Hannah Clarke

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine found patients benefited from a pre-procedural interview to educate them about the risks, benefits, and alternatives to urologic treatments they were scheduled to receive.

Using administrative claims data, investigators analyzed the opioid prescriptions filled for vasectomies before and after the expansion of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's modifier 22 program.

The team of investigators used the COST-FACIT tool to take into account both the time and money lost to treatment.

"If men were aware that just because they have no symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean they are cancer free, then more might take up offers for tests," says Vincent Gnanapragasam, MD.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have cancer. But the more you smoke, the more mutations accumulate in your cells, and the more you increase your risk for developing cancer," said study author Marcos Díaz-Gay, PhD.

“Our work indicates that these genetic signatures may prove to be tremendously valuable in predicting immunotherapy response in patients with bladder cancer, but also other tumor types," says Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD.