Introduction. Prostate cancer is by far the most frequently diagnosed cancer among the male population and ranks fifth in the world in terms of mortality rates among malignant neoplasms. Today it is known that the tumor microenvironment plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the disease. Abundant data has accumulated indicating that cells of the inflammatory infiltrate of the tumor are involved in the onset, progression and response to treatment in cases of prostate cancer. However, their role in the context of disease progression has not yet been determined. In this work, we studied the phenotype of inflammatory infiltrate of prostate cancer and its association with the clinical and morphological characteristics of patients.
The study objective is to determine the features of the inflammatory infiltrate of prostate cancer and its association with the clinical and morphological characteristics of patients with this disease.
Materials and methods. The study included tumor samples obtained from 31 patients with prostate cancer. The expression of CD3, CD8, FoxP3, CD68, PU.1, CD204, CD163, IDO1, PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1) was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between markers and clinical and morphological characteristics was assessed using the nonparametric Mann–Whitney test and Fisher’s exact test. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlations between contents of cells of different phenotypes. Differences were considered statistically significant at p <0.05.
Results. This study describes the features of the stroma of prostate cancer. We have shown that an increased content of CD204+ cells is associated with an older age of patients (p = 0.0026), and the number of CD163+ and CD8+ cells with no metastases to regional lymph nodes (p = 0.0067 and p = 0.0069, respectively). It has been shown that PU.1 can be used as a general marker of macrophages. We also found significant correlations between the level of PU.1 and PD-L1 in the stroma (r = 0.421; p = 0.018) and IDO1 in the stroma (r = 0.557; p = 0.001) and in tumor cells (r = 0.393; p = 0.029), CD68 with IDO1 in the stroma (r = 0.535; p = 0.002), CD163 with PD-L1 and IDO1 in the stroma (r = 0.399; p = 0.026 and r = 0.220; p = 0.026, respectively).
Conclusion. In this work, the characteristics of the stroma of prostate cancer were investigated. Our data indicate that tumor associated macrophages are the main cells expressing PD-L1 and IDO1 in the tumor stroma in the case of prostate cancer. Increased expression of IDO1 in tumor tissue is associated with the immunosuppressive phenotype of the inflammatory infiltrate. The fact that the number of macrophages directly correlates with the number of T-lymphocytes in the prostate stroma, and the number of M2 macrophages with cytotoxic T-cells indicates the interaction of the mechanisms of innate and acquired immunity during the progression of prostate cancer.

Introduction. Testicular germ cell tumor is a relatively rare disease. Its high social significance is due to the fact that this pathology occurs in young patients. The standard schemes of polychemotherapy determine the potential possibility of effective treatment for most of the patients even with an advanced disease. Several circulating markers (alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin and lactate dehydrogenase) are being used for therapy monitoring, but the low diagnostic specificity of these molecules determines the need to develop new approaches. Over the past years, circulating microRNA, for instance miR-371a-3p, appeared to be promising marker for testicular germ cell tumor monitoring. However, to develop and to implement in practice the microRNA-based diagnostic technologies, it’s necessarily to understand the features of the microRNA expression alterations specific for different histological types of testicular germ cell tumor.
The study objective – to evaluate changes in the expression of several potential marker microRNA molecules (miR-302/ miR-367, miR-371/miR-373) in testicular germ cell tumor samples of various histological types.
Materials and methods. Testicular germ cell tumor samples (n = 61), including seminomas, embryonic carcinomas, post-pubertal teratomas, yolk sac tumors, chorioncarcinomas, and corresponding normal tissue samples (n = 61) were included in the study. The analysis of selected miRNA expression was performed by reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction.
Results. We identified the changes in the expression profile of the miR-302/miR-367 cluster typical for semines, embryonic carcinomas, post-pubertal teratomas, yolk sac tumors and chorioncarcinomas, as well as changes in the expression profile of the miR-371/miR-373 cluster, universal for all histotypes except chorioncarcinomas. Inhibition of miR-10b and miR-145 expression in semines, embryonic carcinomas, and post-pubertal teratomas was demonstrated.
Conclusion. Activation of miR-302b, miR-302d, miR-371a expression and inhibition of miR-10b, miR-145 expression in the tissue of the most common variants of testicular germ cell tumor is a characteristic feature of these tumors. The detected changes are significant and can lead to corresponding changes in the profile of circulating microRNAs.

Introduction. Treatment of breast cancer often includes systemic neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The frequency of complete morphological response varies significantly depending on the molecular subtype of tumor. However, even in triple negative breast cancer, which is considered the most sensitive, it does not exceed 50 %. Therefore, the search for new genetic predictors of tumor response to preoperative treatment, as well as the assessment of tumor changes during neoadjuvant chemotherapy are highly relevant.
Objective – to perform whole-transcriptome analysis of breast cancer during neoadjuvant chemotherapy depending on tumor response to preoperative treatment.
Materials and methods. This study included 39 patients with luminal B HER2-positive (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) breast cancer who received 6 to 8 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We performed whole-transcriptome analysis of paired biopsy and surgical specimens using the Clariom™ S Assay, human (Affymetrix, USA).
Results. We observed significant differences in the pretreatment expression of 166 genes (13 were up-regulated and 153 were down-regulated) between patients with objective response to therapy and those without it. Comparison of preand post-treatment expression profiles demonstrated 680 differentially expressed genes in patients with complete and partial response and 3240 differentially expressed genes in patients with stable or progressive disease. Venn diagram showed that patients with and without objective response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy shared 105 differentially expressed genes.
Conclusion. We performed primary screening of genes in breast tumors before therapy and identified genes whose pretreatment expression differed significantly between patients with objective response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and those without it. Further validation of these genes in an independent sample will allow the development of a genetic panel to evaluate the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Assessment of changes in the expression of tumor genes during treatment depending on patient’s response to therapy can be useful for further development of a panel of genes, which will enable the evaluation of clinical response to chemotherapy, as well as identification of key cellular processes that change the activity of genes during therapy.

