Men's Health

Other pipeline developments include a new company formed to develop OAB treatments, a phase III urothelial cancer study meeting its primary endpoint, the formation of a partnership to study RCC treatment, and more.

Findings from a recent study also suggest that obesity may be a factor to consider for men with prostate cancer deciding between active surveillance and definitive treatment.

Men who experience a prostate biopsy-related complication are more likely to seek active treatment for clinically localized prostate cancer than those who do not experience a complication, according to findings from a review of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Medicare linked database.

Results of a retrospective case-cohort study show no significant differences in surgical outcomes among men who did and did not have preoperative magnetic resonance imaging of the prostate prior to radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer.

Continuing its participation in the Choosing Wisely campaign, the AUA has added five new recommendations about tests and treatments that physicians and patients should question.

“We strongly believe that PSA-based prostate cancer screening should be made available, especially to men 70 years and older to decrease the morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer,” write Navin Shah, MD, and Vladimir Ioffe, MD.

“Abiraterone should change the treatment paradigm for patients with newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer and largely displaces chemotherapy from the current paradigm,” said Sumanta Kumar Pal, MD.

Administering bone supportive therapy within 1 month prior to starting radium Ra 223 dichloride (Xofigo) may increase the likelihood of achieving pain palliation with the radionuclide therapy and reduce the chance of pain flare, according to the findings of a retrospective study.

Findings of a meta-analysis show that phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor use is associated with a statistically significant increased risk of melanoma, but they do not support a causal relationship.

Urologist Henry Rosevear, MD, reviews his personal highlights from AUA 2017, along with a few bumps in the road.

Although theory and preliminary clinical data indicated that intraoperative regional hypothermia could improve the return to potency and continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, the intervention did not have any significant benefits when put to the more rigorous test of a randomized controlled trial.

The use of robot-assisted simple prostatectomy is increasing for the management of BPH in the United States. Patients were nearly seven times more likely to undergo RASP in 2011-2015 compared to 2003-2006, after adjusting for confounders.

Analyses of data from 5 years of prospective follow-up in the pivotal trial supporting regulatory approval of the prostatic urethral lift ([PUL] UroLift System, NeoTract) show that the minimally invasive procedure remains safe and provides rapid and durable benefits for men with symptomatic BPH.

"For low-grade disease, it’s certainly worth a try because nothing is really lost. For high-grade disease, I don’t know that it’s appropriate-we don’t have the data," says one urologist.

"The nurse practitioner, nurse, and other ancillary providers who make up the urology team are an essential and valuable asset in the consideration of adding oral androgen receptor inhibitors into the office setting," writes Gwendolyn Hooper, PhD, APRN.

More than 96% of urologists surveyed said that incorporating abiraterone acetate (ZYTIGA) treatment into practice for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer is easy or manageable after overcoming initial barriers, according to new research presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

Findings of a retrospective study including 1,000 men with follow-up ranging to 8 years demonstrate the long-term safety and efficacy of prostatic artery embolization for relieving lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to BPH, researchers reported at the Society of Interventional Radiology annual scientific meeting in Washington.

While close to 90% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1998 and 2012 had stage 1 and stage 2 disease, more than 90% underwent surgery or radiation to treat the cancer, according to a study presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

“From our results, the Decipher test helps reassure low-risk patients that observation may be warranted or confirm that high-risk patients need additional treatment,” says study author John L. Gore, MD, MSHS.

"As a urologic community, we should promote the use of AS for favorable-risk disease to reduce the downstream harms of screening while preserving the benefits of early detection for life-threatening cases," writes Stacy Loeb, MD, MSc.

“We believe that aggressive loco-regional resection may be worth considering in well-selected patients as a part of a multimodal approach in the management of men with node-positive prostate cancer,” says study author Bimal Bhindi, MD.

Urologists’ adherence to value-based care pathways for BPH surgery is extremely low and only modestly improved when given individualized feedback on patient outcomes, costs, and practice patterns relative to peers, say UCLA researchers.