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Abstract Background The purpose of this study is to describe Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of localized prostate cancer patients in an Active Surveillance (AS) program, and to compare them with those undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP), external-beam radiotherapy (XRT) and brachytherapy (BT). Methods Multi-institutional pooled cross-sectional analysis on patients in an AS protocol: or or

Background: This study evaluated the safety and performance of a drop-in gamma probe for prostate cancer (PCa) sentinel lymph node biopsy (SeLNB) in a prospective, open-label, multicentre, single-arm clinical trial., Objective: The main objective was to determine the sentinel lymph node (SeLN) detection rate with the drop-in gamma probe system. The secondary objectives were overall performance and safety., Design, Setting, and Participants: At three European centres, patients received an ultrasound-guided systemic and tumour-targeted injection of [ 99m Tc]Tc-nanocolloid followed by planar lymphoscintigraphy and/or single-photon emission computerised tomography. The next day, manual laparoscopic or robot-assisted radical prostatectomy was performed, including SeLN dissection (SeLND) and extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND)., Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: SeLNs were detected with the drop-in probe and a rigid laparoscopic gamma probe (RLGP). The primary endpoint of the study was the SeLND rate defined as the percentage of patients with at least one SeLN detected in vivo by the drop-in probe. The secondary endpoints included diagnostic performance, ease of SeLN detection, number of SeLNs detected, and safety. The first two patients at each site (six in total) were used for familiarisation., Results and Limitations: A total of 27 patients were included in the main analysis. SENSEI successfully detected at least one SeLN in all 27 patients, resulting in a detection rate of 100% (95% confidence interval 87.2-100%). The total number of SeLNs identified with SENSEI was 85 (median three SeLNs per patient, range 1-6); of these 85 SeLNs, 12 were located outside of the ePLND template. In the nine patients in whom the RLGP was used, SENSEI detected two SeLNs that could not be detected with the RLGP due to manoeuvrability restrictions. Ten of the 27 patients were pN1; four patients had a false-negative SeLNB. No adverse events or complications were related to the use of the drop-in probe., Conclusions: The study demonstrated that the drop-in gamma probe meets the performance and safety requirements for SeLNB in PCa. The device provided improved manoeuvrability and SeLN detection compared with the conventional RLGP., Patient Summary: A novel device was tested for detecting sentinel lymph nodes during minimally invasive surgery for prostate cancer. In this first evaluation, the performance and safety of the device were evaluated positively., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Purpose: This study evaluated the performance of a drop-in gamma probe for prostate cancer (PCa) sentinel lymph node dissection (SLND) in a pelvic phantom, porcine model, and in PCa patients as part of an ongoing prospective multicenter clinical trial., Methods: Two design variants of the drop-in gamma probe (SENSEI; Lightpoint Medical Ltd) were assessed in the pelvic phantom, and the preferred design was evaluated in a porcine model with clinically representative volumes and 99mTc activities. In the clinical trial, radical prostatectomy, SLND, and extended pelvic lymph node dissection were performed the day after 99mTc-nanocolloid injection and imaging. Sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) were detected with the drop-in probe and a rigid laparoscopic gamma probe (RLGP). An interim analysis was performed after 10 patients were recruited., Results: The narrow field of view probe design outperformed the wide field of view design in the pelvic phantom (detection rate, 100% vs 50%). In the porcine model, all activity concentrations could be successfully detected. The drop-in gamma probe successfully detected SLNs in all 10 patients (detection rate, 100%). Two of the SLNs identified by the drop-in gamma probe could not be found with the RLGP. No false-negative cases and no adverse events related to the SLND procedure or the drop-in gamma probe occurred., Conclusion: The drop-in gamma probe meets the usability and performance requirements for SLND in PCa and provides performance advantages over the RLGP. The final clinical study results will confirm the performance of the technique across multiple sites., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest and sources of funding: This research was supported by funding from Innovate UK (grants 105293 and 102840). Lightpoint Medical Ltd (Chesham, United Kingdom) provided material support in the form of the SENSEI drop-in gamma probe system. M.R.G., F.O., and K.V. are employees of and have equity in Lightpoint Medical Ltd. B.H. has had advisory roles for ABX, AAA/Novartis, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen R&D, Lightpoint Medical Ltd, and Pfizer; has received research funding from