June 2013

Change may not always be pleasant, but it is inevitable, and nowhere has that been more evident recently than in US healthcare; however, for the physicians at Regional Urology in Shreveport, Louisiana, these changes are really just business as usual.

We should move away from directing therapy based on the primary site of malignancy and focus our efforts on inherent pathways common to the tumors, irrespective of the organ.

Preoperative chemotherapy was not a predictor of postoperative complications, nor did it increase the length of hospital stays or surgical complications among patients undergoing radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Current T staging for renal cell carcinoma does not capture the full picture of tumor volume, which data have shown to be more predictive of survival and recurrence in certain types of cancer.

An assay based on a prostate-specific antigen isoform performed significantly better than did conventional PSA measures for detecting prostate cancer and identifying histopathologically aggressive cancers.

Investigators say they have found no association between the use of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors (5ARIs) and the risk of developing high-grade or lethal prostate cancer.

An assay based on tumor genetics showed potential for stratifying risk in prostate cancer patients and aiding selection of men for active surveillance.

An investigational prostate cancer vaccine has shown potential to improve survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).

Prostate cancer prognosis remains poor for patients who have a prostate-specific antigen level ≥100 ng/mL at discovery, a review of cancer registry data showed.