The use of grey scale prostate ultrasound decreased after the implementation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis and evaluation of prostate cancer. The new developments, such as multiparametric ultrasound and MRI-ultrasound fusion technology, renewed the interest for this imaging method in the assessment of prostate cancer. The purpose of this paper was to review the current role of prostate ultrasound in the setting of these new applications. A thorough reevaluation of the selection criteria of the patients is required to assess which patients would benefit from multiparametric ultrasound, who wouldbenefit from multiparametric MRI or the combination of both to assist prostate biopsy in order to ensure the balance between overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of prostate cancer.

As colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the forms of cancer with the highest prevalence globally and with a high mortality, screening and early detection remains a major issue. Colonoscopy is still the gold standard for detecting premalignant lesions, but it is burdened by some complications. For instance, it is laborious, with some difficulties of acceptance for some patients, and is ultimately an imperfect standard, given that some premalignant lesions or incipient malignancies can be missed by colonoscopic evaluation. In this context, new non-invasive approaches such as surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) based liquid biopsy have gained ground in recent years, showing promising results in oncological pathology diagnosis. These new methods have enabled the detection of subtle molecular profile alterations prior to any macroscopic morphological changes, thus providing a useful tool for early CRC detection. In the present review, we provide a summary of published studies applying SERS in CRC detection, along with our personal experience in using SERS in the diagnosis of different oncological pathologies, including CRC.

Background and Objectives: Iron is an essential micronutrient for many biological functions and has been found to be intimately linked to cancer biology. Although the effects of increased dietary iron consumption in the development of CRC have been previously investigated in several cohort studies, the available evidence on the involvement of iron deficiency in this process is relatively scarce. Previously published papers did not analyze specific outcomes, such as the presence of biologically aggressive histopathological characteristics, that are associated with the subtypes of iron deficiency. The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between the development of colorectal cancer and the presence of functional iron deficiency (FID), which is defined as insufficient biological availability of iron in the presence of adequate storage reserves, or absolute iron deficiency (AID), which is defined as severely depleted iron storage levels. Materials and Methods: Our paper represents a single center registry-based cohort study. Iron levels were routinely evaluated upon diagnosis of CRC and the collected data were coupled with patient- and tumor-specific data (2018–2022). Spearman’s correlation coefficient and the chi-squared test were used to analyze the association. Results: Out of 129 patients, 75 (58.13%) were anemic. AID was identified in 26.35% of cases and FID was encountered in 51.16% of cases. A statistically significant association between FID and lymphatic invasion was encountered. An analysis of the correlation demonstrated a significant association between anemia and right-sided tumor location. Conclusions: Functional iron deficiency seems to be independently associated with lymphatic invasion. Although a statistically significant correlation with the T or N stage was not demonstrated, the analysis suggested a potential positive relationship between the presence of FID and more aggressive tumor characteristics.

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Atypical small acinar proliferation (ASAP) and high grade intraepithelial neoplasia (HGPIN) patterns identified at prostate biopsy yield an important clinical significance, their presence signaling an increased likelihood of future oncological development or underdiagnosed PCa. MRI and MRI-TRUS fusion prostate biopsy have recently become the standard for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Thus, we aimed to assess the role of ASAP/HGPIN pattern in the context of these recent developments as compared with the standard systematic biopsy. The present study included 400 patients who underwent MRI-TRUS fusion prostate biopsy. A subgroup of these patients had a history of prior systematic biopsy and their results were also included in the analysis. We observed that ASAP/HGPIN pattern diagnosed at systematic biopsy is suggestive of a high-volume clinically-significant disease, most probably located outside the standard sampling area. On the contrary, ASAP/HGPIN at MRI-TRUS fusion biopsy has clinical features more similar to benign prostate hyperplasia, thus suggesting a more incipient disease, if present. No relation between concurrent ASAP/HGPIN and PCa was observed in our study.