The effect of digital rectal exam on the 4Kscore for aggressive prostate cancer

GNL3 and PA2G4 as Prognostic Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is a multifocal and heterogeneous disease common in males and remains the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The prognosis of prostate cancer is variable and based on the degree of cancer and its stage at the time of diagnosis. Existing biomarkers for the prognosis of prostate cancer are unreliable and lacks specificity and sensitivity in guiding clinical decision. There is need to search for novel biomarkers having prognostic and predictive capabilities in guiding clinical outcomes. Using a bioinformatics approach, we predicted GNL3 and PA2G4 as biomarkers of prognostic significance in prostate cancer. A progressive increase in the expression of GNL3 and PA2G4 was observed during cancer progression having significant association with poor survival in prostate cancer patients. The Receiver Operating Characteristics of both genes showed improved area under the curve against sensitivity versus specificity in the pooled samples from three different GSE datasets. Overall, our analysis predicted GNL3 and PA2G4 as prognostic biomarkers of clinical significance in prostate cancer.

Differentially expressed glycoproteins in pre- and post-digital rectal examination urine samples for detecting aggressive prostate cancer

Urinary glycoproteins associated with aggressive prostate cancer (AG-PCa) were previously reported using post-digital rectal examination (DRE) urine specimens. To explore the potential of using pre-DRE urine specimens for detecting AG-PCa, we compared glycoproteins between pre- and post-DRE urine specimens, verified the previously identified post-DRE AG-PCa-associated urinary glycoproteins in pre-DRE urine specimens, and explored potential new glycoproteins for AG-PCa detection in pre-DRE urine specimens. Quantitative glycoproteomic data were acquired for 154 pre-DRE urine specimens from 41 patients with no cancer at biopsy, 48 patients with non-AG-PCa (Gleason score = 6), and 65 patients with AG-PCa (Gleason score 7 or above). Compared to glycopeptides from the post-DRE urine data, humoral immunity-related proteins were enriched in pre-DRE urine samples, whereas cell mediated immune response proteins were enriched in post-DRE urine samples. Analyses of AG-PCa-associated glycoproteins from pre-DRE urine revealed that the three urinary glycoproteins, prostate-specific antigen (PSA), prostatic acid phosphatase (ACPP), and CD97 antigen (CD97) that were previously identified in post-DRE urine samples, were also observed as AG-PCa associated glycoproteins in pre-DRE urine. In addition, we identified three new glycoproteins, fibrillin 1 (FBN1), vitronectin (VTN), and hemicentin 2 (HMCN2), to be potentially associated with AG-PCa in pre-DRE urine specimens. In summary, glycoprotein profiles differ between pre- and post-DRE urine specimens. The identified AG-PCa-associated glycoproteins may be further evaluated in large cohort of pre-DRE urine specimens for detecting clinically significant PCa.

The value of health awareness days, weeks and months: A systematic review

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this systematic review was to analyze the value of awareness days, weeks, and months as found in peer-reviewed research and highlight any related trends.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted across four electronic databases for articles published between 1970 and July 2020. The researchers reviewed articles which included awareness days, weeks, or months in the title or abstract and extracted articles which used quantitative analysis to assess the impact of such campaigns.

RESULTS

The 73 included articles were separated into categories based on outcome measure(s) with 12 articles included in more than one category. Of the 31 articles which examined online activity outcomes, the vast majority reported the awareness day, week, or month in question positively correlated with increased activity. Of the 14 articles focused on knowledge outcomes, those which focused on specific day, week, or month sub-interventions with targeted populations had relatively greater success. The 29 studies that examined the impact of awareness days, weeks, and months on health outcomes reported mixed results. Another twelve studies provided treatment insights based on convenience sample research conducted during awareness days, weeks, and months. The majority of articles across all outcome categories did not examine costs.

CONCLUSION

Although online activity seemed to generally increase during the awareness days, weeks, and months studied, the relationship between this increase and improved health behaviors and outcomes remains unclear. In addition, there is a paucity of research pertaining to the cost and cost effectiveness of such campaigns. Future research in this area needs to focus more on health outcome impacts and include an examination of cost effectiveness when possible.

Characterization of N-linked intact glycopeptide signatures of plasma IgGs from patients with prostate carcinoma and benign prostatic hyperplasia for diagnosis pre-stratification

The discovery of novel non-invasive biomarkers for discriminating between prostate carcinoma (PCa) patients and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients is necessary to reduce the burden of biopsies, avoid overdiagnosis and improve quality of life. Previous studies suggest that abnormal glycosylation of immunoglobulin gamma molecules (IgGs) is strongly associated with immunological diseases and prostate diseases. Hence, characterizing N-linked intact glycopeptides of IgGs that correspond to the N-glycan structure with specific site information might enable a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and discovery of novel signatures in preoperative discrimination of BPH from PCa. In this study, we profiled N-linked intact glycopeptides of purified IgGs from 51 PCa patients and 45 BPH patients by our developed N-glycoproteomic method using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography enrichment coupled with high resolution LC-MS/MS. The quantitative analysis of the N-linked intact glycopeptides using pGlyco 2.0 and MaxQuant software provided quantitative information on plasma IgG subclass-specific and site-specific N-glycosylation. As a result, we found four aberrantly expressed N-linked intact glycopeptides across different IgG subclasses. In particular, the N-glycopeptide IgG2-GP09 (EEQFNSTFR (H5N5S1)) was dramatically elevated in plasma from PCa patients, compared with that in BPH patients (PCa/BPH ratio = 5.74, p = 0.001). Additionally, the variations in these N-linked intact glycopeptide abundances were not caused by the changes in the IgG concentrations. Furthermore, IgG2-GP09 displayed a more powerful prediction capability (auROC = 0.702) for distinguishing PCa from BPH than the clinical index t-PSA (auROC = 0.681) when used alone or in combination with other indicators (auROC = 0.853). In conclusion, these abnormally expressed N-linked intact glycopeptides have potential for non-invasive monitoring and pre-stratification of prostate diseases.