Takashi Kobayashi

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat urothelial carcinoma (UC) is increasing rapidly without clear guidance for validated risk stratification. This multicenter retrospective study collected clinicopathological information on 463 patients, and 11 predefined variables were analyzed to develop a multivariate model predicting overall survival (OS). The model was validated using an independent dataset of 292 patients. Patient characteristics and outcomes were well balanced between the dis

In the majority of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), product of a gene that is almost exclusively regulated by the androgen receptor (AR), still acts as a serum marker reflecting disease burden, indicating that AR signaling is activated even under castrate level of serum androgen. Accumulated evidence shows that transcriptional ability of AR is activated both in ligand-dependent and -independent manners in CRPC cells. Some androgen-independent sublines

The sigmoid colon and rectum were common sites of the original tumors invading the urinary bladder compared with other colon segments. CT and cystoscopy are recommended for preoperative screening of the bladder involvement of sigmoid colon and rectal cancer. However, it appeared to be difficult to predict the pathological invasion of malignant cells and the necessity for total cystectomy preoperatively.

We and others previously showed that signaling through cSrc or atypical protein kinase C (aPKC) pathway regulates the proliferation of prostate cancer cells and is associated with their progression to castrate-resistance in vivo. However, the interrelation of these two kinases has been largely unexplored. In the present study, we show that androgen-induced activation of cSrc regulates the activity of aPKC through the small molecular weight G protein Rac1 in androgen-dependent LNCaP cells. Knockd

Rheb potentiates proliferation of prostate cancer cells and inhibition of Rheb or mTOR can lead to suppressed proliferation of aggressive prostate cancer cell lines in vitro. Rheb and the mTOR pathway are therefore probable targets for suppressing prostate cancer.

The presence of variant histology did not seem to affect BOR or OS after pembrolizumab administration in patients with chemo-resistant UC. The patients with sarcomatoid VUC achieved favourable responses and survival rates compared to PUC.

Management of unresectable urothelial cancer (UC) has been a clinical challenge for decades. While drug resistance is a key issue, precise understanding of biology of UC metastasis is another challenge for the improvement of treatment outcome of UC patients. Introduction of the cell biology concepts including epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer stemness seems to explain UC metastasis. Molecular genetics based on gene expression profiling, next generation sequencing, and explosion

Non-enhanced CT is a useful modality for diagnosis of patients presenting with acute renal colic but whose results are negative or equivocal on KUB and US. Excretory urography is rarely needed because stones undetected on KUB and US tend to be small and in the middle or lower ureter, and spontaneous passage is expected.