[ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE IN RECURRENT LOW-RISK BLADDER TUMORS].

Objectives: To report our experience with the active surveillance policy in patients with recurrent low-risk bladder tumors.

Methods: The files of 52 patients who underwent active surveillance instead of immediate surgical resection were reviewed. Different variables concerning tumor growth rate were evaluated.

[FACTORS PREDICTING OVERALL AND DISEASE-FREE SURVIVAL AFTER SURGERY FOR INVASIVE BLADDER CANCER].

Objectives: To evaluate the prognosis of patients who underwent surgery for invasive bladder cancer and to search for prognostic factors.

Methods: The files of all the patients who underwent radical or partial cystectomy for invasive bladder cancer between 1992 and 2014 were reviewed. The effect of various prognostic factors was evaluated by uni- and multivariate analyses.

The Response of Variant Histology Bladder Cancer to Intravesical Immunotherapy Compared to Conventional Cancer.

Background: High-grade urothelial carcinomas (UCs) often show foci of variant differentiation. There is limited information in the literature about the response of these variant urothelial tumors to immunotherapy with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). We compared the response, to treatment with BCG, of UC containing glandular, squamous, nested, and micropapillary types of differentiation to response of conventional non-muscle invasive high-grade UC.

Radical cystectomy vs. chemoradiation in T2-4aN0M0 bladder cancer: a case-control study.

Background: Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is most commonly treated by radical cystectomy. Patients who are too sick to go through this surgery or who are unwilling to accept the mutilation associated with it are referred to chemoradiation. We compared the results of these 2 modalities using age-matched populations.

Cystoscopic-assisted partial cystectomy: description of technique and results.

Background: Partial cystectomy provides oncological results comparable with those of radical cystectomy in selected patients with invasive bladder cancer without the morbidity associated with radical cystectomy and urinary diversion. We describe a novel technique of partial cystectomy that allows accurate identification of tumor margins while minimizing damage to the rest of the bladder.

Methods: During the study period, 30 patients underwent partial cystectomy for invasive high-grade cancer.

Mixed high and low grade bladder tumors--are they clinically high or low grade?

Purpose: The pathological grade of bladder cancer has an immense impact on patient treatment and prognosis. While most bladder tumors show pure high or low grade patterns, some show a mixed pattern. We explored the incidence and clinical significance of this phenomenon.

The natural history of secondary muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Background: The management of patients with high-grade non muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) brings diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. In the current study, we sought to study the natural history of progression to "secondary" muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC)-cancer that developed during follow up of patients presenting with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Methods: Between 1998 and 2008, 760 patients were treated for bladder cancer.

Gross hematuria in patients with prostate cancer: etiology and management.

The objective of the study is to assess the etiology and prognosis of gross hematuria (GH) in patients with carcinoma of the prostate (CAP). From 1991 to 2011, 81 men (mean age 74.3 years, SD 6.

Predicting the risk of high-grade bladder cancer using noninvasive data.

Aim: To examine the hypothesis that the risk of high-grade bladder cancer can be predicted using noninvasively obtained data.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the database of 431 patients that had transurethral resection of first-time bladder tumors between June 1998 and December 2009. Pre-operative parameters evaluated were: patients' age; gender; sonographic tumor diameter, number and location of tumor inside the bladder; presence of hydronephrosis, and results of urinary cytology.

Is radical cystectomy mandatory in every patient with variant histology of bladder cancer.

Urothelial carcinomas have an established propensity for divergent differentiation. Most of these variant tumors are muscle invasive but not all. The response of non muscle invasive variant tumors to intravesical immunotherapy with BCG is not established in the literature, and is reported here.

Raman molecular imaging: a novel spectroscopic technique for diagnosis of bladder cancer in urine specimens.

Background: Raman molecular imaging (RMI) is an optical technology that combines the molecular chemical analysis of Raman spectroscopy with high-definition digital microscopic visualization. This approach permits visualization of the physical architecture and molecular environment of cells in the urine. The Raman spectrum of a cell is a complex product of its chemical bonds.

Subepithelial growth patterns in urothelial carcinoma-frequency and prognostic significance.

Purpose: Most urothelial carcinomas are exophytic, but some tumors exhibit subepithelial components, either in the form of endophytic growth pattern (EGP) or as von Brunn's nests involvement (VBNI). The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency, inter-relations and clinical significance of these forms of subepithelial neoplasia in urothelial carcinoma.

Patients And Methods: Between June 1995 and December 2007, 760 patients (mean age of 67.

What happened to shockwave lithotripsy during the past 22 years? A single-center experience.

Introduction: From 1985 to August 2007 we have performed 15,324 shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) treatments using the Dornier HM3 lithotripter. We studied trends in the characteristics of treatments and patients.

Patients And Methods: Patient data were recorded in a computerized database.

Fever after shockwave lithotripsy--risk factors and indications for prophylactic antimicrobial treatment.

Purpose: To identify risk factors for fever after shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) and suggest guidelines for prophylactic antimicrobial treatment.

Patients And Methods: Between 1985 and 2007, a total of 15,324 SWL procedures were performed in our institution using the Dornier HM3 lithotripter. Because stone analyses were not available in the majority of patients, management of stones larger than 2 cm in diameter were excluded from this analysis to minimize the ratio of struvite stones as a possible cause for postprocedural fever.

