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Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and malignant tumor. The main treatment is primary surgical resection with or without mitotane therapy. The role of radiation therapy is still controversial. We aim to investigate the survival efficacy of radiotherapy in a large population-based cohort. We queried the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (1973–2013) to identify cases with ACC. Traditional multivariate Cox regression and propensity score analysis were used to evaluate the effect of radiotherapy on cancer survival. The survival outcomes included overall survival and cancer-specific survival. The treatment effect was evaluated using a hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Five hundred thirty patients diagnosed with ACC were identified. Among them, 74 patients received radiotherapy. In the multivariate Cox regression, radiotherapy did not increase the overall survival (HR 0.794, 95% CI 0.550–1.146, P = .218) or cancer-specific survival (HR 0.842, 95% CI 0.574–1.236, P = .388). In the propensity score analysis, the results consistently showed no survival benefit of radiotherapy regardless of the different propensity score analysis methods. Radiotherapy did not improve overall or cancer-specific survival in ACC patients. Further confirmation is needed from multi-institutional prospective studies in the future.

The relationship between inflammation and tumor development and progression has been recognized in recent decades. NLR is an easily reproducible and widely used inflammatory response marker. The prognostic value of NLR for urologic tumors has been reported in succession. Here, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the association between the NLR and prognosis of urologic tumors. We conducted a computerized search of PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge to identify clinical studies that had evaluated the association between the pretreatment NLR and prognosis in urologic tumors. Prognostic outcomes included overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and metastasis-free survival (MFS). We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) using Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13. We identified 34 retrospective cohort studies and conducted the meta-analysis. The results showed that all OS, CSS, RFS, PFS, and MFS risks were significantly different between patients with an elevated NLR and those with a low NLR in various urologic tumors. A high NLR portended poor prognosis. However, no significance was observed for CSS in patients with renal cell carcinoma (HR = 1.38, 95% CI: 0.96-1.99). Our meta-analysis suggests that NLR could be a prognostic predictor for urologic tumors. Patients with a high NLR were deemed to have a poor prognosis.

Recent studies suggest that statin may benefit cancer prognosis, especially through its radiosensitization effect. But controversy exists in other studies. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis of results from 35 studies to evaluate the effect of statin use on urologic cancers.We conducted computerized search from PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge through May 2015, screened the retrieved references, and collected and evaluated relevant information. We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HR) and confidence interval (CI) by using Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13. This review was registered at PROSPERO with registration No. CRD42015020171.We selected total 35 retrospective studies and conducted a meta-analysis of results from these studies. The pooled results suggested no benefit of statin use to bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma, except overall survival [HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69-0.96]. However, significant improvement of prostate cancer prognosis including overall survival [HR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.97] and cancer-specific survival [HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.59-0.83] was indicated, but not including tumor progression [HR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.62-1.14]. Statin use improved biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer in radiotherapy patients [HR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.54-0.85] but not in radical prostatectomy patients [HR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.82-1.15].Current evidence suggests no benefit of statin use to bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma, except in overall survival. While statin use benefited prostate cancer patients in overall survival, cancer-specific survival but not in tumor progression; it also improved biochemical recurrence in radiotherapy patients but not in radical patients. To verify these results, randomized controlled trials are necessary.