Positive Surgical Margins Rate of Retzius-Sparing Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy in a Contemporary, Unselected Cohort.

PURPOSE: Our aim was to report the positive surgical margin (PSM) rate of Retzius-sparing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RS-RARP) in an unselected, real-life cohort of patients treated at a fellowship-training urological department. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Demographic, clinical and pathological data of 529 consecutive patients who underwent RS-RARP between January 2017 and December 2020 were collected prospectively and analyzed retrospectively in a hospital-approved audit in a European Association of Urology Robotic Urology Section (ERUS)-approved fellowship program. Overall PSM rates were reported for the entire cohort and for pT2 and pT3 patients separately. We defined clinically significant PSM as any length of >3 mm or multiple PSMs regardless of length. RESULTS: Median patient age was 64 years. More than 97% of the patients had intermediate or high-risk disease. The pathological stages were T2 (66.5%) and T3 (33.5%). Overall PSM was reported in 13.3% of pT2 patients and 28.9% of pT3 patients. Clinically significant PSM was reported in 43 patients (8.1%), and most of them (27 patients) had pT3 disease. Only 2.6% positive margins were reported at the apex and 0.7% on the anterior surface and bladder neck. Immediate continence (defined as no pads or 1 safety pad a day) rate was 65%. CONCLUSIONS: PSM rates of RS-RARP are acceptable and are higher in pT3 disease compared to pT2.

High-Grade Prostate Cancer Invading the Vagina: A Case Report of an Unusual Prostate Cancer Diagnosed in a Man with Persistent Mullerian Duct Syndrome.

We report an extremely rare case of locally advanced prostate cancer in a phenotypic male patient with persistent müllerian duct syndrome. The patient underwent a robot-assisted retzius-sparing radical prostatectomy, bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection, radical hysterectomy, vaginectomy, and salpingo-ophorectomy. He was continent at 3 months follow-up. His follow-up PSA has steadily increased up to 1.4 ng/mL 6 months following surgery and his PSMA-PET scan showed bone metastasis with no local recurrence, and androgen deprivation therapy was started along with docetaxel chemotherapy. Prostate cancer in patients with DSD is extremely rare and can manifest itself with a low PSA, although aggressive cancer.

CD31 angiogenesis and combined expression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α are prognostic in primary clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (CC-RCC), but HIFα transcriptional products are not: implications for antiangiogenic trials and HIFα biomarker studies in primary CC-RCC.

Hypoxia-inducible factors, HIF-1α and HIF-2α, are expressed in the majority of clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (CC-RCC). In vitro, HIFα isoforms regulate a differential set of genes, and their effects in vivo within CC-RCC tumours may affect outcome. The role of angiogenesis and HIFα transcriptional products, including those involved in cell metabolism and morphological dedifferentiation have not been extensively investigated and might have relevance to the development of antiangiogenic or anti-HIFα trials in primary CC-RCC, either before or after radical nephrectomy. We analysed 168 consecutive clear-cell renal tumours from 1983 to 1999 within tissue microarrays and assessed expression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α together with the protein expression of seven of their target genes (BNIP3, CA9, Cyclin D1, GLUT-1, LDH5, Oct-4 and VEGF). The expression of these factors was compared with patient overall survival and CD31 angiogenesis. We found that HIFα antigenicity deteriorated with the age of the paraffin block (P < 0.0001) and in tumours from 1983 to 1992 was deemed not to be reliable. Similar findings were found in aged archival osteosarcoma samples. This might have important implications for retrospective biomarker studies that rely on archival tissue material. HIF-1α(HIGH)/HIF-2α(LOW) tumours had a worse overall survival compared with HIF-1α(LOW)/HIF-2α(LOW) tumours (P = 0.04). Surprisingly, on multivariate analysis, high levels of CD31(+) angiogenesis was shown to be an independent prognostic marker of increased overall survival (P = 0.003). We propose that better differentiation of vascular endothelium may be a reflection of a greater production of vessel stabilization factors versus pro-angiogenic factors, and therefore a less aggressive phenotype.

Automated uro-oncology data collection: the Cancer Research Uro-Oncology Database.

OBJECTIVE: To develop a relational database (Cancer Research Uro-Oncology Database, CRUD) to enable automatic data collection on all urological malignancies within our region, as there is increasing emphasis on good data collection for surgical patients with cancer, and numerous overlapping systems that are amassing data on the same patients. METHODS: Links have been established between pathological databases, multidisciplinary team data-collection systems and patient-survival monitoring facilities, providing accurate pathology, treatment and survival data on all of uro-oncology patients. We are also developing individual modules for the oncological surgeons within our unit that are compatible with the British Association of Urological Surgeons (Section of Oncology), and have plans to connect to the Medical and Clinical Oncology data systems in the future. RESULTS: Pre-existing protocols for fresh tissue, plasma and urine collection have been incorporated within CRUD via a tissue-tracking system, to comply with the Human Tissue Act 2004, and link these samples to accurate clinical, pathological and survival data. Many research and audit projects have already used these data, including the construction of a 274-case tissue microarray for renal cell carcinoma, microRNA hybridization arrays and analysis of 900 nephrectomy cases from the past three decades. CONCLUSIONS: Our work over the past 3 years in Oxford has established numerous links with organizations collecting data on our uro-oncological patients, and we are now able to collect this excellent combined data on all of these patients, in an automated manner.

Mechanisms of disease: angiogenesis in urologic malignancies.

Angiogenesis is critical for growth of tumors and their metastasis. In this article we review the literature on studies of angiogenesis pathways and markers for renal cancer, prostate cancer and bladder cancer. Overall, there is clear evidence that markers of angiogenesis and expression of angiogenic factors are associated with adverse outcomes in each of these tumor types. Relatively few angiogenic pathways have been investigated so far, although over 50 factors are known to be involved, and little has been studied on the antiangiogenic pathways and their suppression. The failing in many of the studies is small size and lack of suitable statistical analysis. Nevertheless, this review demonstrates the importance of these pathways and the need to develop selection criteria for patients who are candidates for antiangiogenic therapies. On the basis of the expression profiles reported so far, therapies that target vascular endothelial growth factor should be considered for the treatment of renal, prostate and bladder cancers. As most tumors express factors that are involved in multiple angiogenic pathways, further research is needed to determine which are coregulated and what the most common patterns are.