Polyazamacrocycles are currently being studied and used in a variety of applications beyond their traditional place in supramolecular and co-ordination chemistry. This study suggests additional applications of these compounds with particular emphasis on their use as antiproliferative agents that could be potentially used to treat cancer. Four polyazamacrocycles were tested in human prostate cancer LNCaP and prostate epithelial PNTA1 cells to analyze changes in cell proliferation and cell death capabilities. Their intracellular localization was also evaluated by confocal microscopy. The results show a decrease in proliferation rate and cell viability of LNCaP and PNTA1, after treatment with these compounds. The decrease in the number of viable cells is similar for the majority of the compounds studied, and at higher concentration, the proliferation efficiency decreased significantly in the cell lines studied. Also, our results suggest that L and L2 induce early apoptosis in PNTA1 cells and late apoptosis/necrosis in LNCaP cells. The compounds did not induce a significant increase in necrosis of both cell types. Although the compounds did not localize in a unique organelle, all of them have as main target the Golgi apparatus and other localization profiles differed depending on the cell line.

OBJETIVO Analisar a probabilidade de sobrevida específica e os fatores associados ao risco de óbito dos pacientes com câncer de próstata, que receberam tratamento oncológico ambulatorial no SUS, Brasil. MÉTODOS Estudo de coorte retrospectivo utilizando a Base Nacional em Oncologia, desenvolvida por meio de pareamento determinístico-probabilístico dos sistemas de informação de saúde: ambulatorial (SIA), hospitalar (SIH) e de mortalidade (SIM). A probabilidade de sobrevida global e específica foi estimada pelo tempo decorrido entre a data do primeiro tratamento ambulatorial, entre 2002 e 2003, até o óbito dos pacientes ou fim do estudo. O modelo de regressão de riscos competitivos de Fine e Gray foi ajustado segundo as variáveis: idade ao diagnóstico, região de residência, estadiamento clínico do tumor, tipo de tratamento oncológico ambulatorial e internação na avaliação dos fatores associados ao risco de óbito dos pacientes. RESULTADOS Dos 16.280 pacientes estudados, a idade média foi de 70 anos, cerca de 25% foi a óbito devido ao câncer de próstata e 20% por outras causas. A probabilidade de sobrevida global foi de 0,50 (IC95% 0,49–0,52) e a específica 0,70 (IC95% 0,69–0,71) . Os fatores associados ao risco de óbito dos pacientes foram: estádio III (HR = 1,66; IC95% 1,39–1,99) e estágio IV (HR = 3,49; IC95% 2,91–4,18), tratamento quimioterápico (HR = 2,34; IC95% 1,76–3,11) e internação (HR = 1,6; IC95% 1,55–1,79). CONCLUSÕES O diagnóstico tardio do tumor, tratamentos não curativos e pior condição clínica foram fatores relacionados à pior sobrevida e ao maior risco de óbito dos pacientes com câncer próstata no Brasil.

With the aim of describing barriers to screening for prostate cancer, a domicile survey was carried out covering 160 men of a Family Health Strategy (FHS) area. Slightly over half had undergone the examination. Regarding beliefs related to the disease, 95% of the men believed there is a cure if detected early, 29.4% mentioned the possibility of a normal life while ill, 56.3% believed it may be asymptomatic, 36.1% agreed/disagreed that the treatment is worse than the disease and 34.4% agreed that the examination affects masculinity and that if you are well it is not necessary to perform it. Regarding barriers, 15% reported that the physician had never requested it, 10.9% did not consider it important and 16.9% were afraid to take the examination. While not the sole determinant, the dissemination of adequate knowledge regarding the examination can constitute a key strategy for the formation of a positive attitude in relation to early detection.

OBJECTIVE: To assess survival rates and clinical (pretreatment) prognostic factors in patients with clinically localized adenocarcinoma of the prostate. METHODS: Hospital cohort including 258 patients registered in the National Cancer Institute, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil, from 1990 to 1999. Five- and ten-year survival functions were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier estimator from the histological diagnosis (initial time of follow-up) to death due to prostate cancer (events). Prognostic factors were assessed using hazard ratios (HR) with confidence intervals of 95%, following the Cox's proportional hazards model. The assumption of proportionality of risks was tested using Schoenfeld residuals and the impact of outliers in the model fitness was analyzed using martingale and score residuals. RESULTS: Of 258 patients studied, 46 died during follow-up. The overall five-year and ten-year survival rates were 88% and 71%, respectively. A Gleason score higher than 6, PSA levels higher than 40 ng/mL, B2 stage, and white skin color were independent markers of poor prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Gleason score, digital rectal examination and PSA levels have great predictive power and must be used in pretreatment risk stratification of patients with localized prostate cancer.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a teaching program for hospital discharge of patients submitted to radical prostatectomy based on the self-efficacy construct of the Cognitive Social Theory. Method: A controlled clinical trial carried out on a 2-month follow-up of 68 prostatectomized men randomized into intervention group (n = 34) and control (n = 34). The intervention group received routine guidance from the service plus the teaching program. The control group only received routine guidance from the service. The data collection instruments were: sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, self-efficacy scale, hospital depression and anxiety scale, household care knowledge questionnaire, and an item on satisfaction with a score of 1 to 5. Results: There was a significant difference between the intragroups for satisfaction (p<0.001) and knowledge (p<0.001) of the pre-test to the post-test. In the intervention group, there were significant changes between the times for anxiety (p=0.011) and knowledge (p<0.001). Conclusion: The teaching program with a combination of oral guidance, written instruction and telephone follow-up was effective in improving knowledge about home care and personal satisfaction. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials: RBR-5n95rm.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a well-recognized complication resulting from pelvic surgery. The demand for good post-operative quality of life has been increasingly important and ED can have a profound effect on this. The incidence of prostate cancer continues to increase; the diagnosis tends to be done at earlier stages of the disease than before, and a greater number of men will eventually be subjected to curative therapy, including radical prostatectomy (RP). The pathophysiology of ED after RP involves three major factors: neural injury, vascular injury and damage to the corporal smooth muscle. Consequently, the recovery of erectile function (EF) is dependent on the degree and reversibility of these lesions. Concurrent with the sharp advancement of surgery, also the treatment of ED has changed dramatically over the years. The concept of early penile rehabilitation after RP occurred in the 1990s. The pharmacological prophylaxis with oral agents or intracavernous as well as the use of other devices, may have an increasing role in therapeutic strategies aimed at preservation of EF postoperatively. New developments are interesting, but they require long-term study. Focusing attention on treatment of ED after RP will reveal the advantages of proposed therapies aswell as a systematization of knowledge in this area and the resulting contribution to a better clinical practice.

The disease caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), initially described in Wuhan, China, was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic. The presence of comorbidities, characteristic in the patients with tumors, were interpreted as risk factors for severe disease and increase death rates. The cancer-related immunosuppression status and its associated treatments appear to play an active role in prognosis, response and clinical outcomes in these types of patients. Although metastatic cancer patients are not good runners for management in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the individual prognosis must be acquired. We describe all the steps of a challenging clinical case from a patient with metastatic prostate cancer (CaP) infected with coronavirus, whom needed to be admitted to the ICU.

Background: Intraductal carcinoma (IDC) and cribriform pattern (Crib) of prostate cancer are recognised as independent prognosticators of poor outcome, both in prostate biopsies and radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens. Objective: This study aimed to determine the predictive value of Free-to-total PSA ratio (FPSAR) in identifying missed IDC/Crib at the time of biopsy as compared to the final surgical specimen. Materials and methods: Patients who underwent RP between January 2015 and December 2022 were included in the study. Predictors of a false negative biopsy were examined using a multivariate logistic regression. Associations between true positive/true negative/false negative biopsies (for IDC/Crib) with FPSAR as primary outcome parameter were determined using Chi-squared test and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: This study included 639 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy between 2015 and 2022 (Table 1) and had available FPSAR- at the time of biopsy. The median age was 63.0 years (IQR: 58.9-68.0). The median serum PSA before RP was 7.0 ng/ml (IQR: 5.3-9.5). Among the 639 patients, 177 (28%) had Crib, and 97 (15%) had IDC on prostate biopsy, with 54 (9%) patients having both IDC and Crib. Concerning Grade Group distribution at biopsy, there was: GG1 in 62 patients (10%), GG2 in 428 (67%), GG3 in 102 (16%), GG4 in 28 (4%), and GG5 in 19 (3%) patients. On multivariate regression analysis, the following were associated with lower odds of a false-negative IDC/Crib biopsy: Percentage of pattern 4 ≥ 10% at biopsy (odds ratio [OR] 0.17, 95% CI 0.10-0.29; p < 0.001); higher Gleason score (grade group 4/5) on biopsy (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.16-0.91; p = 0.03) and higher percent of positive cores at biopsy ≥ 33% (OR 0.51, 95% CI 0.29-0.88; p = 0.02). FPSAR ≥ 0.10 was not an independent predictor of a false-negative IDC/Crib biopsy (p > 0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, our study's findings suggest that FPSAR is not a reliable biomarker for identifying IDC/Crib status at the time of biopsy. Further research is needed to identify biomarkers or combinations of biomarkers that can improve the diagnostic accuracy for these aggressive variants of PCa. Our study that involved 639 patients shows that FPSAR is not a good marker for detecting aggressive types of PCa, during a biopsy. More research is needed to find better markers or combinations of markers that can help diagnose these aggressive forms of prostate cancer more accurately.

Prognostic tests and treatment approaches for optimized clinical care of prostatic neoplasms are an unmet need. Prostate cancer (PCa) and derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) proteome changes occur during initiation and progression of the disease. PCa tissue proteome has been previously characterized, but screening of tissue samples constitutes an invasive procedure. Consequently, we focused this study on liquid biopsies, such as urine samples. More specifically, urinary small extracellular vesicle and particles proteome profiles of 100 subjects were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). We identified 171 proteins that were differentially expressed between intraductal prostate cancer/cribriform (IDC/Crib) and non-IDC/non-Crib after correction for multiple testing. However, the strong correlation between IDC/Crib and Gleason Grade complicates the disentanglement of the underlying factors driving this association. Nevertheless, even after accounting for multiple testing and adjusting for ISUP (International Society of Urological Pathology) grading, two proteins continued to exhibit significant differential expression between IDC/Crib and non-IDC/non-Crib. Functional enrichment analysis based on cancer hallmark proteins disclosed a clear pattern of androgen response down-regulation in urinary EVs from IDC/Crib compared to non-IDC/non-Crib. Interestingly, proteome differences between IDC and cribriform were more subtle, suggesting high proteome heterogeneity. Overall, the urinary EV proteome reflected partly the prostate pathology.