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Estate tax repeal is now officially under way. However, repeal may be temporary, as many believe Congress will revive the tax this year.

Publication of a major observational study from Harvard Medical School, Boston, followed within weeks by a science advisory from AUA and other professional organizations, adds further evidence of a link between androgen deprivation therapy and elevated risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, although this relationship has not been definitively established.

Recent updates to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology-Prostate Cancer include new recommendations on active surveillance, a new requirement for external beam radiation therapy, and revisions to the entire section on chemotherapy.

A new study challenges what many urologists may feel is understood-that augmentation serves as an independent risk factor for malignancy in young patients with inherent congenital bladder anomalies.

The absence of guidelines for appropriate management of stones in children is clearly a major problem that has resulted in great variability.

There is a great deal of variation in infection control strategies among surgeons who implant penile prostheses, prompting the need for detailed guidelines that may be difficult to formulate.

As this issue of Urology Times went to press, passage of major health care reform legislation-on which AUA and other health care groups had devoted considerable time, energy, and resources-was in jeopardy.

Researchers enumerate the benefits of LESS as improved cosmesis, reduction in iatrogenic bowel injury, reduced risk of visceral and vascular injuries associated with port placement, lower risk of wound infections and incisional hernias, and possible cost reductions derived from the use of a single port.

Researchers from several institutions are now reporting lower infection rates with penile implants coated or impregnated with antibiotics over the long term.

Although mesh slings have become increasingly commonplace for the treatment of mild male stress urinary incontinence, the artificial urinary sphincter remains the gold standard of treatment for managing severe post-prostatectomy incontinence.

How does your practice handle patients who don't have insurance or are experiencing financial problems?

Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to offer testosterone therapy (TTh) to men with a history of prostate cancer. Yet several changes have occurred to make TTh a reasonable treatment option in men who are symptomatic from testosterone deficiency.

With a foundation of robotic surgery investigated and established for radical prostatectomy, urologists have now focused on expanding robotic applications to the upper tract. The most common examples are robotic partial nephrectomy and robotic pyeloplasty.

State legislative challenges for urology come in many forms, including turf battles with other physicians, but by working cohesively and aggressively, urology can defeat these bills.

Michael Blute, MD, has joined UMass Memorial Health Care and UMass Medical School, Worcester, MA, as director of the Cancer Center of Excellence, professor of surgery, and interim director of the division of urology in the department of surgery.

A majority?87%?of laparoscopic surgeons has experienced physical symptoms or discomfort, a new survey by University of Maryland, Baltimore researchers has found. This was especially true among those with high-case volumes, according to the results.

FDA recently announced an initiative to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from three types of medical imaging procedures: computed tomography, nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopy.

AUA has named Christopher Gonzalez, MD, MBA, the 2010-?11 Gallagher Health Policy Scholar.

Edmund Sabanegh, Jr, MD, has been named chairman of the department of urology in the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

Genetic information may one day be used in combination with other factors to guide treatment decisions for aggressive prostate cancer due to the recent detection of a genetic variant associated with the disease, data from a recent study suggest.

Patients with metastatic prostate cancer who received a vaccine engineered to spur an immune system attack on prostate tumor cells lived substantially longer than patients who received a placebo vaccine, according to researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston and affiliated organizations.

Pazopanib (Votrient) appears to delay disease progression by 54% in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, according to a study by Italian researchers.

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) can worsen heart risk factors and may increase the risk of heart attack and/or cardiac death, although the relationship between ADT and heart attack or cardiac death has not been definitively established, according to a science advisory from a multi-organization group.

Urologists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill have been at the forefront in conducting research generating evidence necessary to determine the clinical role of robot-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy.