Genitourinary Cancers

The adoption of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy is on the rise in the United States, according to the results of a retrospective study.

Preoperative levels of C-reactive protein may be as predictive of outcomes as pathological TNM stage or tumor grade for prognosis in renal cell carcinoma.

It is now well established that castration-resistant disease can be effectively treated using newer androgen receptor-targeting agents such as abiraterone and enzalutamide.

This is an exciting time for physicians who care for patients with advanced prostate cancer, and more importantly a time of heightened optimism for these men and their families.

In the past 5 years we have taken at least 7 steps forward for men with prostate cancer-which hopefully will turn into “one giant leap” in our attempt to convert advanced prostate cancer into a chronic disease.

This article reviews the most recent advances in androgen receptor-directed therapies for castration-resistant prostate cancer, and new agents under development.

A new study shows yet another link between increasing body mass index (BMI) and the risk of several common cancers, including kidney cancer.

A large European study found that PSA screening reduces prostate cancer deaths, but that these benefits do not outweigh the harms of overtreatment.

Expression of microRNA (miR)-23b/27b cluster has been linked with increased risk for clear cell RCC disease progression, and may be a predictor of poor survival.

Researchers have identified a key gluconeogenic enzyme, the absence of which in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) may explain the uncontrolled cell growth present in cancer cells compared with normal kidney cells.

Results of a head-to-head comparison of first-line treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma with the mTOR inhibitor everolimus or VEGF inhibitor sunitinib showed that everolimus did not meet noninferiority requirements as a first-line therapy.

How low-risk prostate cancer is managed depends more on the diagnosing physician than the patient’s disease state. Men who were diagnosed by a urologist were more likely to receive a treatment performed by the urologist and more likely to receive a therapy rather than monitoring.

Scientists have discovered a new molecular target for therapy to fight clear cell renal cell carcinoma, neuronal pentraxin 2 (NPTX2).

Men who underwent a vasectomy had a modest increase in the incidence of prostate cancer-and particularly lethal prostate cancer.

Among patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma who had undergone nephrectomy, patients with diabetes were found to have a significantly decreased cancer-specific and overall survival.

Immediate adjuvant cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy after radical cystectomy in patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder significantly increased progression-free survival, according to the final results of the EORTC 30994 trial.

When relapse occurs in patients with germ cell tumors, two salvage treatment paradigms exist: standard-dose chemotherapy, or high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue.

Upfront surgery allows for greater freedom to use all secondary treatment options for local and distant control, including adjuvant radiotherapy and ADT, thereby hopefully obviating the significant adverse quality-of-life sequelae from salvage surgery and brachytherapy for local relapse.

Under current conditions for patients with newly diagnosed node-positive prostate cancer, the benefits of surgery, if any, are highly unlikely to outweigh the known harms--less is still more.

Patients with renal cell carcinoma who had low preoperative levels of serum cholesterol were found to have worse survival, according to the results of a recent study.

While seven drugs have been approved for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) since 2005, the most appropriate systemic therapy for non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) is unknown.

Results of a combined analysis of SWENOTECA studies showed that surveillance remains a good option for patients with stage I seminoma testicular cancer.

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to detect AR-V7 in circulating tumor cells of prostate cancer patients with primary resistance to enzalutamide and abiraterone.

A reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was found to be associated with a significantly increased risk for renal and urothelial cancer, according to the results of a recently published study.

As part of our coverage of the 2014 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, we discuss some of the immunotherapy treatment options for urological cancers.

High-dose interleukin-2 remains an important treatment for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, producing durable responses even in those patients with chronic renal insufficiency, according to a recent study.

A large study shows that prostate cancer patients who had a PSA-based relapse could delay androgen deprivation therapy until symptoms presented, without affecting long-term survival.

While the multifunctional role of steroid hormones in prostate cancer and men’s health was recognized early, the apparent clinical benefit afforded by ADT tipped the scales in favor of androgen deprivation in men with advanced prostate cancer.

Are there ways in which testosterone administration may be beneficial? Basic science and a number of clinical experiences have suggested for years that steroid hormones may have bifunctional roles.

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center have created a computational model to simulate the bone metastasis process and to predict the outcomes of specific prostate cancer therapies.