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Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most common cancers in males. A significant proportion of PCs bear TMPRSS2-ETS translocation and overexpress ERG transcription factor, allowing classification into ERG+ and ERG- groups, which differ in several features including the tumor microenvironment. The aim of the study was to verify whether they differ in expression of the miRNA in the microenvironment. The material consisted of 150 radical prostatectomies. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for ERG was done using a routine method. FISH for TMPRSS2-ETS translocation was done with a ZytoLight SPEC ERG/TMPRSS2 TriCheck Probe. From each case, a representative section was selected, and tumor and non-tumor were microdissected with the LMD7000 device. RNA was isolated using the RNeasy Mini Kit system (Qiagen) and miRNA libraries were prepared with the NEBNext Multiplex Small RNA Library Prep Set for Illumina and their sequencing was performed on the NexSeq 500. Statistical analysis was done with Statistica and R software. When analyzing the expression of miRNAs some differences could be seen, but after correction for multiple comparisons was applied, these were found to be non- significant.

The progress in translational cancer research relies on access to well-characterized samples from a representative number of patients and controls. The rationale behind our biobanking are explorations of post-zygotic pathogenic gene variants, especially in non-tumoral tissue, which might predispose to cancers. The targeted diagnoses are carcinomas of the breast (via mastectomy or breast conserving surgery), colon and rectum, prostate, and urinary bladder (via cystectomy or transurethral resection), exocrine pancreatic carcinoma as well as metastases of colorectal cancer to the liver. The choice was based on the high incidence of these cancers and/or frequent fatal outcome. We also collect age-matched normal controls. Our still ongoing collection originates from five clinical centers and after nearly 2-year cooperation reached 1711 patients and controls, yielding a total of 23226 independent samples, with an average of 74 donors and 1010 samples collected per month. The predominant diagnosis is breast carcinoma, with 933 donors, followed by colorectal carcinoma (383 donors), prostate carcinoma (221 donors), bladder carcinoma (81 donors), exocrine pancreatic carcinoma (15 donors) and metachronous colorectal cancer metastases to liver (14 donors). Forty percent of the total sample count originates from macroscopically healthy cancer-neighboring tissue, while contribution from tumors is 12%, which adds to the uniqueness of our collection for cancer predisposition studies. Moreover, we developed two program packages, enabling registration of patients, clinical data and samples at the participating hospitals as well as the central system of sample/data management at coordinating center. The approach used by us may serve as a model for dispersed biobanking from multiple satellite hospitals. Our biobanking resource ought to stimulate research into genetic mechanisms underlying the development of common cancers. It will allow all available "-omics" approaches on DNA-, RNA-, protein- and tissue levels to be applied. The collected samples can be made available to other research groups., Competing Interests: J.P.D. is cofounder and shareholder in Cray Innovation AB. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Epidemiological investigations show that mosaic loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in leukocytes is associated with earlier mortality and morbidity from many diseases in men. LOY is the most common acquired mutation and is associated with aberrant clonal expansion of cells, yet it remains unclear whether this mosaicism exerts a direct physiological effect. We studied DNA and RNA from leukocytes in sorted- and single-cells in vivo and in vitro. DNA analyses of sorted cells showed that men diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease was primarily affected with LOY in NK cells whereas prostate cancer patients more frequently displayed LOY in CD4 + T cells and granulocytes. Moreover, bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing in leukocytes allowed scoring of LOY from mRNA data and confirmed considerable variation in the rate of LOY across individuals and cell types. LOY-associated transcriptional effect (LATE) was observed in ~ 500 autosomal genes showing dysregulation in leukocytes with LOY. The fraction of LATE genes within specific cell types was substantially larger than the fraction of LATE genes shared between different subsets of leukocytes, suggesting that LOY might have pleiotropic effects. LATE genes are involved in immune functions but also encode proteins with roles in other diverse biological processes. Our findings highlight a surprisingly broad role for chromosome Y, challenging the view of it as a "genetic wasteland", and support the hypothesis that altered immune function in leukocytes could be a mechanism linking LOY to increased risk for disease.

Renal carcinoma is the 20th most common cancer worldwide. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma is the most frequent type of renal cancer. Even in patients diagnosed at an early stage, characteristics of disease progression remain heterogeneous. Up-to-date molecular classifications stratify the ccRCC samples into two clusters. We analyzed gene expression in 23 T1 or T3 ccRCC samples. Unsupervised clustering divided this group into three clusters, two of them contained pure T1 or T3 samples while one contained a mixed group. We defined a group of 36 genes that discriminate the mixed cluster. This gene set could be associated with tumor classification into a higher stage and it contained significant number of genes coding for molecular transporters, channel and transmembrane proteins. External data from TCGA used to test our findings confirmed that the expression levels of those 36 genes varied significantly between T1 and T3 tumors. In conclusion, we found a clustering pattern of gene expression, informative for heterogeneity among T1 and T3 tumors of clear cell renal cell carcinoma., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.