The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of Ho:YAG laser enucleation of the prostate (HOLEP) to the sexual function of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In the course of the study, 108 patients with BPH were recruited and accepted treatment with HOLEP. The effectiveness of treatment was evaluated by flow rate and the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) before HOLEP and 6 months afterwards. Meanwhile, the sexual functions were evaluated with the Danish Prostate Symptom Score Sexual Function Questionnaire (DanPSS Sex). Before and 6 months after HOLEP treatment, the mean residual urine volume was reduced from 106.0 6 51.7 mL to 5.6 6 1.7 mL (P , .01), maximum flow rate was improved from 7.2 6 3.9 mL/s to 21.7 6 1.3 mL/s (P , .01), nocturia frequency was reduced from 5.5 to 1.5 (P , .01), and the mean IPSS score was decreased from 19.4 6 5.6 to 7.4 6 2.6 (P , .01). The proportion of patients satisfied with their libido was 55% before HOLEP and 57% 6 months afterwards, while 23.5% of the patients had no libido before and after HOLEP; 37% of the patients were satisfied with their erection before HOLEP and 40% after 6 months; 30% of the patients had completely satisfactory sex life before HOLEP, and 32% did 6 months later. The corresponding percentages of fully impotent patients increased from 33% before the procedure to 35% 6 months postoperation. Early morning erections were reported by 45% of the patients before the procedure and by 62% 6 months later (P , .01). In 70% of the patients with normal sex life, ejaculation was retrograde 6 months after HOLEP (P , .01). HOLEP does not affect the sexual function of patients with BPH but does did improve the ability of early morning erection, while causing retrograde ejaculation.

BackgroundGrowing evidence has implicated the important role of the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in gastric cancer progression. In this study, we examined the expression of lncRNA zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 2 antisense RNA 1 (ZEB2-AS1) in gastric cancer tissues and elucidated the molecular mechanisms underlying ZEB2-AS1-mediated gastric cancer progression.MethodsQuantitative real-time PCR measured the gene expression level; CCK-8, colony formation and cell invasion assays determined gastric cancer cell proliferation, growth and invasion, respectively; the xenograft nude mice model was used to determine in vivo tumor growth; Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay determined the downstream targets of ZEB2-AS1 and miR-143-5p. The expression of ZEB2-AS1 was upregulated in gastric cancer cell lines.ResultsKnockdown of ZEB2-AS1 suppressed gastric cancer cell proliferation, growth and invasion, and also suppressed in vivo tumor growth in the nude mice. Overexpression of ZEB2-AS1 potentiated gastric cancer cell proliferation, growth and invasion. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay showed that miR-143-5p was a direct target of ZEB2-AS1 and was negatively regulated by ZEB2-AS1. Furthermore, hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) was found to be a target of miR-143-5p and was negatively regulated by miR-143-5p. The rescue in vitro assays showed that the effects of ZEB2-AS1 overexpression on gastric cancer cell proliferation, growth and invasion was mediated via miR-143-5p/HIF-1α. ZEB2-AS1 and HIF-1α was upregulated in gastric cancer tissues, while miR-143-5p was down-regulated; and ZEB2-AS1 expression level was inversely correlated with miR-143-5p expression level, and positively correlated with HIF-1α mRNA expression level; while miR-143-5p expression level was inversely correlated with HIF-1α expression level. High ZEB2-AS1 expression level was correlated with poor differentiation, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis.ConclusionCollectively, our results indicated that ZEB2-AS1 was up-regulated in gastric cancer tissues and cells and promoted cell proliferation and metastasis through miR-143-5p/HIF-1α pathway, which may provide a promising target for treatment of gastric cancer.

Fatty acid synthase (FASN) overexpression has also been associated with a variety of human malignancies including tumor progression, aggressiveness, and metastasis. To investigate the role of FASN expression in esophageal cancer, we evaluated 60 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 20 cases of adenocarcinoma, and 10 cases of normal esophageal tissues. We found that FASN was detected in 95 % human squamous cell carcinoma, and in 90 % human adenocarcinoma samples. However, all cases of normal esophageal epithelium did not express the protein of FASN. Further, to investigate the role of FASN in tumorigenesis and development, we analyze the growth and migration by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), colony formation and wound healing assay. We found that inhibition of FASN expression in TE13 cells by RNAi suppressed the growth of cells. Decreased FASN expression mitigated the migration of TE13 cells. These studies demonstrated the functional importance of FASN in esophageal tumorigenesis, and suggested that inhibiting FASN might be applied to treat esophageal cancer.

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It is well known that no single histological feature is diagnostic for malignant pheochromocytomas (PCCs). So we developed a logistic model based on a series of clinical and pathological features to predict malignance in PCCs, and evaluated its diagnostic performance. In all 130 cases with malignant or benign PCCs, 15 predictive variables were observed and entered in the logistic regression analysis in a backward stepwise way. The diagnostic performance of this logistic model was evaluated by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. In logistic analysis, of the 15 variables entered in the logistic regression analysis, 9 were retained in the model. High cellularity had the highest odds ratio (OR), followed by spindle cell (>10% of tumor volume), atypical mitotic figure, periadrenal adipose tissue invasion, mitotic figures [>3/10 high-power field (HPF)], cellular monotony, capsular invasion, vascular invasion, and central or confluent tumor necrosis. High cellularity, spindle cell (>10% of tumor volume) and atypical mitotic figure were selected to built a logistic model. This model had the area under the ROC curve of 0.927 (95% confidence interval 0.883-0.971). The application of the model can benefit the clinical management decision for patients with PCCs. We still emphasize, however, that a clinical prospective evaluation is needed to confirm its actual value.