All News

San Francisco--Because of its longer half-life, dutasteride (Avodart) may confer an advantage not seen with finasteride (Proscar), according to UCLA researchers. Missed doses of dutasteride, a newer 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor, are not likely to impact drug-induced suppression of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and clinically that difference may be important because BPH patients often miss doses of prescribed medicines.

San Francisco--Baseline PSA and transrectal ultrasound volumes may predict the best medical therapy for BPH, according to investigators involved in the Medical Therapy of Prostatic Symptoms (MTOPS) trial. Similar to the initial findings of MTOPS, this secondary analysis suggests a role for different drug regimens based on patients' level of risk.

Michael W. Kattan, PhD, has been named chairman of the department of biostatistics and epidemiology at the Cleveland Clinic.

The Society of Urologic Nurses and Associates will mail four-color posters educating patients on prostate cancer to SUNA members and urologic health care providers in time for Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, Sept. 19-25, 2004.

Urologists' median compensation went up 6.84% from 2002 to 2003, marking the largest percentage increase among eight surgical specialties, according to findings from the American Medical Group Association's 2004 Medical Group Compensation & Financial Survey.

The Drug Enforcement Agency, Last Acts Partnership, and the Pain & Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin have issued a guidance document to address clinical and regulatory issues involving the prescription of controlled substances to treat pain.

The American Medical Association and 13 medical specialty societies, including AUA, have formed the Physicians Electronic Health Record Coalition to aid small- to medium-sized practices in selecting and using affordable electronic medical records software systems.

Men with erectile dysfunction who do not respond to treatment with a phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor may benefit from the addition of a testosterone gel, according to researchers from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

A common virus found in the urinary tract may play a role in the development of prostate cancer, University of Michigan Medical School researchers say.

Urologists' median compensation went up 6.84% from 2002 to 2003, marking the largest percentage increase among eight surgical specialties, according to findings from the American Medical Group Association's 2004 Medical Group Compensation & Financial Survey.

Minnetonka, MN-The FDA has cleared for marketing American Medical Systems' 700 Tactile Pump, the latest addition to the AMS 700 line of penile prostheses.

San Francisco--Although laparoscopic partial nephrectomy techniques have come a long way, there is still much progress needed before the procedure can be easily performed by surgeons, Cleveland Clinic researchers said.

Progress was made in understanding the mechanism of urinary tract infection during several presentations made at the AUA annual meeting. At the same time, certain assumptions about drug therapy for chronic prostatitis and imaging for UTIs were disproven.

Dextranomer/hyaluronic acid has the potential to lower the cost and also the morbidity of repeated voiding cystourethrograms in children.

Among the important research on male infertility presented at the 2004 AUA annual meeting, a new vasoepididymostomy technique and findings about the impact of long-term varicoceles on pregnancy rates took center stage, said Craig S. Niederberger, MD, chief of andrology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. This research, as well as data questioning the value of two widely used prognostic measures, provided the most significant take-home points for practicing urologists, he said

At the 2004 AUA annual meeting, researchers reported that daily administration of a phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor improves chances of recovery from post-prostatectomy erectile dysfunction-good news about a difficult-to-treat patient population. The bad news was a finding that herbal ED treatments purchased over the Internet are often ineffective, potentially dangerous, and occasionally tainted with active, unlabeled PDE-5 inhibitors.

As treatment approaches to urinary incontinence continue to evolve, their safety and efficacy relative to existing techniques, and in particular the durability of their results, remain important issues for determining their ultimate place in clinical practice.

New research on the potential of antibiotic-eluting stents and alpha-blockers that may speed or ease the passage of stones may lead to significant changes in urologic practices, according to Glenn M. Preminger, MD.

Studies reported at the AUA annual meeting have provided some answers to important questions concerning the management of localized prostate cancer, according to Richard D. Williams, MD, professor and Rubin H. Flocks chair, department of urology, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Among the issues addressed were the usefulness of adjuvant radiation therapy, the value of extended lymph node dissection, outcomes achieved with minimally invasive treatment options, and who is best suited to perform robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.

Minnetonka, MN-The FDA has cleared for marketing American Medical Systems' 700 Tactile Pump, the latest addition to the AMS 700 line of penile prostheses.

San Francisco--Even though patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease are at risk for renal tumors and eventual metastatic RCC, parenchymal-sparing surgery can be delayed until the largest tumor reaches 3 cm with minimal concern that the patient will develop metastatic renal cell carcinoma, according to updated data from an ongoing National Institutes of Health study.

San Francisco--Just because it looks like interstitial cystitis doesn't mean it is interstitial cystitis. Some irritative voiding symptoms that look like IC may be symptoms of bladder cancer, even in patients who do not have the usual bladder cancer risk factors.

The 2004 AUA annual meeting brought news of the most dramatic advance in the field of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome over the last 20 years. Researchers reported the complete molecular structure of antiproliferative factor (APF), the peptide produced by bladder epithelial cells only in IC patients.

Progression-free curves for N0 disease were improved when more than eight to 10 nodes per side were removed.

I believe the evidence is accumulating in favor of earlier [androgen deprivation] therapy to provide a survival benefit.

San Francisco--The discovery of the peptide made only by interstitial cystitis in a patient's bladder epithelium has held out the possibility of a diagnostic test, but it wasn't until University of Maryland researchers recently identified the peptide's exact structure that such a test was feasible. The latest research on antiproliferative factor (APF) not only moves researchers a step closer to a commercial diagnostic test for IC but also to new possibilities for treatment of both IC and bladder cancer and to intriguing questions about a new family of proteins.

Boston--A preoperative rise in serum PSA of >2.0 ng/mL predicts an increased mortality risk in patients with localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy and might identify men who require additional therapy, investigators have concluded after reviewing outcomes in more than 1,000 cases.

American Medical Systems Holdings Inc. has completed its acquisition of TherMatrx Inc.

Single-channel and multichannel cystometrograms show similar results, according to a study presented at the International Consultation of Incontinence in Monte Carlo.

Urologist Peter L. Scardino, MD, co-founder of Memorial Hospital in Savannah, GA, passed away July 21 at his home in Savannah.