The follow-up of patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer by urine cytology, abdominal ultrasound and urine CYFRA 21-1: a pilot study.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of urine cytology, bladder ultrasound (US), urine cytokeratin 19 fragment assay (CYFRA 21-1) and the combination of these noninvasive modalities in the detection of recurrent bladder cancer.

Patients And Methods: In a total of 154 patients that were followed with cystoscopy after endoscopic resection of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer, we performed and analyzed results of 311 observations that included cytology, CYFRA 21-1, US. The urine concentration of CYFRA 21-1 was measured by an immunoradiometric assay.

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy in prepubertal children: 22-year experience at a single institution with a single lithotriptor.

Purpose: The sophistication of percutaneous nephrolithotomy and ureteroscopy challenges the efficacy of ESWL for urolithiasis in prepubertal patients. We evaluated our long-term experience with ESWL in these patients and determined its efficiency.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of all prepubertal patients who underwent ESWL.

Active surveillance of low grade bladder tumors.

Objective: This study was done in order to evaluate the safety of an active surveillance program, without resection of the tumor, in patients with recurrent small bladder cancer.

Patients And Methods: Active surveillance was offered to patients with small (<10 mm) papillary, asymptomatic tumor(s) with negative urinary cytology that was found on routine follow-up in patients who had previous resection(s) of superficial (Ta) low-grade (G1-2) bladder tumor(s). The surveillance protocol included cystoscopy and urinary cytology every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months.

The fate of the seminal vesicle remnant after proximal transection or ligation: an animal model.

Purpose: Dissection of the seminal vesicles during radical prostatectomy has the potential to damage the pelvic plexus, thus compromising trigonal, bladder neck and cavernous innervation, and contributing to delayed gain of continence and erectile function. The rate of prostate cancer invasion into the seminal vesicles in currently operated patients is low and in most it may be predicted preoperatively. This situation calls for seminal vesicle sparing radical prostatectomy in select patients, leaving a distal remnant of the seminal vesicles in place.

Prostatic urothelial carcinoma: is transurethral prostatectomy necessary before bacillus Calmette-Guérin immunotherapy?

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of transurethral prostatectomy (TURP) followed by bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunotherapy in patients with prostatic urothelial carcinoma (PUC) and compare the results of studies using combined TURP and BCG with studies in which TURP was not performed.

Patients And Methods: Patients with bladder cancer and PUC were treated with TURP followed by six weekly intravesical instillations of BCG. Response was determined and monitored by periodic bladder and prostatic urethra biopsies and urinary cytology.

Vesical vs. extra-vesical patterns of recurrence after the treatment of urothelial upper tract tumors.

Objective: The objective of this study was to define recurrence patterns after nephro-ureterectomy (NU) for urothelial upper tract tumor (UUTT), and to suggest guidelines for follow-up.

Methods: The effects of age, gender, UUTT grade, stage, size, location in the urinary system, and the administration of adjuvant chemotherapy on disease-free survival were assessed retrospectively.

Results: Fifty-three patients (mean age 62.

The natural history of bladder carcinoma in situ after initial response to bacillus Calmette-Gúerin immunotherapy.

Objectives: To explore patterns of recurrence, muscle invasion, and disease specific mortality in patients with bladder carcinoma in situ (CIS) who responded to an induction course with intravesical bacillus Calmette-Gúerin (BCG) immunotherapy.

Methods: Between June 1985 and December 2003, 104 patients (mean age 67 years) were diagnosed with either pure (38 patients) or concomitant (66 patients) CIS. Patients who responded to one (92 patients) or two (12 patients) induction courses of intravesical BCG instillation were included in the study.

Significance of inflammatory pseudotumors in patients with a history of bladder cancer.

Objective: To study the significance of inflammatory pseudotumor (IPT) in patients with a history of bladder cancer.

Methods: We surveyed our hospital database for patients who developed IPT during follow-up of bladder cancer. The original histologic blocks were reviewed and immunostained for vimentin, anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALK), and pancytokeratin.

Does stage T3a renal cell carcinoma embrace a homogeneous group of patients?

Purpose: Renal cell carcinoma invading the perinephric fat is classified as a stage T3a tumor in the 2002 TNM version. Based on long-term followup we examined the prognostic significance of this definition.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated the outcome in 237 consecutive patients with localized renal cell carcinoma operated on between January 1985 and December 1997.

Contribution of 11C-choline positron emission tomography/computerized tomography to preoperative staging of advanced transitional cell carcinoma.

Purpose: Current imaging modalities for preoperative staging of advanced transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder or upper urinary tract are not sensitive for detection of metastases. This study examines the contribution of 11C-choline positron emission tomography/computerized tomography to preoperative staging of transitional cell carcinoma.

Materials And Methods: We prospectively evaluated 18 patients with 19 advanced transitional cell carcinomas (17 bladder tumors and 2 upper tract transitional cell carcinomas).

Postoperative thrombocytosis as a marker for complications after urologic surgery.

Objective: To determine whether thrombocytosis after urologic surgery is a random phenomenon or if it is related to postoperative complications.

Material And Methods: We evaluated the postoperative course of patients who had a normal platelet count before surgery and developed significant thrombocytosis (platelet count> 500 x 10(9)/l) after surgery during the years 1991-2003. The rate of postoperative complications was compared among patients who did and did not develop thrombocytosis for the three commonest surgical procedures associated with the condition (radical cystectomy, percutaneous nephrolithotripsy and nephrectomy).