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Radiofrequency ablation and cryoablation of the small renal mass have emerged as treatment options for patients who are not surgical candidates or who elect not to undergo surgery. Besides concerns regarding the definition of treatment success and the difficulty of salvage procedures, incomplete ablation might potentially create a tumour microenvironment that promotes cancer progression.
The screening and treating of prostate cancer is a complex and controversial issue, which seems to have inspired much media coverage. We must be careful to ensure the less-newsworthy facts and limitations of high-profile trials, such as PIVOT, are not lost in media hype.
In this Review, Cho comprehensively explores the diverse characteristics of the reproductive ADAMs (with specific or predominant expression in testis or epididymis) at the gene, protein, cellular, and functional levels. He provides a detailed account of recent advances in our understanding of the involvement of ADAM protein complexes in the process of fertilization, largely derived from gene knockout studies in mice.
Biomaterials can be used as a scaffold for regenerative stem cells to regrow the urinary bladder after resection for cancer treatment. Such engineered tissues show promise in urologic tissue regeneration, but are faced with a number of challenges. In this Review, the authors discuss these challenges and the potential of various cell sources for use in bladder regeneration.
Robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) is gaining popularity for use in low-risk patients with bladder cancer as an alternative to open radical cystectomy (ORC). In this Review, Azzouni considers the techniques of RARC and ORC and discusses RARC in terms of learning curve, perioperative, pathologic and oncologic outcomes, cost and quality of life.
In this Review, Ho et al. discuss historical perspectives and recent progress in the study of normal urothelial and neoplastic bladder stem cells. In particular, they focus on developments in stem cell isolation, molecular characterization, and global gene expression profiling.
Undifferentiated 'cancer stem cells' (CSCs) are at the base of the tumour hierarchy, driving tumour growth and propagation. In this Perspectives article, the authors argue precise preclinical studies are needed to delineate prostate tumour cell hierarchy. Only then will the development of efficient differentiation agents—drugs that drive CSCs to differentiated cells that are susceptible to therapy—be possible.
