Publications by authors named "Curtis Pettaway"

Background: HPV infection is implicated in approximately half of global penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) cases. Previous studies on HPV DNA and p16INK4a status in PSCC have yielded inconclusive prognostic findings. This meta-analysis aims to elucidate the prognostic role of HPV in PSCC by pooling data on disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: We previously reported that increases in circulating sphingolipids are associated with elevated risk of biopsy Gleason grade group (GG) upgrading in men on Active Surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer. Here, we aimed to validate these findings and establish a blood-based sphingolipid biomarker panel for identifying men on AS who are at high-risk of biopsy GG upgrading.

Methods: Men diagnosed with low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer in one of two AS cohorts (CANARY PASS and MDACC) were followed for GG upgrading after diagnostic and confirmatory biopsy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The article reviews how effective whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WBMRI) is for checking the spread of high-risk prostate cancer compared to other imaging methods.
  • It found that WBMRI is just as good or better than CT scans for spotting cancer in lymph nodes and better than bone scans for finding cancer in bones.
  • However, when it comes to detecting metastasis, new methods like PSMA PET scans are even more effective than WBMRI, so more research on costs and combining these methods is needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Inguinal lymph node dissection plays an important role in the management of melanoma, penile and vulval cancer. Inguinal lymph node dissection is associated with various intraoperative and postoperative complications with significant heterogeneity in classification and reporting. This lack of standardization challenges efforts to study and report inguinal lymph node dissection outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Penile cancer with bulky inguinal metastasis has a high probability of harboring pathologically involved lymph nodes best managed in a multidisciplinary care setting. Appropriate staging with cross-sectional imaging and fine-needle aspirate cytology of suspicious nodes guide decision-making for the use of platinum-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by inguinal lymph node dissection. Surgical resection plays an important diagnostic, therapeutic, and guiding role in disease management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To determine whether 6 months of preoperative apalutamide for intermediate-risk prostate cancer (IRPCa) reduces the aggregate postoperative radiotherapy risk and to evaluate associations of molecular perturbations with clinical outcomes in this study cohort.

Patients And Methods: Between May 2018 and February 2020, eligible patients with IRPCa (Gleason 3 + 4 or 4 + 3 and clinical T2b-c or prostate-specific antigen level of 10-20 ng/mL) were treated with apalutamide 240 mg/day for 6 months followed by radical prostatectomy (RP) in this single-arm, phase II trial. The primary endpoint was presence of any adverse pathological feature at risk of pelvic radiation (pathological T stage after neoadjuvant therapy [yp]T3 or ypN1 or positive surgical margins).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In the United States, Black men are at highest risk for being diagnosed with and dying from prostate cancer. Given this disparity, we examined relevant data to establish clinical prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening guidelines for Black men in the United States.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search identified 1848 unique publications for screening.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study analyzed data from a community-based prostate cancer (PCa) education and screening program (Prostate Outreach Project; POP) to enhance PCa-related knowledge among medically underserved Asian American men. It also examined PCa screening history, clinical abnormalities based on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and digital rectal examination (DRE) results, and follow-up and PCa diagnosis rates. Participants-521 Asian men (251 Vietnamese, 142 Chinese, and 128 South Asians)-were offered PCa screening using PSA tests and/or DRE and an educational session on PCa.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The SNP rs7824364 in the 8q24 region is associated with increased risk of positive prostate biopsies and clinically significant disease among African American men.
  • * Genotyping of this SNP in a study of 199 African American men showed that those with the variant allele had more than double the odds of a positive biopsy, indicating its potential as a predictive marker for prostate cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metastatic penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) has only a 50% response rate to first-line combination chemotherapies and there are currently no targeted-therapy approaches. Therefore, we have an urgent need in advanced-PSCC treatment to find novel therapies. Approximately half of all PSCC cases are positive for high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To evaluate perioperative and oncologic outcomes of a cohort of clinically node negative high-risk penile cancer patients undergoing robotic assisted inguinal lymph node dissection (RAIL) compared to patients undergoing open superficial inguinal lymph node dissection (OSILND).

