Genitourinary Cancers

Although testicular cancer is rare, it is a disease that providers and patients should still be aware of, says Bradley C. Leibovich, MD, FACS.

Stigmas about the disease have negatively impacted the treatment and management of penile cancer, such that patients feel shamed for having the condition and do not seek care, and physicians may not have enough experience with the disease to appropriately provide care. Curtis A. Pettaway, MD, discusses these stigmas further in the following interview.

“The important thing to know is that…we…aim to focus on the regions…that were not under the light of research education, in particular in the [genitourinary] space,” says Andrea Necchi, MD.

“Andrea and I lead this from [a] President/Vice President standpoint, but we also have a group of leaders from around the world, really representing all ethnicities, genders and others, because we wanted to make sure [that] we're inclusive, andmeet the needs and expectations of everybody,” says Philippe E. Spiess, MD, MS, FRCSC, FACS.

In a recent interview, Philippe E. Spiess, MD, and Andrea Necchi, MD, shared how they aim to develop an environment that emphasizes education, patient advocacy, and clinical research for rare genitourinary cancers.

“The geographical discrepancies, the social discrepancies, and the impact of these discrepancies in the possibility for the patient to access any type of cure or surgical intervention is critical,” says Andrea Necchi, MD.

“I really foresee this becoming a very critical society in this area for many, many years to come,” says Philippe E. Spiess, MD, MS, FRCSC, FACS.

Benefits include improved quality of life and symptom management.

“The take-home message is that testicular cancer should definitely not be a taboo subject,” says Shawn Dason, MD.

In a recent study, investigators sought to understand the current viewpoints of the general population on testicular cancer and testicular self-examination.

“Because so many disease processes that we deal with are related to tobacco use and smoking specifically… I think this is absolutely our domain,” says Richard S. Matulewicz, MD, of tobacco cessation counseling and treatment.

“The good news is that we’re getting really good at treating cancer and we have more survivors, but we need to start thinking more carefully about the non-cancer risks following a diagnosis, one of which is cardiovascular disease,” said senior author Ashley Felix, PhD.

"I hope many readers have taken the opportunity to learn from the evolving science and gone back to review the basics of virology, immune response, and clinical trial development to gain a better understanding of this global pathogen," writes Raoul S. Concepcion, MD, FACS.

A nurse practitioner discusses how she supports multiple providers in a large academic practice.

The rates of mental healthcare use were significantly higher for patients versus healthy controls during diagnosis, treatment, and long-term survivorship.

The data demonstrate how the implementation of a telehealth pathway helped reverse the initial urologic-oncologic outpatient volume decline at an institution during the pandemic.

Research indicates Lynch syndrome is associated with urothelial, prostate, and other urologic cancers.

Among patients with adrenocortical cancer, 60% to 70% relapse after surgery, making novel therapeutics an area of high unmet medical need.

The study also found that among patients with a primary testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT), the incidence of contralateral TGCT increased up to 20 years after initial diagnosis.

The risk was decreased further with each additional chemotherapy cycle a patient received.

"The 21st century has ushered in technology that has created more access and readily available information at our fingertips," Raoul S. Concepcion, MD, FACS.

Urologists and patients show resilience, but we must be better prepared in the future, says urologist R. Jonathan Henderson, MD.

Patients with cancer are particularly susceptible to negative consequences of COVID-19.

A 21-year-old male presented to the emergency department for evaluation of testicular pain and swelling 5 days after being struck in the groin.

A standardized, multidisciplinary approach led to similar outcomes based on disease characteristics, not sociodemographic factors.