Highlights

From the article: "Can a new 18-gene urinary test for high-grade prostate cancer (ie, grade group [GG] 2 or greater) improve prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening outcomes relative to existing biomarker tests? Findings: In this diagnostic study including 761 men in the development cohort and 743 men in the validation cohort, novel cancer-specific and high-grade cancer-specific genes were identified from RNA sequencing data and optimally modeled in a development cohort, yielding an 18-gene test for high-grade prostate cancer. Applying a testing approach with 95% sensitivity for high-grade prostate cancer to an external validation population, use of the 18-gene test would have reduced the number of unnecessary biopsies performed relative to current guideline-endorsed tests. Meaning: The new 18-gene prostate cancer test may reduce more burdensome additional testing (eg, imaging and biopsy) while maintaining highly sensitive detection of high-grade cancer in patients undergoing PSA screening. "

From the article: "Is postpartum diagnosis an independent risk factor associated with mortality among patients with young-onset breast cancer with germline BRCA1/2 pathogenic variants (PVs)? Findings: This cohort study including 903 women with BRCA germline PVs found that a breast cancer diagnosis less than 10 years post partum was associated with higher risk of mortality compared with nulliparous women and women diagnosed at least 10 years post partum. Increased risk after childbirth varied, with highest risk at less than 5 years for women with ER-positive breast cancer vs 5 to less than 10 years for women with ER-negative breast cancer, and BRCA1 carriers had peak risk of mortality 5 to less than 10 years post partum, with no associations observed for BRCA2 carriers. Meaning: These findings suggest that a breast cancer diagnosis within 10 years of childbirth was independently associated with increased risk for mortality in patients with germline BRCA1/2 PVs, especially for carriers of BRCA1 PVs."

From the abstract: "Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of primary liver cancer, usually occurring in the background of chronic liver disease. HCC lethality rate is in the third highest place in the world. Patients with HCC have concealed early symptoms and possess a high-level of heterogeneity. Once diagnosed, most of the tumors are in advanced stages and have a poor prognosis. The sensitivity and specificity of existing detection modalities and protocols are suboptimal. HCC calls for more sophisticated and individualized therapeutic regimens. Liquid biopsy is non-invasive, repeatable, unaffected by location, and can be monitored dynamically. It has emerged as a useable aid in achieving precision malignant tumor treatment."

From the abstract: "The development of an effective survival prediction tool is key for reducing colorectal cancer mortality. Here, we apply a three-stage study to devise a polygenic prognostic score (PPS) for stratifying colorectal cancer overall survival. Leveraging two cohorts of 3703 patients, we first perform a genome-wide survival association analysis to develop eight candidate PPSs. Further using an independent cohort with 470 patients, we identify the 287 variants-derived PPS (i.e., PPS287) achieving an optimal prediction performance [hazard ratio (HR) per SD?=?1.99, P?=?1.76?×?10-8], accompanied by additional tests in two external cohorts, with HRs per SD of 1.90 (P?=?3.21?×?10-14; 543 patients) and 1.80 (P?=?1.11?×?10-9; 713 patients). Notably, the detrimental impact of pathologic characteristics and genetic risk could be attenuated by a healthy lifestyle, yielding a 7.62% improvement in the 5-year overall survival rate. "