Achieving Benchmarks for National Quality Indicators Reduces Recurrence and Progression in Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer.

Background: Noncompliance with evidence-based interventions and guidelines contributes to significant and variable recurrence and progression in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The implementation of a quality performance indicator (QPI) programme in Scotland's National Health Service (NHS) aimed to improve cancer outcomes and reduce nationwide variance.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of hospitals achieving benchmarks for two specific QPIs on time to recurrence and progression in NMIBC.

Evidence-based drainage of infected hydronephrosis secondary to ureteric calculi.

Introduction: The obstructed, infected kidney is a urological emergency. It has been accepted that the management of infected hydronephrosis secondary to ureteric stones is through prompt decompression of the collecting system. However, the optimal method of decompression has yet to be established.

The role of the systemic inflammatory response as a biomarker in immunotherapy for renal cell cancer.

Treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) has entered a new paradigm since the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as sorafenib (Nexavar) and sunitinib (Sutent). Despite these advances, immunotherapy, the traditional mainstay of treatment, is not yet obsolete. Immunotherapy offers the possibility of a complete response for a small number of patients with favorable disease factors.

Pubic hair and sexuality: a review.

Introduction: Hair is a distinguishing feature of mammals, though the persistence of visible head, axillary, and pubic hair remains anthropologically unclear. Humans throughout the ages have modified their head and body hair, but aesthetic removal of pubic hair has become the "the ultimate barometer of how fashionable you really are" in the 21st century. The aim of the article is to examine the trends in pubic hair removal and its impact on health and sexuality.

The relationship between the local and systemic inflammatory responses and survival in patients undergoing resection for localized renal cancer.

Objective: To examine the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response (C-reactive protein, CRP), tumour interleukin-6 receptor and cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression, tumour T-lymphocytic (CD4+, CD8+) infiltration and cancer survival in patients undergoing resection for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), as both the local and systemic inflammatory responses appear to predict the outcome in these patients.

Patients And Methods: The study included 60 patients undergoing nephrectomy for localized RCC. Pre-operative circulating CRP levels were measured and tumour interleukin-6 receptor and COX-2 expression, tumour CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes were assessed using immunohistochemical analysis.

The longitudinal relationship between the systemic inflammatory response, circulating T-lymphocytes, interleukin-6 and -10 in patients undergoing immunotherapy for metastatic renal cancer.

Objective: To examine the longitudinal relationship between the systemic inflammatory response, circulating T-lymphocyte subpopulations, interleukin-6 and -10 in patients undergoing immunotherapy for metastatic renal cancer, as the inflammation-based Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) provides additional prognostic information in patients with advanced renal cancer, but the basis of the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response and poorer survival is not clear, and nor is the effect of immunotherapy on related variables.

Patients And Methods: The study included 23 patients with metastatic renal cancer and starting immunotherapy. Samples of blood were drawn for routine laboratory analysis and to quantify cytokines using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays before immunotherapy, and repeated after 2 weeks of treatment.

Prospective study of the relationship between the systemic inflammatory response, prognostic scoring systems and relapse-free and cancer-specific survival in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for renal cancer.

Objective: To examine the prognostic value of markers of systemic inflammatory response, together with established scoring systems, in predicting relapse-free and cancer-specific survival in patients with primary operable renal cancer, as there is increasing evidence that such markers provide prognostic information, in addition to scoring systems, in patients with metastatic renal cancer.

Patients And Methods: In all, 83 patients undergoing potentially curative nephrectomy for localized renal cancer were recruited. The University of California Los Angeles Integrated Staging System (UISS), 'Stage Size Grade Necrosis' (SSIGN) and Kattan scores were constructed.

Modulation of lamellipodial structure and dynamics by NO-dependent phosphorylation of VASP Ser239.

The initial step in directed cell movement is lamellipodial protrusion, an action driven by actin polymerization. Enabled/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (Ena/VASP) family proteins are key regulators of this actin polymerization and can control lamellipodial protrusion rate. Ena/VASP proteins are substrates for modification by cyclic-nucleotide-dependent protein kinases at a number of sites.

Evaluation of an inflammation-based prognostic score in patients with metastatic renal cancer.

Background: Recently, it was shown that an inflammation-based prognostic score, the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS), provides additional prognostic information in patients with advanced cancer. The objective of the current study was to examine the value of the GPS compared with established scoring systems in predicting cancer-specific survival in patients with metastatic renal cancer.

Methods: One hundred nineteen patients who underwent immunotherapy for metastatic renal cancer were recruited.

The management of female urinary retention.

Female acute urinary retention (AUR) is relatively uncommon and often poorly managed. There are several common precipitants though much of the literature refers to female AUR as a psychogenic condition. The underlying abnormality is often detrusor failure, not outlet obstruction.

Treatment for renal cancer: are we beyond the cytokine era?

Cytokines have been the mainstay of treatment for metastatic renal cancer for the past 20 years. Response rates of patients treated with these agents are low, and toxicity is high, but there is evidence from large multicenter randomized trials that indicate that there are survival benefits with interferon-based immunotherapy. A large number of new small molecule inhibitors are emerging that have caused considerable interest in the oncology community.