Introduction. Glucocorticoids are often used in combination therapy for breast cancer as an adjuvant to increase therapeutic effects of the main cytotoxic drug and to reduce side effects of chemotherapy. However, glucocorticoids can cause serious complications and trigger tumor progression. In the last decade, it was found that side effects from glucocorticoids are mediated by an increase in REDD1 gene expression. Using this knowledge, we have developed a new chemotherapeutic strategy for blood cancers aimed at reducing adverse events from glucocorticoids. Successful experiments with a combination of glucocorticoids and REDD1 expression inhibitors on the models of blood tumors allowed us to use this regimen for the treatment of certain subtypes of breast cancer.
Objective: to optimize the algorithm of breast cancer cell treatment with a combination of glucocorticoids and REDD1 expression inhibitors on the example of rapamycin.
Materials and methods. We used the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines. The antiproliferative activity was estimated by direct cell count; REDD1 expression was measured using western blotting and quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
Results. We found that rapamycin can inhibit both baseline and glucocorticoids induced REDD1 expression in the cells of luminal and triple negative breast cancer. The drug demonstrated lower ability to inhibit the viability of breast cancer cells than that of leukemia and lymphoma cells.
Conclusion. Inhibited proliferation of breast cancer cells after their incubation with rapamycin and dexamethasone, as well as the ability of rapamycin to reduce basal and glucocorticoid-induced REDD1 expression in breast cancer cells suggest the importance of studies analyzing the impact of combinations that include glucocorticoids and REDD1 expression inhibitors from the class of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway modulators (phosphoinositide-3-kinase/α-serine-threonine kinase/mammalian rapamycin target) on breast cancer cells.

Introduction. Early malignant tumor detection programs have significantly increased the survival rate of breast cancer patients but the results of drug therapy for this pathology are not always highly effective. Recently discovered iron-dependent cell death, ferroptosis, makes it a promising therapeutic target to reduce the recurrence rates.
Objective – to study the induction of ferroptosis in breast cancer cells MCF-7 by quinazoline derivatives synthesized at the Research Institute of Experimental Diagnostics and Therapy of Tumors of the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, Ministry of Health of Russia and to evaluate its antitumor activity on transplanted breast carcinoma Ca-755.
Materials and methods. Derivatives of 3-hydroxyquinazoline were obtained by chemical synthesis and have a purity of at least 95 %. In this study 2D cultivation of MCF7 cells, phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy, and a model of experimental growth of breast carcinoma Ca-755 in female hybrids of immunocompetent mice F1 (C57Bl/6 × DBA/2) were used.
Results. Five derivatives of 3-hydroxyquinazoline, analogues of erastine, were studied in this work. The ferroptotic cell death was identified by the level of lipid peroxidation at the concentrations of 1/3 and 1/5 IC₅₀. The level of lipid peroxidation induced by compound 3 was comparable with the activity of erastin in MCF7 cells at both 1/3 and 1/5 of IC₅₀, the activity of the other four quinazoline derivatives was 50–70 % of the activity of erastin. In in vivo experiments at a dose of 30 mg/kg the antitumor efficacy of the compound 3 was higher than that of erastin at the same dose.
Conclusion. The data obtained suggest that quinazoline derivative 3 might be considered as a promissisng antitumor agent to treat breast cancer.

Introduction. Uveal melanoma ability to metastasize depends on a few prognostic factors. The genetic ones are considered to be the most significant. The role of disorders of the short arm of chromosome 8 (8p), as well as a combination of changes in 8p and the long arm of this chromosome (8q) in the development of metastatic lesions in this pathology remains insufficiently studied.
The study objective – to evaluate the prognostic value of chromosome 8 abnormalities in patients with uveal melanoma.
Materials and methods. We analyzed 2 retrospective groups of patients who underwent enucleation for uveal melanoma, statistically homogeneous in the main clinical parameters. Group 1 included patients without signs of metastases (n = 41) with an average follow-up period of 71 months, Group 2 included patients with detected metastases (n = 51) and an average follow-up period of 21 months Chromosome abnormalities were tested by multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification.
Results. Three- and five-year survival in patients with uveal melanoma without 8p deletion were 64 and 54 %, respectively; with 8p deletion significantly lower – 25 and 6 %, respectively. The same survival rates in patients with uveal melanoma with 8q amplification were 43 and 26 %, respectively, whereas in patients without 8q amplification they were significantly higher – 80 and 74 %, respectively. In patients with uveal melanoma harbouring both abnormalities, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 26 and 7 %, whereas isolated 8q amplification was associated with 47 and 35 % survival, respectively. These survival rates differ greatly and significantly: hazard ratio 3,26 (95 % confidence interval 1,86–5,69) and 6,89 (95 % confidence interval 2,67–17,73), respectively (р <0,0001).
Conclusion. The findings support comprehensive evaluation of chromosome 8 abnormalities as a substantial part of uveal melanoma prognostication. 8q amplification, 8p deletion, combination of these abnormalities and its role in uveal melanoma malignity should be further discovered. Further research in this direction is needed.