Despite current therapies, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is often lethal. Many factors influence outcomes, including stage, grade, subtype, necrosis, and molecular attributes. Prognosis can be difficult to determine. Comprehensive staging strategies that incorporate multiple patients and tumor factors are necessary to predict survival accurately and optimize research strategies. Recently designed algorithms allow for convenient and up-to-date estimates of outcome in this rapidly evolving field.
With widespread screening now the norm, prostate cancer is being detected with increasing frequency and at earlier stages than in previous years. At least 90% of cases are metastasis-free at diagnosis and most patients undergo local treatment. Patients with locally advanced disease, however, are at high risk of recurrence and thus are more challenging to manage.
Hypertension is a common clinical problem in renal transplant patients, and it has important consequences for patient and graft survival. At five years after transplantation, more than 50% of patients have Stage I or Stage II hypertension and nearly 40% of patients have prehypertension.
Bladder cancer is projected to be the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in 2007 and the eighth most common cause of cancer-specific death in men, according to the American Cancer Society. Approximately 70% of bladder tumors present as non-muscle invasive (NMI) disease and 10%-20% will progress to muscle invasion.
The use of botulinum toxin (BTX) for various non-urological indications, such as cervical dystonia, blepharospasm, and strabismus has been well accepted for more than a decade, but its application in urology has been somewhat slower in developing.
A principal reason for poor outcomes among bladder cancer patients is metastatic disease during follow-up. With currently available drugs, metastatic disease to other solid organs is only curable in less than 10% of patients, according to Virginia urologist Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD.
The most widespread nondermatologic malignancy in men, prostate cancer afflicts one in six American males and kills one in 34. Growing public awareness, an aging population, and increased PSA screening has led to greater detection of early-stage disease.
Autosomal dominant interstitial kidney disease is an under-recognized cause of kidney failure. Characterized by a very strong family history of kidney disease, it is a slowly progressive condition that leads to dialysis when patients are in their 40s or older.
