Natural Killer Cell Dysfunction In Human Bladder Cancer Is Caused By Tissue-Specific Suppression of SLAMF6 Signaling.

NK cells are innate lymphocytes critical for surveillance of viruses and tumors, however the mechanisms underlying NK cell dysfunction in cancer are incompletely understood. We assessed the effector function of NK cells from bladder cancer patients and found severe dysfunction in NK cells derived from tumors versus peripheral blood. While both peripheral and tumor-infiltrating NK cells exhibited conserved patterns of inhibitory receptor over-expression, this did not explain the observed defects in NK surveillance in bladder tumors.

Reverse Trendelenburg Positioning Minimizes Stone Retropulsion During Ureteroscopic Laser Lithotripsy: A Prospective Randomized Study.

Retropulsion of stone fragments during ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy (URSLL) remains a challenge for urologists and is associated with increased operative time and reduced stone-free rate (SFR). In this study, we compared the rate of retropulsion of ureteral stones during URSLL between the standard dorsal lithotomy (SDL) position and dorsal lithotomy position with reverse Trendelenburg (RT). Patients with ureteral stones requiring surgical intervention between May 2019 and January 2022 were randomized to undergo URSLL in either SDL or RT positions.

Factors that influence preference for male or female urologist among underserved patients in New York City.

Objective: To examine the prevalence of patient preference for male or female urologic provider and explore which patient characteristics influence this preference.

Materials And Methods: After obtaining hospital Institutional Review Board approval, a 14-question survey in English and Spanish was administered across four general urology clinic sites in a single hospital system in New York City. The survey asked demographic questions and preference for a male or a female urologist.

Displacement of Lower Pole Stones During Retrograde Intrarenal Surgery Improves Stone-free Status: A Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial.

Purpose: Lower pole renal stones are associated with the lowest stone-free status of any location in the urinary tract during retrograde intrarenal surgery. Prior work has suggested displacing lower pole stones to a more accessible part of the kidney to improve stone-free status. We sought to prospectively compare the efficacy of laser lithotripsy in situ vs after displacement during retrograde intrarenal surgery for lower pole stones.

Black race may be associated with worse overall survival in renal cell carcinoma patients.

Objective: To examine socio-demographic and treatment variables in an attempt to identify factors associated with survival differences between black and white patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Patients And Methods: We identified 79,618 white and 10,604 black patients diagnosed with RCC in the National Cancer Database. We compared the distribution of socio-demographic, presentation and treatment variables between Blacks and Whites and then utilized a multivariable cox proportion hazards regression model to evaluate the contribution of differences in these variables to disparities in overall survival (OS).

TIM-3 and TIGIT are possible immune checkpoint targets in patients with bladder cancer.

The resurgence of immunotherapy as an effective anticancer strategy has been coupled with more mature understandings of the underlying immune pathways and the development of novel immune checkpoint targets. The clinical development of antibodies first directed against cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4, and later against program death 1, achieved durable disease control in a subset of patients across a large number of tumor types. Previous work demonstrates that targeting the programmed death 1 pathway alone does not result in complete restoration of T cell function and in some cancers, targeting this axis does not restore T cell function at all, suggesting a need to identify other molecules and inhibitory pathways that are involved in T cell exhaustion.

Epithelial plasticity can generate multi-lineage phenotypes in human and murine bladder cancers.

Tumor heterogeneity is common in cancer, however recent studies have applied single gene expression signatures to classify bladder cancers into distinct subtypes. Such stratification assumes that a predominant transcriptomic signature is sufficient to predict progression kinetics, patient survival and treatment response. We hypothesize that such static classification ignores intra-tumoral heterogeneity and the potential for cellular plasticity occurring during disease development.

A cohort of transperineal electromagnetically tracked magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasonography fusion-guided biopsy: assessing the impact of inter-reader variability on cancer detection.

Objective: To evaluate the ability to detect clinically significant prostate cancer (PCa) using a novel electromagnetically (EM) tracked transperineal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/ultrasonography (US) fusion-guided targeted biopsy (transperineal TBx) platform and the impact of inter-reader variability on cancer detection.

Materials And Methods: A total of 176 patients with suspicious lesions detected on multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) underwent a systematic modified Barzel template biopsy (12-core) transperineal biopsy (transperineal SBx) and transperineal TBx with EM tracking (UroNav; Philips Healthcare, Best, the Netherlands) in the same setting. Cancer detection rates (CDRs) were stratified by Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) v2 scores and compared with Fisher's exact test.