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical characteristics and outcomes of clinically node negative high-risk penile cancer patients undergoing RAIL at MDACC from 2013-2019. We sought to compare this to a contemporary open cohort of clinically node negative patients treated from 1999 to 2019 at MDACC and Moffit Cancer Center (MCC) with an OSILND.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: This study investigated the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advance penile squamous cell carcinoma for which current evidence is lacking.

Methods: Included patients had locally advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma with clinical lymph node metastasis treated with at least 1 dose of neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to planned consolidative lymphadenectomy. Objective response rates were assessed using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors v1.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is a rare and deadly malignancy. Therapeutic advances have been stifled by a poor understanding of disease biology. Specifically, the immune microenvironment is an underexplored component in PSCC and the activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors observed in a subset of patients suggests immune escape may play an important role in tumorigenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To evaluate the association of preoperative body mass index (BMI) on adverse pathology in peripheral (PZ) and transition zone (TZ) tumors at time of prostatectomy for localized prostate cancer.

Methods: Clinical and pathologic characteristics were obtained from up to 100 consecutive prostatectomy patients from 10 prostate surgeons. BMI groups included normal (18.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The European Association of Urology (EAU) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) recently issued updated guidelines on penile cancer, emphasising dynamic sentinel node biopsy (DSNB) as the preferred method for surgical staging among patients with invasive penile tumours and no palpable inguinal lymphadenopathy. This paper outlines the rationale behind this new recommendation and describes remaining challenges, as well as strategies for promoting DSNB worldwide.

Main Text: DSNB offers high diagnostic accuracy with the lowest postoperative complications compared to open or minimally invasive inguinal lymph node dissection (ILND), prompting its preference in the new guidelines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: There are several procedures for surgical nodal staging in clinically node-negative (cN0) penile carcinoma.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, perioperative outcomes, and complications of minimally invasive surgical procedures for nodal staging in penile carcinoma.

Evidence Acquisition: A systematic review of the Medline, Embase, and Cochrane controlled trials databases and ClinicalTrials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is characterised by stepwise lymphatic dissemination. Skip metastases (SkMs) are rare metastases in the corpus cavernosum or spongiosum without continuity to the primary tumour or its resection site.

Objective: To assess the distinct pattern of spread in SkM patients and the effect of SkM on prognosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Treatment options for penile squamous cell carcinoma are limited. We sought to investigate clinical outcomes and safety profiles of patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Methods: This retrospective study included patients with locally advanced or metastatic penile squamous cell carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors between 2015 and 2022 across 24 centers in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

PSCC is a rare cancer, with approximately half of all cases related to HPV. While HPV and p16 IHC testing have proven their prognostic value for oropharyngeal cancer, this is not yet established for PSCC. The current level of evidence exploring the relation between PSCC and HPV is moderate, so we conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines to evaluate the prognostic role of HPV and p16 IHC in PSCC clinical outcomes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Recently, the Tetrafecta score has been published as the first instrument for assessing the quality of primary surgical treatment for penile cancer (PECa). An external scientific discussion about the defining criteria is still pending and forms the study objective.

Material And Methods: An international working group consisting of 12 urologists and an oncologist with clinical and academic-scientific expertise in penile cancer was established.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Context: Lymph node (LN) involvement in penile cancer is associated with poor survival. Early diagnosis and management significantly impact survival, with multimodal treatment approaches often considered in advanced disease.

Objective: To assess the clinical effectiveness of treatment options available for the management of inguinal and pelvic lymphadenopathy in men with penile cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the safety and immune response of the MEDI0457 therapeutic DNA vaccine combined with the anti-PD-L1 antibody durvalumab in patients with HPV-associated cancers.
  • Twenty-one patients with recurrent HPV-16/18 cancers were evaluated, showing a 21% overall response rate and a disease control rate of 37%.
  • Despite some positive outcomes, the study was discontinued due to a low overall response rate among cervical cancer patients, though the treatment was generally well-tolerated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF