Adverse Health Outcomes 3 Years after Radical Prostatectomy Compared with Men in the General Population: A Study from the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Introduction: Studies about adverse health outcomes (AHOs) after radical prostatectomy (RP) in population-based contemporary prostate cancer (PCa) patients are limited, as well as knowledge about corresponding data from age-similar men from the general population (Norms). We compared selected AHOs (pad use, intercourse inability), related problems (bother) and quality of life (QoL) between PCa patients and Norms.

Patients And Methods: The Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) provided data on PCa patients diagnosed in 2017-2019 and treated with RP who completed the EPIC-26 and EORTC-QLQ-C30 questionnaires 24-48 months after surgery (n = 1501).

Reduction of lower urinary tract symptoms in prostate cancer patients treated with robot assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.

Problem: The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in LUTS in patients treated with RALP and to assess factors that may predict an improvement of LUTS.

Materials And Method: In our institutional prospective research registry, 1935 patients operated in the period between 2009 and 2021 with complete baseline- and 12-month EPIC-26 questionnaire were eligible for the study. Also SF-12 data estimating general quality of life (QoL) were analyzed.

Pretreatment Patient-reported Overall Health: A Prognostic Factor for Early Overall Mortality After Primary Curative Treatment of Prostate Cancer.

Background And Objective: Registry-based studies for prostate cancer (PCa) document higher overall mortality (OM) after high-dose radiotherapy (RT) than after radical prostatectomy (RP). Our aim was to explore the association between pretreatment patient-reported health ("OverallHealth": OH) and curative treatment type, and the impact on early OM.

Methods: New PCa patients registered between 2017 and 2019 in the Cancer Registry of Norway ( = 1949) completed the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality-of-Life Core 30 (QLQ-C30) questionnaire before RP ( = 592) or RT ( = 610) or after allocation to active surveillance (AS;  = 747).

Protocol of a randomised, controlled trial comparing immediate curative therapy with conservative treatment in men aged ≥75 years with non-metastatic high-risk prostate cancer (SPCG 19/GRand-P).

Background: Older men (aged ≥75 years) with high risk, non-metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) are increasingly treated with curative therapy (surgery or radiotherapy). However, it is unclear if curative therapy prolongs life and improves health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in this age group compared to conservative therapy, which has evolved considerably during the last decade.

Study Design: The Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group (SPCG) 19/Norwegian Get-Randomized Research Group-Prostate (GRand-P) is a randomised, two-armed, controlled, multicentre, phase III trial carried out at study centres in Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

Discriminative multimodal learning via conditional priors in generative models.

Deep generative models with latent variables have been used lately to learn joint representations and generative processes from multi-modal data, which depict an object from different viewpoints. These two learning mechanisms can, however, conflict with each other and representations can fail to embed information on the data modalities. This research studies the realistic scenario in which all modalities and class labels are available for model training, e.

Long-term patient follow-up should be routinely implemented in radiotherapy units to detect late adverse effects after cancer treatment.

Editorial comment to Urosymphyseal fistula after pelvic radiotherapy - an entity in patients with significant comorbidity requiring multidisciplinary management Scand J Urol. 2023.

Climate-ecosystem modelling made easy: The Land Sites Platform.

Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) provide a state-of-the-art process-based approach to study the complex interplay between vegetation and its physical environment. For example, they help to predict how terrestrial plants interact with climate, soils, disturbance and competition for resources. We argue that there is untapped potential for the use of DGVMs in ecological and ecophysiological research.

Baseline Serum Prostate-specific Antigen Value Predicts the Risk of Subsequent Prostate Cancer Death-Results from the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Consortium.

Background And Objective: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in midlife are strongly associated with the long-term risk of lethal prostate cancer in cohorts not subject to screening. This is the first study evaluating the association between PSA levels drawn as part of routine medical care in the Norwegian population and prostate cancer incidence and mortality. The objective of the study was to determine the association between midlife PSA levels <4.

