Developing therapeutic approaches are necessary for treating hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Activation of androgen receptor (AR) and its variants' expression along with the downstream signals are mostly important for disease progression. However, the mechanism for marked increases of AR signals and its expression is still unclear. Here, we revealed that various spliceosome genes are aberrantly induced by RNA-binding protein PSF, leading to enhancement of the splicing activities for AR expression. Our high-speed sequence analyses identified global PSF-binding transcripts. PSF was shown to stabilize and activate key long noncoding RNAs and AR-regulated gene expressions in prostate cancer cells. Interestingly, mRNAs of spliceosome-related genes are putative primary targets of PSF. Their gene expressions are up-regulated by PSF in hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Moreover, PSF coordinated these spliceosome proteins to form a complex to promote AR splicing and expression. Thus, targeting PSF and its related pathways implicates the therapeutic possibility for hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Tripartite motif 44 (TRIM44) is one of the TRIM family proteins that are involved in ubiquitination and degradation of target proteins by modulating E3 ubiquitin ligases. TRIM44 overexpression has been observed in various cancers. However, its association with testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the clinical significance of TRIM44 and its function in TGCT. High expression of TRIM44 was significantly associated with α feto‐protein levels, clinical stage, nonseminomatous germ cell tumor (NSGCT), and cancer‐specific survival (P = 0.0009, P = 0.0035, P = 0.0004, and P = 0.0140, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that positive TRIM44 IR was an independent predictor of cancer‐specific mortality (P = 0.046). Gain‐of‐function study revealed that overexpression of TRIM44 promoted cell proliferation and migration of NTERA2 and NEC8 cells. Knockdown of TRIM44 using siRNA promoted apoptosis and repressed cell proliferation and migration in these cells. Microarray analysis of NTERA2 cells revealed that tumor suppressor genes such as CADM1,CDK19, and PRKACB were upregulated in TRIM44‐knockdown cells compared to control cells. In contrast, oncogenic genes including C3AR1,ST3GAL5, and NT5E were downregulated in those cells. These results suggest that high expression of TRIM44 is associated with poor prognosis and that TRIM44 plays significant role in cell proliferation, migration, and anti‐apoptosis in TGCT.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) infiltrate into a variety of tumour tissues and associate with poor prognosis in humans. However, data on association of Treg infiltration with prognosis is limited in canine tumours. The purpose of this study was to examine the number of tumour-infiltrating Tregs and its association with overall survival (OS) in dogs with malignant tumours. The following 168 canine tumours were included: 37 oral malignant melanomas (OMMs); 14 oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs); 16 pulmonary adenocarcinomas (PAs); 37 mammary carcinomas (MCs); 36 mast cell tumours (MCTs) and 28 hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs). Normal tissues were obtained from 8 healthy dogs as controls. The number of forkhead box P3 (Foxp3)-positive Tregs in intratumoral and peritumoral areas was investigated by immunohistochemistry. OS was compared between high and low Treg groups. The number of intratumoral and peritumoral Foxp3-positive Tregs was significantly higher in OMM, OSCC, PA and MC compared with each normal tissue. There were few Foxp3-positive Tregs in MCT and HCC. With intratumoral Tregs, the OS in the high Treg group was significantly shorter than that in the low Treg group in OMM, OSCC and PA. With peritumoral Tregs, there was no significant difference for OS between the 2 groups in each tumour type. These results suggest that Tregs infiltrate into a variety of canine tumours and the abundance of Tregs are associated with poor prognosis in some solid tumour types.

Background: Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) has now become a gold standard approach in radical prostatectomy. The aim of this study was to investigate incidence and risk factors of inguinal hernia (IH) after RARP. Methods: This study included 307 consecutive men who underwent RARP for the treatment of prostate cancer from January 2011 to August 2015. The incidence of IH after RARP was investigated. Clinical and pathological factors were also investigated to assess relationship with development of postoperative IH. Results: Median follow-ups were 380 days, and median age of patients was 67 years. Incidence of IH was 11.3, 14.0, and 15.4% at 1, 2, and 3 years after RARP, respectively. Postoperative IH occurrence was significantly associated with low surgeon experience and postoperative incontinence at 3 or 6 months after surgery (P = 0.019, P = 0.002, and P = 0.016, respectively). Conclusions: Most of the IH occurred within the first 2 years with a rate of 14%. Incidence of IH after RARP was significantly associated with surgical experience and incontinence outcomes.

Purpose: Genes of androgen and estrogen signaling cells and stem cell-like cells play crucial roles in prostate cancer. This study aimed to predict clinical failure by identifying these prostate cancer-related genes.Experimental Design: We developed models to predict clinical failure using biopsy samples from a training set of 46 and an independent validation set of 30 patients with treatment-na€ ve prostate cancer with bone metastasis. Cancerous and stromal tissues were separately collected by laser-captured microdissection. We analyzed the association between clinical failure and mRNA expression of the following genes androgen receptor (AR) and its related genes (APP, FOX family, TRIM 36, Oct1, and ACSL 3), stem cell-like molecules (Klf4, c-Myc, Oct 3/4, and Sox2), estrogen receptor (ER), Her2, PSA, and CRP.Results: Logistic analyses to predict prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 1.0 in both sets for Sox2, Her2, and CRP expression in cancer cells, AR and ERa expression in stromal cells, and clinical parameters. We identified 10 prognostic factors for cancer-specific survival (CSS): Oct1, TRIM36, Sox2, and c-Myc expression in cancer cells; AR, Klf4, and ERa expression in stromal cells; and PSA, Gleason score, and extent of disease. On the basis of these factors, patients were divided into favorable-, intermediate-, and poor-risk groups according to the number of factors present. Five-year CSS rates for the 3 groups were 90%, 32%, and 12% in the training set and 75%, 48%, and 0% in the validation set, respectively.Conclusions: Expression levels of androgen-and estrogen signaling components and stem cell markers are powerful prognostic tools. Clin Cancer Res; 20(17); 4625-35. Ó2014 AACR.