BJU international
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Retrograde ureteroscopy for distal ureteric stone removal in children.
To compare the efficacy and safety of ureteroscopy plus intracorporeal lithotripsy (ULT) with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) for treating distal ureteric calculi in childhood, as such stones are commonly treated by ESWL as the first option in adults but there is no agreement on the method of treating them in children. ⋯ ULT should be recommended as the treatment of choice for distal ureteric calculi in children; using small ureteroscopes the target stone was treated safely and effectively.
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To describe the preliminary clinical outcomes of active surveillance (AS), a new strategy aiming to individualize the management of early prostate cancer by selecting only those men with significant cancers for curative therapy, and illustrate the contrast with a policy of watchful waiting (WW). ⋯ AS is feasible in selected men with early prostate cancer. The natural history of this disease often appears extremely indolent, and most men on AS will avoid radical treatment. There is a marked contrast between AS (with radical treatment for biochemical progression) and WW (with palliative treatment for symptomatic progression). Ongoing studies are seeking to optimize the AS protocol, and to compare the long-term outcomes with those of immediate radical treatment.
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To assess the degree of accuracy, precision and consistency with which consultant urologists, oncologists and junior doctors predict a patient's 10-year life-expectancy. ⋯ Doctors were poor at predicting 10-year survival, tending to underestimate when compared with actuarial estimates. There was also substantial variability both within and between doctors. The inaccuracy, imprecision and inconsistency amongst the doctors in assessing patient life-expectancy is an important finding and has significant implications for managing patients. Many patients may be denied treatment after a pessimistic assessment of life-expectancy and (less commonly) some may inappropriately be offered treatment after an optimistic assessment. The particular inaccuracy in junior doctors compared with their senior colleagues also highlights the need for training. The development of a tool to assist in both training and clinical practice has the potential to improve doctors' decision-making and patient care.
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In the first paper in this section, authors from the Mayo Clinic describe their experience and 15-year outcomes in the controversial subject of radical prostatectomy in patients with clinical T3 prostate cancer. The findings were interesting in many respects, but the authors concluded that radical prostatectomy as part of multimodal treatment for patients with clinical T3 disease offers cancer control and good survival rates. There follows a series of papers on both prostate cancer and bladder cancer, but the final paper in this section from the UK attempts to define the accuracy of urologists and oncologists in assessing patient life-expectancy. Using various methods they found that, rather disappointingly, doctors were poor at predicting 10-year survival, leading to the possible outcome that some patients may be denied treatment after a pessimistic assessment of life-expectancy. ⋯ Significantly many patients with cT3 prostate cancer are overstaged (pT2) in the PSA era. RP as part of a multimodal treatment strategy for patients with cT3 disease offers cancer control and survival rates approaching those achieved for cT2 disease. Pathological grade, ploidy and margin status are all significant predictors of outcome after RP. Complications and incontinence rates in patients with cT3 disease mirror those after RP for cT2 disease.