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The dilemma surrounding the value of widespread PSA screening for early detection of prostate cancer remains unresolved.

A virus that is known to cause leukemia in mice, xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus (XMRV), also may be responsible for prostate cancer in humans.

A single PSA value measured in men between 44 and 50 years of age is highly predictive of the development of clinically diagnosed prostate cancer up to 25 years later.

Updated life expectancy tables, text on surveillance, treatment failure, and ADT validate diverse therapeutic approaches to prostate cancer.

A new biomarker, which is under investigation at Johns Hopkins, shows great potential to address both of these controversial issues.

As a practicing urologist and former journal editor, Jerry G. Blaivas, MD, has confronted many ethical issues facing urologists today.

Many patients, practices, and hospitals are having a difficult time finding a urologist this year, and that difficulty is going to grow as the next 2 decades tick past.

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FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, recently received the American Association for Cancer Research Distinguished Service Award for exemplary leadership as director of the National Cancer Institute during a time of flourishing scientific and technological advances with gradually diminishing resources.

The Cleveland Clinic has announced the creation of a new institute combining the hospital's urology and nephrology programs. Andrew C. Novick, MD, will serve as chairman of the newly formed Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute.

FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, MD, recently received the American Association for Cancer Research Distinguished Service Award for exemplary leadership as director of the National Cancer Institute during a time of flourishing scientific and technological advances with gradually diminishing resources.

Men who have survived for at least 1 year after being diagnosed with testicular cancer have a slightly higher risk of dying from non-cancer causes-including infections, digestive diseases, and circulatory diseases-than the general population does, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2007; 99:533-44) suggests. Men treated with chemotherapy in 1975 or later may be at particularly high risk.

Abuse history, other major trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder are reported commonly in women with chronic pelvic pain, suggesting the importance of screening for post-traumatic stress disorder in these women, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death, scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, report.

In prostate cancer patients receiving a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, a single treatment with the bisphosphonate zoledronic acid (Zometa) significantly increases bone mineral density, according to researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

PSA doubling time appears to be a reliable tool to distinguish which patients have prolonged innocuous PSA levels after therapy from those who are at great risk for disease recurrence and death from prostate cancer, according to researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has updated its 2004 clinical practice guidelines for the initial management of androgen-sensitive, metastatic, recurrent, or progressive prostate cancer.

Excerpts from Q&A sessions that followed the coding sessions at the Urology Congress

Advances in nephron-sparing procedures have given them clear advantages over radical nephrectomy for most small renal masses, according to Stephen E. Strup, MD, an associate professor of urology at the University of Kentucky.

Most penile implant surgeries produce a positive outcome. Even problem cases can have a successful outcome with careful planning.

Synthetic materials work much better than biological ones for surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence, in the experience of Shlomo Raz, MD, professor of urology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In an era when reimbursement for medical services is flat to declining, there is one sure-fire way to increase revenue: Better coding.

I commonly hear, "Doc, there's nothing wrong, but will Viagra make it better?"

Infection panelist Anthony J. Schaeffer, MD, of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, said it is important to draw a distinction between the syndrome of prostatitis and inflammation in the literal sense.

"It depends on the circumstances of your practice," advised Robert G. Uzzo, MD, of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, and moderator of the urothelial and renal cell carcinoma session. "At our cancer center, we co-manage the patients. I'm not afraid to start a patient on a drug, and I'm not afraid to see or operate on patients taking the drug."

The therapeutic revolution that began in 1997 when the first phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor was approved for erectile dysfunction is poised to expand. ED is just the first, most obvious use for PDE-5 inhibitors, said Culley Carson, MD, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitors are the first step in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. But about 30% of men fail to respond to PDE-5 inhibitors, noted Andrew McCullough, MD. Another 20% suffer significant side effects.