News & Comment

Ureteral stents are useful devices for urological management in pregnancy. However, stent encrustation occurs in up to 13% of patients and is related to increased indwelling time. Stent encrustation can be harmful for both the mother and the fetus, increasing their morbidity and mortality. Thus, whether prevention or cure is more cost effective is pertinent.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize scientific publishing. The influence of AI could be disruptive or destructive and its influence remains to be seen, but balance between the convenience and accessibility offered by AI-driven tools and the essential skills of deep scientific inquiry and communication needs to be found.

The escalating global prevalence of urinary stone disease and its impact on public health reflects the need to synthesize ideas that can help with the development of critical research priorities. By bringing together a forum of endourologists with the support of a funding agency, the IDEA session aimed to identify important future research topics.

Oligometastatic bladder cancer, defined as a cancer with limited metastases, is a potential target for curative metastasis-directed therapy in a multidisciplinary framework. The consensus definition of oligometastatic bladder cancer is a valuable starting point for clinical trials, but challenges remain in accurately characterizing metastatic burden with current imaging modalities and determining optimal strategies to treat patients with lymph node involvement.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen-PET has become a valuable diagnostic tool. The second version of the Prostate Cancer Molecular Imaging Standardized Evaluation framework is the next step towards a standardized evaluation and reporting system from primary staging to reassessment of advanced prostate cancer.