Astellas, Bristol Myers Squibb, AAA/Novartis, German Research Foundation, Janssen R&D, and Pfizer; and has received compensation for travel from Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer and Janssen R&D. N.N.H. reports personal fees from Intuitive Surgical, Lightpoint Medical Ltd, Pfizer, and Janssen. W.E. has received research funding from Ipsen and fees from Lightpoint Medical Ltd and Janssen (to the institution, KU Leuven). The other authors have none declared., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: It has been described that thymoglobulin could increase the risk of infections and malignancies, in comparison to basiliximab. Leukopenia and thrombocytopenia are also more common within the first days after transplantation among thymoglobulin patients. Our objective was to analyze bleeding complications in this subset of patients., Material and Methods: Bleeding complications were evaluated among 515 renal transplants carried out at our institution between 2012 and 2018. We compared patients treated with thymoglobulin (Group 1, N=91) with those treated with basiliximab (Group 2, N=424)., Results: We found differences in platelet decrease: 95,142.2 (55,339.6) in Group 1 and 52,364.3 (69,116.6) in Group 2 (P=0.001), number of patients with severe thrombocytopenia (<75,000/mm 3 ) (20.8% vs. 3.7%, P=0.001), number of blood units transfused (3.25 (0.572) vs. 2.2 (0.191, P=0.028) and percentage of patients that required surgery due to bleeding (18.2% vs. 7.7%, P=0.046). In a multiple lineal regression multivariable analysis (dependent variable was number of blood units transfused), only age [OR 0.037, 95% CI (0.003-0.070)] and type of immunosuppression [OR 1.592, 95% CI (1.38-2.84)] showed statistical significance., Conclusions: The use of thymoglobulin in the perioperative transplantation period could increase bleeding complications. In our series, in the group of patients with thymoglobulin, severe thrombocytopenia was 6 times more frequent, and active bleeding that required surgery was also 2.5 times more frequent. One way to continue with the use of this immunosuppression agent, might be to adjust the dose instead of discontinuing it. The use of thymoglobulin should be a factor to consider in the postoperative period of these patients., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

Abstract: Minimally invasive surgery in the form of laparoscopic and robot-assisted procedures has been widely adopted in the field of prostate cancer. When performing minimally invasive radioguided surgery, conventional rigid laparoscopic gamma probes have limited maneuverability and control due to their form factor, which may hinder detection of radiotracer-avid lesions in anatomically challenging areas. A drop-in gamma probe has been developed to address these limitations. Our group report on the first clinical use of this probe (SENSEI®) as part of an ongoing prospective, international, multicenter clinical trial in primary prostate cancer patients undergoing 99mTc-nanocolloid sentinel lymph node biopsy., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest and sources of funding: This research was supported by funding from Innovate UK (grant no. 105293 and 102840). Lightpoint Medical Ltd (Chesham, United Kingdom) provided material support in the form of the SENSEI drop-in gamma probe system. M.G. is employee of and has equity in Lightpoint Medical Ltd. The remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: There is controversy in the literature on the role of the fusion TMPRSS2-ERG in the pathogenesis and progression of prostate cancer. The quantitative differences in TMPRSS2-ERG fusion expression have received very limited attention in the literature., Methods: We have quantitatively analyzed the mRNA levels of TMPRSS2-ERG, ERG, PTEN, and AR (n = 83), as well as ERG immunostaining (n = 78) in a series of prostate tumors., Results: Among the TMPRSS2-ERG cases (n = 57), high fusion levels were associated with GS ≥8 (P = 0.025). ERG mRNA overexpression was associated with GS ≥8 (P = 0.047), and with stage T3-T4 tumors (P = 0.032). Among the ERG overexpressing cases (n = 54), higher expression levels were found in 92.3% of GS ≥8 tumors (P = 0.02). ERG immunostaining, regardless of staining intensity, was also associated with high stage (P = 0.05). There was a statistical association between ERG immunostaining and PSA progression-free survival (Log Rank test, P = 0.048). Decreased PTEN expression was associated with TMPRSS2-ERG (P = 0.01), ERG mRNA overexpression (P = 0.003) and ERG immunostaining (P = 0.007). Furthermore, decreased PTEN expression, alone (P = 0.041) and also combined with TMPRSS2-ERG (P = 0.04) or with ERG overexpression (P = 0.04) was associated with GS ≥7 tumors., Conclusions: Although more studies are needed to further clarify their role, our findings emphasize that the expression levels of the TMPRSS2-ERG fusion and ERG mRNA, rather than their mere presence, are related to a more aggressive phenotype, have an effect on prognosis and could be molecular markers of progression for prostate cancer. Furthermore, ERG immunohistochemistry could be also a potentially useful prognostic factor., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)