Protocol for a MULTI-centre feasibility study to assess the use of Tc-sestaMIBI SPECT/CT in the diagnosis of kidney tumours (MULTI-MIBI study).

Introduction: The incidence of renal tumours is increasing and anatomic imaging cannot reliably distinguish benign tumours from renal cell carcinoma. Up to 30% of renal tumours are benign, with oncocytomas the most common type. Biopsy has not been routinely adopted in many centres due to concerns surrounding non-diagnostic rate, bleeding and tumour seeding.

Perioperative management including dual cell salvage in a Jehovah's Witness patient undergoing major urological surgery.

Complex surgery associated with major hemorrhage presents particular risks for Jehovah's Witnesses who do not accept transfusion of blood products. Intraoperative use of two cell saver machines simultaneously can maximize the yield of salvaged blood from both the operative field and from washed surgical swabs and can potentially be life-saving.

Hexylaminolaevulinate fluorescence cystoscopy in patients previously treated with intravesical bacille Calmette-Guérin.

OBJECTIVE To determine if hexylaminolaevulinate fluorescence cystoscopy (HAL-FC) has the potential to improve the diagnosis of bladder cancer in patients who have been treated with bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients scheduled for rigid cystoscopy after BCG therapy were recruited prospectively between April 2005 and February 2006. Patients received HAL (Hexvix, PhotoCure ASA, Oslo, Norway) and the D-light system (Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) was used to detect fluorescence.

Hexylaminolevulinate photodynamic diagnosis for multifocal recurrent nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer.

Objective: To determine the potential for hexylaminolevulinate (HAL) photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) to improve the management of multifocal recurrent nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Patients And Methods: Patients with a history of NMIBC and with at least two suspected papillary recurrences were enrolled in this prospective study between April 2005 and October 2006. The photosensitizer was hexylaminolevulinate (HAL) (PhotoCure, Norway), and the Storz D-light system was used to detect fluorescence.

Hexylaminolaevulinate 'blue light' fluorescence cystoscopy in the investigation of clinically unconfirmed positive urine cytology.

Objective: To investigate the value of photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) using hexylaminolaevulinate (Hexvix, PhotoCure, Oslo, Norway) in the investigation of patients with positive urine cytology who have no evidence of disease after standard initial investigations.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-three patients referred with positive urine cytology but no current histological evidence of cancer were investigated between April 2005 and January 2007 with PDD, using Hexvix and the D-light system (Karl Storz, Tuttlingen, Germany) to detect fluorescence. The bladder was mapped initially under white light and then under 'blue-light'.

Robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy with extracorporeal urinary diversion: initial experience.

Background: The use of robotic technology for laparoscopic prostatectomy is now well established. The same cannot yet be said of robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy (RARC), which is performed in just a few centres worldwide.

Objective: We present our technique and experience of this procedure using the da Vinci surgical system.

The importance of palliative care in urology.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to identify patients with advanced urological cancer who may benefit from specialist palliative care and to quantify the number of these patients, characterize their problems and to see if their needs were being met.

Methods: The study was divided into two parts over 4-month periods centred on a hospital trust in the UK with a catchment population of 850,000. Urology in-patients were observed prospectively and out-patients were observed retrospectively.

Combined percutaneous radiofrequency ablation and ethanol injection of renal tumours: midterm results.

Objectives: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of combined percutaneous, image-guided, radiofrequency (RF) ablation and ethanol injection of renal tumours, and to present our midterm results.

Methods: Since February 2002, 27 consecutive patients (22 men, 5 women; age range: 39-84 yr; mean: 69) with 28 renal tumours (mean diameter: 2.87cm) were treated with combined percutaneous RF and ethanol ablation, and were prospectively evaluated.

Regulation of E-cadherin expression by VHL and hypoxia-inducible factor.

Mutations in von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor gene (VHL) underlie the VHL hereditary cancer syndrome and also occur in most sporadic clear cell renal cell cancers (CCRCC). Currently, the mechanism(s) by which VHL loss of function promotes tumor development in the kidney are not fully elucidated. Here, we show that VHL inactivation in precancerous lesions in kidneys from patients with VHL disease correlates with marked down-regulation of the intercellular adhesion molecule E-cadherin.