Systematic Review of Focal and Salvage Cryotherapy for Prostate Cancer.

Cryotherapy is one of the recognised ablative modalities for both primary and salvage therapy for prostate cancer. It presents an alternative, less invasive treatment for an organ-confined disease, improved preservation of surrounding tissue and a more suitable option for patients who are unfit for radical prostatectomy. Nevertheless, the currently available literature is relatively too scarce to provide definite conclusions regarding the treatment outcomes in cryotherapy. The present study aimed to review current oncological and survival outcomes in cryotherapy for primary and recurrent prostate cancer. Furthermore, this study aimed to establish the complications and functional outcomes of cryotherapy for prostate cancer. A literature search was performed on the PubMed, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases. Current guidelines and recommendations from the European Association of Urology were also reviewed. The search keywords used included 'Cryotherapy, Prostate Cancer', 'Cryoablation, Prostate Cancer' and 'Cryosurgery, Focal Prostate Cancer'. Truncations and Boolean operators were used with the keywords. All relevant studies from after 2015, including abstracts and non-English research assessing oncological and functional outcomes and complications, were included. Twenty-six studies consisting of 11,228 patients were reviewed. Fifteen studies assessed the outcomes of primary cryotherapy, whereas 11 studies reported the outcomes in salvage therapy. The patient's age ranged 55-85 years, and the pre-procedural prostate-specific antigen (PSA) ranged 0.01-49.33 ng/mL. A total of 2031 patients were classified to be at low risk, 2,995 were at moderate risk and 253 were at high risk on the D'Amico prostate cancer risk classification system. Follow-ups ranged from 9.0 to 297.6 months. The disease-specific survival rate was 65.5%-100.0%, overall survival was 61.3%-99.1%, the PSA nadir was 0.01-2.63 ng/mL and the overall biochemical recurrence rate was 15.4%-62.0%. The complications included erectile dysfunction (3.7%-88.0%), urinary retention (2.13%-25.30%) and bladder neck stricture/stenosis (3.0%-16.7%). The functional assessment showed a mixture of improved, unchanged or worsened post-procedural outcomes in primary therapy. This systematic review did not find significant differences in the cancer-specific, overall and biochemical-free survival rate between the primary and salvage cryotherapy cohorts. The most common complications encountered in both cohorts were erectile dysfunction, urinary incontinence, lower urinary tract/bladder neck stricture and infection. More prospective and double-arm studies are critically needed to provide guidance on the careful selection of patient cohorts for cryotherapy, whether for curative or salvage intent.

Prostatic abscess: a rare complication of staghorn calculi.

A staghorn calculus is a calculus accommodating the majority of a renal calyx extending into the renal pelvis. A conservative approach to its treatment may lead to high morbidity and mortality rates. Such morbidity usually manifests with renal failure, obstructed upper urinary tractand/or life-threatening sepsis. Prostatic abscesses have never been associated with staghorn calculi in the literature. We report a case of a 70-year-old man who presented with sepsis, which was found to originate from a complex prostatic abscess. The patient had no history of urinary tract infections or risk factors. The authors believe that the incidentally identified staghorn calculi promoted the growth of Proteus mirabilis which led to the development of the prostatic abscess. The patient underwent a transurethral resection and drainage of the abscess following a failed course of antibiotic therapy. This case also highlights the paucity of guidelines available in treating prostatic abscesses.

Radical exenteration surgery is curative in locally advance mucinous prostatic adenocarcinoma involving bladder and rectum.

The management of mucinous prostatic adenocarcinoma include hormonal treatment, radiotherapy and radical prostatectomy with variable long-term outcome. We report a 59 year old man with advanced mucinous prostatic adenocarcinoma involving almost the entire bladder and had failed treatment with hormonal and radiotherapy, but subsequently underwent radical pelvic exenteration surgery that resulted in long-term cure. He remains alive, his PSA remains undetectable and his surveillance CT scans did not show any evidence of recurrence after 11 years post-surgery. The favourable outcome of radical surgery suggests that radical surgery should be considered, especially in cases with failed initial treatments.

Over expression of metallothionein predicts resistance of transitional cell carcinoma of bladder to intravesical mitomycin therapy.

PURPOSE: Metallothionein, a low molecular weight intracellular protein, binds mitomycin with high affinity protecting the tumor DNA. We prospectively studied the relationship of metallothionein expression in bladder transitional cell carcinoma and resistance to intravesical mitomycin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A series of 45 consecutive patients with superficial transitional cell carcinoma treated with intravesical mitomycin were studied. Resected tumor tissues were stained with metallothionein monoclonal antibody E9. Two pathologists scored staining intensity and distribution. All patients were followed with regular flexible cystoscopy. RESULTS: Median patient age was 73 years (range 44 to 89). Tumor grade was 1 to 3 in 6, 33 and 6 cases, respectively. In 20 patients (44.44%) tumor recurred after mitomycin therapy. Median cytoplasmic staining scores for recurrent and nonrecurrent tumors were 5 (range 0 to 61) and 0 (0 to 14), respectively. Median nuclear staining scores for recurrent and nonrecurrent tumors were 3 (range 0 to 56) and 0 (0 to 11), respectively. Median followup of patients without recurrence was 18 months (range 12 to 36). Nuclear and cytoplasmic staining scores were significantly higher in recurrent than in nonrecurrent tumors. There was no significant relationship of metallothionein expression with tumor grade. CONCLUSIONS: Over expression of metallothionein predicts the resistance of bladder transitional cell carcinoma to intravesical mitomycin therapy.