Background: The aim of this study was to research the importance of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in prediction of PSA recurrence after radical prostatectomy, which has not been reported so far. Materials and Methods: The data of 175 patients who were diagnosed with localised prostate cancer and underwent retropubic radical prostatectomy was retrospectively examined. Patient pre-operative hemogram parameters of neutrophil count, lymphocyte count and NLR were assessed. The patients whose PSAs were too low to measure after radical prostatectomy in their follow-ups, and then had PSAs of 0,2 ng/mL were considered as patients with PSA recurrence. Patients with recurrence made up Group A and patients without recurrence made up Group B. Results: In terms of the power of NLR value in distinguishing recurrence, the area under OCC was statistically significant (p<0.001) .The value of 2.494 for NLR was found to be a cut-off value which can be used in order to distinguish recurrence according to Youden index. According to this, patients with a higher NLR value than 2.494 had higher rates of PSA recurrence with 89.7% sensitivity and 92.6% specificity. Conclusions: There are certain parameters used in order to predict recurrence with today's literature data.We think that because NLR is easy to use in clinics and inexpensive, and also has high sensitivity and specificity values, it has the potential to be one of the parameters used in order to predict biochemical recurrence in future.

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IntroductionFor small renal calculi (< 2 cm) the currently available treatment options include extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL), retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) and standard/mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL). A new method, microperc, has therefore been developed, in which a smaller tract size and smaller instruments were used.AimTo present our clinical experiences with micropercutaneous nephrolithotripsy (microperc) in the treatment of small renal calculi.Material and methodsWe retrospectively evaluated patients with small renal calculi who underwent microperc between February and June 2013. A 4.8 Fr ‘all-seeing needle’ was used to achieve percutaneous renal access with the C-arm fluoroscopy guidance in the prone position. Holmium: YAG laser 272 µm fiber was used for stone fragmentation.ResultsA total of 20 patients underwent the microperc procedure. The mean age of the patients was 46.5 ±13.8 years. The mean stone size was 13 ±3 mm. The stone-free rate (SFR) was 90% (18/20). Two patients had clinically significant residual fragments (≥ 4 mm). The mean operation and fluoroscopy times were 107.5 ±37 min and 45 ±40 s respectively. The mean postoperative drop in hemoglobin was 1.2 ±0.9 g/dl, and 1 patient required blood transfusion. The patients were discharged after an average hospitalization of 1.4 ±0.8 days. Two complications, urinary tract infection and blood loss requiring blood transfusion, were observed in 2 patients postoperatively.ConclusionsWe suggest that microperc should be considered for the treatment of small renal stones.

IntroductionIt has been shown that CD47 is an important diagnostic and prognostic marker in many cancer types. However, the relationship between CD47 and bladder tumor stage has not been shown in previous studies. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the association of CD47 with stages of bladder cancer.Material and methodsSurgical specimens of 175 patients were included in the study. The CD47 staining assessment was performed in the following categories; none, focal, moderate and diffuse. The statistics of the study were tested using t-test and analysis of variance.ResultsWe demonstrated much less CD47 staining extent in Ta tumor pathology compared to T1 and T1+T2+T3+T4 tumor pathology (p = 0.034 and p = 0.016, respectively). We also showed that the average value of CD47 staining extent with CIS+ was significantly higher compared to CIS– among NMIBC (p = 0.0248). However, no significant differences in CD47 staining pattern were observed in the following study groups: high vs. low-grade tumors in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC); MIBC (T2–T4) vs. NMIBC; lymph node involvement (N1–N3) vs. non-lymph node involvement (N0) in MIBC (T2–T4).ConclusionsOur study demonstrated that CD47 might have a critical role in the progression of Ta to T1 stage. Furthermore, we showed that CD47 is highly expressed in CIS+ NMIBC compared to CIS- NMIBC. Thus, differentiating stages with the help of this new potential marker may help clinicians treat bladder tumors better. Future studies to determine the role of CD47 on pathophysiology, diagnosis and prognosis of bladder tumor are warranted.

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