AMLODIPINE TREATMENT may reduce cardiovascular risks in hypertensive hemodialysis patients, according to German researchers.

RESEARCHERS IN the Netherlands who examined the value of digital rectal examination (DRE) in prostate cancer screening concluded that in a subgroup of men, DRE may be useful in avoiding unnecessary biopsies.

OBESITY, BUT not diabetes, is associated with greater prostate cancer mortality among men receiving combined modality treatment for local advanced disease, data show.

FOCAL CRYOABLATION for prostate cancer, the so-called male lumpectomy, appears to preserve potency in most men and limits other complications, especially in-continence, without compromising cancer control, said researchers.

A multidisciplinary consortium of 28 surgeons from the United States and around the world convened for a one-day closed-door brainstorming meeting at Cleveland Clinic on July 7. The consortium's goal was to establish an approach to advance responsibly the rapidly growing field of single-portal laparoscopic surgery.

The recently developed single-port, multichannel access approach to urologic surgery may allow many common laparoscopic and robotic procedures to be performed entirely through the patient's umbilicus, enabling essentially scarless abdominal surgery. To date, Cleveland Clinic has performed 115 single-port laparoscopic procedures for various indications.

Most patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) depend on hemodialysis and suffer excessive mortality and morbidity. Kidney failure is becoming an epidemic in the United States, fueled by diabetes, obesity and, paradoxically, improved cardiac care.

A year and a half ago, Cleveland Clinic's Glickman Urological Institute and Nephrology Department joined to form the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute. Merging urologists, nephrologists, kidney and pancreas transplant surgeons, hypertension specialists, dialysis physicians, and scientists into one group was part of an institution-wide movement at Cleveland Clinic that organized clinical areas around organ and disease systems rather than individual specialties.

MEN WITH normal erectile function who receive erythropoietin a day before undergoing nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy may have better recovery of erectile function after surgery, according to investigators.

LONDON, Ont.—High doses of the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) candesartan reduce proteinuria by one third, even in people with diabetes, according to a study.