Multicentricity in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objective: To find the incidence of multicentric renal cell carcinoma and its possible relationship to the other clinical and pathologic findings. Methods: A total of 40 patients with renal cell carcinoma underwent radical nephrectomy between March 1994 and January 1996 at Hacettepe University, School of Medicine, Department of Urology. All of the materials were examined grossly and histologically by the same pathologist. Results: Among 40 kidneys 4 had satellite carcinoma (10%), 3 of them had been shown by preoperative imaging techniques, 1 was found histopathologically. Conclusion: If preoperative imaging techniques do not show additional lesion in the kidney besides the small early stage primary in incidentally discovered patients, the incidence of satellite renal cell carcinoma is low enough to justify nephron sparing surgery.     

Guidelines and considerations for conducting experiments using tissue microarrays

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) represent a powerful method for undertaking large‐scale tissue‐based biomarker studies. While TMAs offer several advantages, there are a number of issues specific to their use which need to be considered when employing this method. Given the investment in TMA‐based research, guidance on design and execution of experiments will be of benefit and should help researchers new to TMA‐based studies to avoid known pitfalls. Furthermore, a consensus on quality standards for TMA‐based experiments should improve the robustness and reproducibility of studies, thereby increasing the likelihood of identifying clinically useful biomarkers. In order to address these issues, the National Cancer Research Institute Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Studies Group organized a 1‐day TMA workshop held in Nottingham in May 2012. The document herein summarizes the conclusions from the workshop. It includes guidance and considerations on all aspects of TMA‐based research, including the pre‐analytical stages of experimental design, the analytical stages of data acquisition, and the postanalytical stages of data analysis. A checklist is presented which can be used both for planning a TMA experiment and interpreting the results of such an experiment. For studies of cancer biomarkers, this checklist could be used as a supplement to the REMARK guidelines.     

Androgen receptor-independent prostate cancer: an emerging clinical entity

Androgen deprivation therapy remains the backbone of prostate cancer treatment given its pivotal role in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer. The growing knowledge of androgen receptor-independent (i.e. AR-null) prostate cancer cells, however, might advance the treatment paradigm of prostate cancer. Here, we examined the results of two recent studies, published in Cancer Cell by Bluemn and Shukla et al., and their impact in the future management of castration-resistant prostate cancer.