Paris--Radical prostatectomy remains the gold standard for treating localized prostate cancer, according to William J. Catalona, MD, professor of urology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. The procedure is not without challengers, however, a number of which are showing promise.
Vancouver, British Columbia--Data from a national database of motor vehicle accidents suggest that the interior design of cars may play an important role in causing the renal injuries suffered by crash victims.
Vancouver, British Columbia--A subset of women with lower urinary tract symptoms—namely, those with AUA symptom scores in the severe range—may benefit from treatment with an alpha-blocker, according to findings from a small, multicenter study. In a general population of women with LUTS, treatment with the alpha-blocker, tamsulosin (Flomax) showed favorable but not statistically significant results compared with placebo.
Vancouver, British Columbia--African-American men may have a greater risk of developing prostate cancer than Caucasian men, but the specific reasons for this difference have not been fully established.
Vancouver, British Columbia--Currently, more than 50 clinical trials are open in the United States for renal cell carcinoma, most of which are early-phase studies. Significantly, a handful of late-phase trials are still open. Some are showing promising results with newer immune-based and vaccine therapies for the treatment of advanced RCC, a disease for which definitive treatments are lacking.
Vancouver, British Columbia--"The PSA test it is not dead yet," said Joseph C. Presti, Jr, MD, at the AUA Western Section annual meeting, where he presented a study of the performance of PSA levels between 4.0 and 10.0 ng/mL in the era of extended biopsy schemes.
Vancouver, British Columbia--A newer 3-month formulation of an LHRH agonist shows efficacy and safety similar to its 1-month counterpart. However, the 3-month version of the drug, triptorelin pamoate (Trelstar LA) provides a more convenient option preferred for maintaining compliance and quality of life in patients with stages C and D prostate cancer, researchers say.
There are many questions and avenues of study yet to be clarified before broad clinical translation can occur.
Reflecting the growth of robotics in modern surgery, the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine will host a 3-day event covering developments in robotic surgery.
Researchers from the University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, have found a potential new target and therapy for disrupting bladder cancer metastasis.
Combination therapy using an investigational small molecule chemopotentiator reduces PSA levels and symptoms in men with hormone-refractory prostate cancer, according to results of a phase II trial.
A living kidney "paired donation" (KPD) appears to be a successful means of efficiently finding more kidney donors who are a match for patients in need, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers in Baltimore.
Deaths from the two most common urologic cancers in men (prostate and bladder) and the most common urologic cancer in women (bladder cancer) have dropped since the 1990s, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2002, a collaboration among the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.
Health benefits company Humana, Inc. has reached an agreement with representatives of more than 700,000 physicians to settle a nationwide class action suit that has been pending in U.S. District Court in Miami for more than 6 years.
Men who have a yearly PSA test are nearly three times less likely to die from prostate cancer than those who don't have an annual screening, according to a presentation at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology annual meeting in Denver.
Z?rich Switzerland--Botulinum toxin A (Botox) may be an effective, safe alternative treatment option in patients experiencing overactive bladder refractory to more standard treatments, according to a study performed at the Universit?tsspital Z?rich and Kantonsspital Luzern, Switzerland.
San Antonio--Targeting the pudendal nerve directly with neuromodulation rather than the third sacral nerve root might produce better results for patients with interstitial cystitis.
Minnetonka, MN--The Halo kidney stone basket from Sacred Heart Medical, Inc. features improved basket symmetry and stability to ensure complete capture and retrieval of small stones and fragments, as well as a 1.5F diameter sheath to permit simultaneous use of laser fiber for intracorporeal lithotripsy without compromising irrigation or visibility.
New Orleans--Oral and topical agents are well established as effective nonsurgical treatments for Peyronie's disease. Judging by the results of a recent multicenter study, intralesional therapy will soon join them on that list.
Durham, NC--A study estimating the dispensation rate of interacting medications to an outpatient population found that while less than .05% of patients received co-prescriptions for medications that could potentially cause serious adverse effects, about half of these were for sildenafil citrate (Viagra) and one of two different nitrates.
Montreal--Cystoscopy and cytology are the default gold standards for surveillance of recurrence and progression of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, but the accuracy of those standards may be tarnished by subtle-to-significant variations in procedural steps that begin with specimen collection and conclude with analysis and reporting of findings.
Berlin--5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) was introduced about 10 years ago as a means of identifying tumor tissue in the bladder by causing it to fluoresce under the appropriate light. The question that the technology raised was whether the new lighting system under which the tumors and suspicious lesions were removed led to a reduction in the progression and recurrence of bladder tumors.
Nashville, TN--Fluorescence in situ hybridization, or FISH (UroVysion, Vysis Inc., Downers Grove, IL) has a >80% sensitivity and a >90% specificity for detecting urothelial carcinoma (UC) in patients with a history of UC, but that sensitivity and specificity comes at a price. The test can be expensive when used to routinely monitor patients at risk for recurrence of UC and for evaluating those with hematuria, researchers say.
Mansoura, Egypt--Acucise endopyelotomy is no longer employed at the Mansoura University Urology and Nephrology Center in Mansoura, Egypt. Instead, urologists there have switched to laser endopyelotomy.
St. Louis--Little difference appears to exist between pure laparoscopy and hand-assisted laparoscopic radical nephrectomy in terms of immediate postoperative outcomes, according to what may be the first prospective, randomized trial comparing the two techniques.
Indianapolis--For urologists who are less than happy with the current options for performing intracorporeal lithotripsy, researchers from one of the country's highest-volume stone centers have some good news. A novel, dual-probe lithotriptor appears to offer the best features of both pneumatic and ultrasonic devices, and provides a significantly shorter penetration time than a combination pneumatic-ultrasonic device, in vitro research data show.
New York--Preliminary results from the first two U.S. patients to undergo surgery to create a somatic-autonomic reflex pathway for micturition suggest the procedure may be an effective, safe treatment for neurogenic bladder secondary to spinal cord injury, report urologists from New York University.
Z?rich Switzerland--Botulinum toxin A (Botox) may be an effective, safe alternative treatment option in patients experiencing overactive bladder refractory to more standard treatments, according to a study performed at the Universit?tsspital Z?rich and Kantonsspital Luzern, Switzerland.
Dallas--Interim data from a long-term study under way at five U.S. centers offer hope of enhanced relief for men with BPH.
Vancouver, British Columbia--PCA3, the gene most over-expressed by prostate cancer, is a promising urine marker for the disease. Moreover, the PCA3 gene test appears to offer much greater cancer specificity than the PSA test, which is presently the best screening test available. Most PSA elevations seen today are actually caused by BPH, not cancer, which is a major limitation with PSA testing for prostate cancer. However, according to researchers at Gen-Probe in San Diego, the PCA3 gene assay, which is currently under development, may provide a test that is cancer-specific, not just "prostate-specific."