Impact of prebiopsy MRI on prostate cancer staging: Results from the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to evaluate the 2015 introduction of prebiopsy magnetic resonance imaging of the prostate (MRI-P) as the standard of care for diagnosing prostate cancer (PCa) by the Norwegian public health care authorities. There were three specific objectives of this study: first, to evaluate the consequences of using different TNM manuals for clinical T-staging (cT-staging) in a national setting; second, to determine if the data reveals that MRI-P based cT-staging is superior to digital rectal examination (DRE)-based cT-staging compared with pathological T-stage (pT-stage) post radical prostatectomy; and third, to assess whether treatment allocations have changed over time.

Materials And Methods: All patients registered in the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry between 2004 and 2021 were retrieved and 5538 were eligible for inclusion.

The Changing Face of cN0M0 Prostate Cancer Being Found With pN+ After Surgery in the Contemporary Era: Results of an International European Survey on Disease Management.

Introduction: The urological community's opinion over the management of men being found with pathologically positive nodes (pN+) following radical prostatectomy (RP) performed with curative intent after preoperative negative conventional staging (cN0M0) has never been assessed. This remains crucial, especially considering the advent of novel imaging modalities. Our aim was to investigate the current opinion on management of pN+ cN0M0 prostate cancer (PCa) in the European urological community.

Comparative Survival Outcomes of High-risk Prostate Cancer Treated with Radical Prostatectomy or Definitive Radiotherapy Regimens.

Background: Observational data has indicated improved survival after radical prostatectomy (RP) compared with definitive radiotherapy (RT) in men with high-risk prostate cancer (PCa).

Objective: To compare PCa-specific mortality (PCSM) and overall mortality (OM) in men with high-risk PCa treated with RP or RT, providing information on target doses and fractionations.

Design Setting And Participants: This is an observational study from the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Definitive radiotherapy for prostate cancer in Norway 2006-2015: Temporal trends, performance and survival.

Background: More studies are needed to document nation-wide use and effectiveness of curative definitive radiotherapy (Def-RT) in the treatment of prostate cancer (PCa).

Patients And Methods: For 38,960 men diagnosed with PCa without distant metastases from 2006 to 2015 data from the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry and a national radiotherapy database (NoRadBase) was analyzed. Overall survival and PCa-specific mortality were described comparing EQD-2 < 74 Gy ("low-dose") with EQD-2 ≥ 74 Gy ("escalated dose").

Increased curative treatment is associated with decreased prostate cancer-specific and overall mortality in senior adults with high-risk prostate cancer; results from a national registry-based cohort study.

Background: The association between curative treatment (CurTrt) and mortality in senior adults (≥70 years) with high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) is poorly documented. In a population-based cohort we report temporal trends in treatment and PCa-specific mortality (PCSM), investigating the association between CurTrt and mortality in senior adults with high-risk PCa, compared to findings in younger men (<70 years).

Methods: Observational study from the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Improved patient-reported functional outcomes after nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy by using NeuroSAFE technique.

To explore whether prostatectomized men report improved post-operative erectile function and urinary control dependent on the application of intra-operative frozen section examination (NeuroSAFE) during nerve-sparing radical prostatectomies (NS-RPs). Pre- and post-RP responses to the sexual domain and the urinary incontinence subscale of EPIC-26 were analyzed in 95 and 312 men from a NeuroSAFEGroup (Martini-Klinik, Hamburg, Germany) and a Non-NeuroSAFE Group (Oslo University Hospital, Norway), respectively, undergoing NS-RPs for ≤ cT2 prostate cancer. All patients had intra-prostatic tumors as evaluated by Digital Rectal Examination.

Impact of positive surgical margins on secondary treatment, palliative radiotherapy and prostate cancer-specific mortality. A population-based study of 13 198 patients.

Background: The results of studies evaluating the impact of positive surgical margins on prostate cancer-specific mortality have been inconsistent. We, therefore, evaluated the impact of surgical margin status on subsequent secondary treatment, palliative radiotherapy, and prostate cancer-specific mortality.

Methods: A total of 14 837 men treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) during the period 2001 to 2015 were identified from the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Is time from diagnosis to radical prostatectomy associated with oncological outcomes?

Purpose: To study the association between time from diagnosis to radical prostatectomy (RP-interval) and prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM), histological findings in the RP-specimen and failure after RP (RP-failure).

Methods: Patients diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) in 2001-2010 and prostatectomized within 180 days of biopsy were identified in the Cancer Registry of Norway and the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry. Patients were stratified according to risk groups and RP-intervals of 0-60, 61-90, 91-120 and 121-180 days.

Ten-year Mortality in Men With Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer in Norway.

Objective: To provide population-based data on 10-year prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM), overall mortality (OM), treatment, and prognostic factors in patients with nonmetastatic prostate cancer (PCa).

Materials And Methods: Based on data from the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry, we calculated 10-year PCSM and OM in 3449 patients diagnosed with nonmetastatic PCa in 2004-2005 who underwent radical prostatectomy (n = 913), radiotherapy (n = 1334), or no local treatment (n = 1202). Patients were stratified according to risk group, Gleason grade group (GGG), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status.

Comparison of blood RNA isolation methods from samples stabilized in Tempus tubes and stored at a large human biobank.

Background: More than 50,000 adult and cord blood samples were collected in Tempus tubes and stored at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Biobank for future use. In this study, we systematically evaluated and compared five blood-RNA isolation protocols: three blood-RNA isolation protocols optimized for simultaneous isolation of all blood-RNA species (MagMAX RNA Isolation Kit, both manual and semi-automated protocols; and Norgen Preserved Blood RNA kit I); and two protocols optimized for large RNAs only (Tempus Spin RNA, and Tempus 6-port isolation kit). We estimated the following parameters: RNA quality, RNA yield, processing time, cost per sample, and RNA transcript stability of six selected mRNAs and 13 miRNAs using real-time qPCR.

True User Involvement by People Living With HIV is Possible: Description of a User-driven HIV Clinic in Norway.

The Greater Involvement of People Living with or Affected by HIV principle highlights the various contributions HIV-infected people can make in HIV program development and implementation. We present a unique example of how service users' involvement led to a complete organizational redesign of an outpatient HIV clinic in Southern Norway. We applied a user-driven, case study method, which showed that establishing a user board laid the foundation for the redesign process, as the board provided a clear infrastructure of user involvement and developed a set of user-defined targets for services.

Long-term storage of blood RNA collected in RNA stabilizing Tempus tubes in a large biobank--evaluation of RNA quality and stability.

Background: Establishing methods for secure long term storage of RNA is critical to realizing the promise of biobanks in biomedical research. Here, we describe the results of yearly analyses of the same set of umbilical cord and adult whole blood RNA collected in Tempus Blood RNA tubes and stored at -80 °C, over a period of up to six years. We systematically investigated the effects of long-term storage of samples (75 Tempus tubes form three adult donors and 30 Tempus tubes from three cord blood donors) on the RNA quality and transcript stability of six selected genes (CDKN1A, FOS, IL1B, IL8, MYC and TP53).

Human blood RNA stabilization in samples collected and transported for a large biobank.

Background: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a nation-wide population-based pregnancy cohort initiated in 1999, comprising more than 108.000 pregnancies recruited between 1999 and 2008. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of integrating RNA analyses into existing MoBa protocols.

Adenosine instead of supranormal potassium in cardioplegia: it is safe, efficient, and reduces the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation. A randomized clinical trial.

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a cold crystalloid cardioplegic solution with adenosine (1.2 mmol/L) instead of supranormal potassium.

Methods: Sixty low-risk patients scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) were randomized to receive standard cold crystalloid hyperkalemic cardioplegia (hyperkalemic group) or normokalemic cardioplegia in which supranormal potassium was replaced with 1.