Molecular detection of prostate cells in ejaculate and urethral washings in men with suspected prostate cancer.

Purpose: To determine whether prostatic cells were normally present in ejaculate and if the sensitivity and specificity of the detection of malignant prostate cells in ejaculate and urethral washings from men with suspected prostate cancer could be improved using the more sensitive molecular technique of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Materials And Methods: RT-PCR for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) and Apoliprotein D (3 putative prostate-specific and/or cancer-specific markers) was performed on RNA extracts of ejaculate (80) and urethral washings (52) from 77 men with suspected prostate cancer and 12 young controls (<30 years of age) and urines from 5 men who had radical prostatectomies and 10 women.

Results: PSA, PSM and Apolipoprotein D expression was detected in ejaculates and urethral washings from both patient and control groups.

Experimental pyeloureterectomy and calyceal neck transection with autotransplantation and bladder advancement.

Objective: To determine whether Dexon mesh, closely applied to the kidney, provides purchase for sutures to permit bladder/parenchymal apposition on autotransplantation and that, if this line of apposition were some distance from but surrounding renal papillae, urothelium would proliferate to cover exposed parenchyma to form a widely patent lumen; this should facilitate removal of the whole of an upper tract collecting system, retaining renal parenchyma alone.

Materials And Methods: To test this possibility and explore the practicability of the concept, nine dogs underwent bilateral nephrectomy followed by unilateral autotransplantation: the other kidney was discarded. Because the canine renal pelvis is intrarenal, the ureter was stretched maximally before passing fine scissors into the renal hilum to transect the collecting system as close to the kidney as possible in six of the nine dogs.

Evaluation of myectomized partial-thickness ileum in experimental bladder augmentation.

Background: We undertook this study to examine the effects of 'stripping' with excision of serosa and muscularis propria (myectomy) from the antimesenteric aspect of ileum incorporated into the urinary tract.

Methods: Two groups of five dogs were studied. In the first group studied, detubularizing was effected by incising the middle of the thinned antimesenteric aspect of the ileal wall longitudinally.

Intussuscepted partial-thickness ileal valve in continent urinary diversion.

Objective: This study was undertaken to ascertain the feasibility of fashioning a nipple valve from partial-thickness ileum and to assess the competence and durability of that valve. The approach employed was designed to circumvent the necessity for considerable lengths of bowel to be committed to valve formation and to avoid the tendency for desusception, present with other forms of nipple valves.

Methods: A technique in which a subterminal segment of partial-thickness ileum was 'skinned' circumferentially of serosa and muscularis propria and then intussuscepted to form a continent nipple-valve mechanism was studied for up to 4 months in 10 dogs.

Abnormal prostatic cells in ejaculates from men with prostatic cancer--a preliminary report.

Objective: To relate findings from a novel approach, ejaculate cytology, to the established reference, histopathology from transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS)-guided prostatic biopsies, in patients at risk of having prostatic cancer on the basis of an abnormal digital rectal examination (DRE) and/or an elevated serum prostate specific antigen (PSA). PATIENTS SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Thirty-seven men suspected of having prostatic carcinoma provided ejaculate specimens which were collected in Hanks solution. The specimens were centrifuged to form a pellet from which smears were made for cytological examination.

Immunohistological expression of p53 in primary pT1 transitional cell bladder cancer in relation to tumour progression.

Objective: To determine whether p53 expression is a marker of tumour progression in superficially invasive (pT1) transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.

Patients And Methods: The immunohistochemical status of the p53 protein in 28 pT1 primary bladder cancers was determined on frozen tissue and archival paraffin block sections using three primary antibodies (CM-1, PAB1801 and D07). The findings were compared with the patients' progress.

Mucin expression by transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder.

Objective: To examine the presence of a membrane-associated and secreted mucin (MUC1) and a secreted gel-forming mucin (MUC2) in normal and malignant urothelium.

Materials And Methods: Sections were obtained from archival paraffin blocks from 11 patients with nonmalignant urological conditions and 89 patients with transitional cell carcinomas (TCC). Mucin expression was examined by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies BC2 and 4F1, reactive with epitopes on the protein core of MUC1 and MUC2 respectively.

An immunohistological demonstration of c-erbB-2 oncoprotein expression in primary urothelial bladder cancer.

Sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-blocked tissue from 116 primary transitional cell carcinomas were stained immunohistochemically using a polyclonal antibody against the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein. Positive staining of cell membranes, known to correlate with gene amplification, was seen in 22 (19%) of the 116, with variable staining from tumour to tumour and within tumours themselves. Consistent with its mooted value as a prognosticator in bladder cancer, the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein was detected in 13 (of 40) grade III and 9 of the 26 muscle-invasive tumours examined compared to 1 (of 25) grade I and 6 (of 66) mucosa only (pTa) lesions.

Evaluation of a bladder advancement extension graft technique.

A bladder advancement extension technique was developed to provide a reliable method for creating an extra length of bladder in continuity, so that Boari flap and psoas hitch procedures, with or without the extension grafts, would reach sufficiently high routinely to permit these procedures to become the preferred practical options for accommodating significant proximal ureteric deficiencies or for replacing the whole of the ureter. In addition, an omentally supported bladder graft was established separately for use in a "retrieval" procedure should extension graft stenosis develop subsequently. Of 10 dogs studied for 6 months, 2 required "retrieval" pedicled island patch grafts for stenoses at extension graft/upper ureteric junctions.

Application of the invaginated sleeve technique to form a continent ileal urostomy.

The invaginated sleeve technique has been adapted to produce a continent urostomy, able to be catheterised, from a length of canine ileum measuring less than 10 cm. Of the 4 dogs catheterised twice daily up to 13 weeks, narrowing was present in the extra-ileal segment in 2, but all intra-ileal double-barrelled lumina remained healthy with preservation of bowel mucosa.

Development of the invaginated sleeve technique for continent cystostomies in dogs.

Two studies were undertaken in dogs to evaluate oblique tunnels through bladder walls lined by urothelium for use in continent cystostomies. In the first study, the tracts were lined completely by urothelium by 10 weeks, but tract calibre reduced considerably after stent removal and periluminal fibrosis was a prominent feature. In the second study a tubularised partial-thickness pedicle graft was invaginated through an oblique tunnel in the bladder wall, with the graft extending extravesically and then being wrapped in omentum.