Clinical, laboratory and ultrasonographic correlates of prostate calcifications in patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome.

Introduction: The research aim was to determine the role of clinical, laboratory, immunological and sonographic parameters in the development of an assessment tool for the symptomatic manifestations of prostate calcifications in chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS).

Material And Methods: All men underwent a transabdominal ultrasonographic examination using a grayscale B-mode and color Doppler mapping, the evaluation of the National Institutes of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, spermogram. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), serotonin and gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA), interleukins 1β and 10 were determined in blood serum and ejaculate.

Gene expression and functional evidence of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in papillary thyroid carcinoma invasion.

Papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) that invade into local structures are associated with a poor prognosis, but the mechanisms for PTC invasion are incompletely defined, limiting the development of new therapies. To characterize biological processes involved in PTC invasion, we analyzed the gene expression profiles of microscopically dissected intratumoral samples from central and invasive regions of seven widely invasive PTCs and normal thyroid tissue by oligonucleotide microarray and performed confirmatory expression and functional studies. In comparison with the central regions of primary PTCs, the invasive fronts overexpressed TGF beta, NFkappaB and integrin pathway members, and regulators of small G proteins and CDC42.

High prevalence and possible de novo formation of BRAF mutation in metastasized papillary thyroid cancer in lymph nodes.

Context: The role of the T1799A BRAF mutation in lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is not clear.

Objective: Our objective was to explore the relationship between BRAF mutation and lymph node metastasis of PTC by examining the mutation in both the primary tumors and their paired lymph node metastases.

Design: We isolated genomic DNA from primary thyroid tumors and paired lymph node metastases and performed direct sequencing of exon 15 of the BRAF gene mutation that carries the T1799A mutation.

Thyroid follicular adenomas may display features of follicular carcinoma and follicular variant of papillary carcinoma.

Thyroid follicular adenomas (FA) are encapsulated tumors lacking vascular, capsular or lymphatic invasion and the typical nuclear features of papillary carcinoma (PC). However, some FA demonstrate nuclear atypia reminiscent of either follicular carcinomas (FC) or follicular variant of papillary carcinomas (FVPC), suggesting they may represent precursors of malignant transformation. We hypothesized that an objective evaluation of nuclear chromatin patterns could be used to define atypical follicular tumors (AFT) that are likely to be premalignant.