tumor cell load in bone marrow of patients with multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer with expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. Previous studies have shown that monocytes and macrophages in the bone marrow milieu are important for tumor growth and may play a role in the drug response. We therefore characterized monocytes in bone marrow aspirates by flow cytometry.