Men's Health

This article highlights the key points of two urologic cancer guidelines (which provide evidence-based guidance) and two consensus statements (which provide consensus recommendations by a multidisciplinary panel of experts) that have been published in the past year.

While no resource is perfect, it is worthwhile to familiarize yourself with some contemporary methodology and predictive tools to help determine life expectancy in localized prostate cancer patients.

Three out of four patients with prostate cancer with an 18F-choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography–detected recurrence were potentially salvageable with local therapy or metastasis-directed therapy (MDT), according to results of the screening phase of the phase II STOMP randomized trial.

In these videos, expert surgeons demonstrate robot-assisted penile inversion vaginoplasty, single-stage metoidioplasty, and simple orchiectomy for transgender patients.

Other pipeline developments include efficacy results for a bladder and prostate cancer drug, an infertility tool to predict sperm quality, the initiation of an immunotherapy combination for mUC, and more.

Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, addresses misinformation regarding eating disorders in men.

In the arena of focal therapy for prostate cancer, standardization of management will be a key component of quality data going forward, says Scott Eggener, MD.

Phase III study results suggest that a hydrogel spacer developed to separate the rectum and prostate during radiotherapy for prostate cancer works to maintain bowel and urinary quality of life and reduces late rectal toxicity by 78% at 3 years post radiotherapy.

Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, the number of testicular cancer patients with insurance has dwindled, while rates of advanced testis cancer have climbed, according to a recent study.

Findings of a retrospective study investigating variability of semen parameters after repeat testing in adolescents with varicocele indicate that a second semen analysis is warranted only when the sperm concentration is initially abnormal.

Clinicians may soon be able to improve the risk stratification of men with prostate cancer with the help of a genomic classifier or a biopsy-based reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay, according to the results of two studies presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

A simple blood test that measures PSA structure rather than concentration may be more accurate than PSA in identifying men who need a prostate biopsy, according to the results of a study presented at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in Orlando, FL.

“We showed that we can safely compress radiation into a shorter time frame, into fewer treatments, at higher dose per fraction, with similar clinical outcomes and similar toxicity profiles,” said researcher Michael Wang, MD.

Recently published studies also evaluated testosterone replacement therapy’s effect on anemia, cognitive function, and bone density and strength.

Abraham Morgentaler, MD, shares why the recent publication of five studies on testosterone therapy in JAMA and JAMA Internal Medicine "was arguably the most important week ever for the science of testosterone therapy and its impact on men's health."

In preparation for the AUA annual meeting in May, urologist Henry Rosevear, MD, shares the 10 sessions he’s looking forward to the most.

Researchers have developed and validated a clinically useful prognostic model for men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, which can be used in the front-line setting.

In many ways, policymakers, insurance companies, and certain health care providers seem to have a total disregard for men’s health, writes Henry Rosevear, MD.

Results of a retrospective study raise concern that ureteroscopy may adversely affect erectile function.

Nearly one-third of men with testicular cancer undergo diagnostic or therapeutic interventions that are at odds with guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), according a study published in the Journal of Urology (2017; 197:684-9).

A recent study has found that genetic predictors of normal PSA levels in healthy men could be used to improve the accuracy of PSA-based prostate cancer screening.

In these videos, high-volume stone surgeons demonstrate novel approaches to classification, visualization, and treatment of stones.

Urology-related FDA approvals from 2016 encompassed drugs and devices for prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer, stone disease, and more.

Other products discussed include an updated prostate tissue ablation device, a contrast agent for voiding ultrasonography, a bladder cancer test and more.

"Rather than making a blanket statement regarding continued follow-up, we need to consider the pathologic features commonly known to increase the risk of [prostate cancer] recurrence-concurrent medical problems, the patient’s age at recurrence, PSA doubling time, longevity in the family, etc," writes J. Brantley Thrasher, MD.

The risk for biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer remains relatively high even 10 years after radical prostatectomy, but it does not appear to be influenced by a positive family history of prostate cancer or a family or personal history of other cancer, according to a study analyzing data from the prospective German Familial Prostate Cancer database.

Salvage lymph node dissection results in an immediate complete PSA response in about one-third of patients with rising PSA and nodal recurrence following local therapy for prostate cancer, according to German researchers.

High-grade proctitis after radical radiation therapy with neoadjuvant or adjuvant hormonal therapy is significantly less likely in patients taking angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors.