[Current validity of nomograms for prostate cancer staging].

Objective: [corrected] This paper presents a review of the concept of "nomogram" applied to prostate cancer, and specifically as a staging tool.

Methods/results: We describe the essential parameters for the evaluation of such type of predictive models: Calibration, discrimination and clinical usefulness. Such requisites are analyzed using a real clinical case in our clinical setting, comparing the "Partin's tables" and the "Miguel Servet University Hospital's nomogram".

Urinary CYFRA 21.1 is not a useful marker for the detection of recurrences in the follow-up of superficial bladder cancer.

Objectives: The objective of this prospective study is to establish an appropriate cutoff value of urinary CYFRA 21.1 assay and to assess its utility combined with voided cytology and/or haemoglobin dipstick in the follow-up of patients with superficial bladder cancer.

Methods: From December 2000 to November 2003, 446 patients in follow-up for superficial bladder cancer (Ta-T1) after transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) were included in a prospective study.

Telomere length on bladder washing samples from patients with bladder cancer correlates with tumor characteristics flow cytometry method for quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (flow-FISH technique).

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the length of telomeres in patients with bladder cancer using a quantitative flow cytometry (flow-FISH) technique.

Methods: Bladder washing samples from 51 patients with bladder cancer were obtained immediately before transurethral resection. The average length of telomere repeats was measured by flow-FISH, as previously reported.