Avoiding Unnecessary Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Biopsies: Negative and Positive Predictive Value of MRI According to Prostate-specific Antigen Density, 4Kscore and Risk Calculators.

The 2019 European Association of Urology guidelines recommend multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) for biopsy-naïve patients with clinical suspicion of prostate cancer (PC) and avoiding biopsy in patients with negative mpMRI and low clinical suspicion. However, consensus on the optimal definition of low clinical suspicion is lacking. We evaluated 266 biopsy-naïve patients who underwent mpMRI, the 4Kscore test, and prostate biopsy to define the best strategy to avoid unnecessary testing and biopsies.

Gold nanoshell-localized photothermal ablation of prostate tumors in a clinical pilot device study.

Biocompatible gold nanoparticles designed to absorb light at wavelengths of high tissue transparency have been of particular interest for biomedical applications. The ability of such nanoparticles to convert absorbed near-infrared light to heat and induce highly localized hyperthermia has been shown to be highly effective for photothermal cancer therapy, resulting in cell death and tumor remission in a multitude of preclinical animal models. Here we report the initial results of a clinical trial in which laser-excited gold-silica nanoshells (GSNs) were used in combination with magnetic resonance-ultrasound fusion imaging to focally ablate low-intermediate-grade tumors within the prostate.

Clinicopathological and survival analysis of clinically advanced papillary and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.

Introduction: Clinically, the papillary (pRCC) and chromophobe (chRCC) histologic subtypes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are viewed as more indolent compared to the more-common clear cell histology (ccRCC). However, there remain advanced cases of these purportedly less-aggressive histologies that lead to significant mortality. We therefore sought to evaluate outcomes of advanced pRCC and chRCC compared to ccRCC utilizing the National Cancer Database's registry of RCC patients.

Targeted Ablative Therapies for Prostate Cancer.

Men diagnosed with low- to intermediate-risk, clinically localized prostate cancer (PCa) often face a daunting and difficult decision with respect to treatment: active surveillance (AS) or radical therapy. This decision is further confounded by the fact that many of these men diagnosed, by an elevated PSA, will have indolent disease and never require intervention. Radical treatments, including radical prostatectomy and whole-gland radiation, offer greater certainty for cancer control, but at the risk of significant urinary and/or sexual morbidity.

Immune phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

Purpose: To explore the immune phenotype of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) in patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Methods: We prospectively collected blood samples from patients with high-risk NMIBC treated at our institution. PBMC were analyzed by flow cytometry to determine the frequency of T cells and NK cells and the expression of immunoregulatory molecules (Tim-3, TIGIT and PD-1).

Cell death under epithelial-mesenchymal transition control in prostate cancer therapeutic response.

Prostate cancer is a widespread problem among men, with >160 000 new cases in 2017 alone. Androgen deprivation therapy is commonly used in prostate cancer treatment to block androgens required for cancer growth, but disease relapse after androgen deprivation therapy is both common and severe. Changes in androgen receptor signaling from androgen deprivation therapy have been linked to therapeutic resistance and tumor progression.

Demographic and socioeconomic predictors of treatment delays, pathologic stage, and survival among patients with penile cancer: A report from the National Cancer Database.

Objectives: To evaluate whether socioeconomic factors affect pathologic stage, treatment delays, pathologic upstaging, and overall survival (OS) in patients with penile cancer (PC).

Patients And Methods: A total of 13,283 eligible patients diagnosed with PC from 1998 to 2012 were identified from the National Cancer Database. Socioeconomic, demographic and pathologic variables were used in multivariable regression models to identify predictors of pathologic T stage ≥2, pathologic lymph node positivity, cT to pT upstaging, treatment delays, and OS.

Predicting Complications Following Robot-Assisted Partial Nephrectomy with the ACS NSQIP Universal Surgical Risk Calculator.

Purpose: We evaluated the predictive value of the ACS NSQIP® (American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program®) surgical risk calculator in a tertiary referral cohort of patients who underwent robot-assisted partial nephrectomy.

Materials And Methods: We queried our prospectively maintained, multi-institutional database of patients treated with robot-assisted partial nephrectomy and input the preoperative details of 300 randomly selected patients into the calculator. Accuracy of the calculator was assessed by the ROC AUC and the Brier score.