Discrete-choice experiment to analyse preferences for centralizing specialist cancer surgery services.

BACKGROUND: Centralizing specialist cancer surgery services aims to reduce variations in quality of care and improve patient outcomes, but increases travel demands on patients and families. This study aimed to evaluate preferences of patients, health professionals and members of the public for the characteristics associated with centralization. METHODS: A discrete-choice experiment was conducted, using paper and electronic surveys. Participants comprised: former and current patients (at any stage of treatment) with prostate, bladder, kidney or oesophagogastric cancer who previously participated in the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey; health professionals with experience of cancer care (11 types including surgeons, nurses and oncologists); and members of the public. Choice scenarios were based on the following attributes: travel time to hospital, risk of serious complications, risk of death, annual number of operations at the centre, access to a specialist multidisciplinary team (MDT) and specialist surgeon cover after surgery. RESULTS: Responses were obtained from 444 individuals (206 patients, 111 health professionals and 127 members of the public). The response rate was 52·8 per cent for the patient sample; it was unknown for the other groups as the survey was distributed via multiple overlapping methods. Preferences were particularly influenced by risk of complications, risk of death and access to a specialist MDT. Participants were willing to travel, on average, 75 min longer in order to reduce their risk of complications by 1 per cent, and over 5 h longer to reduce risk of death by 1 per cent. Findings were similar across groups. CONCLUSION: Respondents' preferences in this selected sample were consistent with centralization.

Surgical Management of Stuttering Ischemic Priapism: A Case Report and Concise Clinical Review.

Stuttering priapism is an extremely rare and poorly understood entity. We present a rare case of a 47-year-old Afro-Caribbean gentleman who required proximal shunt procedure to treat his ischemic stuttering priapism after he had failed medical management. We provided a concise review of the literature on the surgical management of ischemic priapism. This case highlighted the importance of prompt surgical intervention in prolonged stuttering priapism to avoid serious psychological and functional complications.

[Testis cancer: the UK as a model]. / Hodentumorzentren: England als Modell.

Over the course of the past 30 years progress in identification of risk factors, improvements in therapy regimens and advances in treatment delivery have all served to render testis cancer a treatable and survivable malignancy. Institution of specialised oncology centres in the UK to address treatment options for urological cancers has proven to be an effective approach to managing testis cancer by drawing on interdisciplinary expertise and applying insights gained from ongoing R&D. This strategy could become a model for treating other cancers as well.

Differential radiosensitisation by ZD1839 (Iressa), a highly selective epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor in two related bladder cancer cell lines.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is expressed in a wide variety of epithelial tumours including carcinoma of the bladder. Stimulation of the EGFR pathway is blocked by ZD1839 (Iressa), a highly selective EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Radical radiotherapy is an established organ sparing treatment option for muscle invasive bladder cancer and this study has explored the possibility for the use of ZD1839 as a radiosensitiser in this scenario. The effect of combination treatment with ZD1839 (0.01 microM) and ionising radiation in the established bladder cancer cell lines MGH-U1 and its radiosensitive mutant clone S40b was measured by clonogenic assays. A highly significant radiosensitising effect was seen in both cell lines (P < 0.001 for MGH-U1 and S40b cell lines). This effect was independent of the concentration of the drug and the duration of exposure prior to treatment with ionising radiation. Cell cycle kinetics of both cell lines was not significantly altered with ZD1839 (0.01 microM) as a single agent. A modest induction of apoptosis was observed with ZD1839 (0.01 microM) as a single agent, but a marked induction was observed with the combination treatment of ZD1839 and ionising radiation. These results suggest a potentially important role for ZD1839 in combination with radiotherapy in the treatment of muscle invasive bladder cancer.