BJU International is available online

July 2008

Watchful Waiting and Active Surveillance: The Current Position
This review examines watchful waiting, which is also sometimes termed ‘deferred treatment’ or ‘symptom guided treatment’, an active decision not to treat the patient, who instead is followed closely, and if and when the tumour progresses clinically with or without symptoms, treatment is started.

Predicting Survival After Radical Cystectomy for Bladder Cancer
This review highlights important risk factors and available prognostic models for predicting outcomes after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.

Management of Renal Cancer in the Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Era: A View from 3 Years On
This review looks at four new drugs that have received recent regulatory approval: sorafenib, sunitinib, temsirolimus and bevacizumab.

Chronic Pain After Vasectomy: A Diagnostic and Treatment Dilemma
This review examines postvasectomy pain syndrome which is disappointingly common and difficult to treat. Long-term pain requiring some kind of intervention or surgical therapy occurs in up to one in 1000 vasectomized men.

June 2008

Sunitinib Therapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma
This review examines the use of sunitinib as a first-line, second-line, an adjuvant or even neoadjuvant therapy

Metastatic Non-Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Current Therapeutic Options
This is a review of all available data from subgroup analyses of the global sorafenib and sunitinib expanded access programmes, current phase- III trials, and smaller multi- and single-centre studies focusing on the activity of targeted agents in these specific and rare renal cell carcinoma subtypes.

Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery: Initial Urological Experience and Comparison with Natural-Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery
This review examines the feasibility of single-incision laparoscopic surgery using varied instrumentation and technology, with several groups having reported the safe and successful completion in both a porcine model and in human patients.

Management of Advanced Prostate Cancer: Can We Improve on Androgen Deprivation Therapy?
This review highlights the need to develop newer agents that can achieve rapid, profound and sustained testosterone suppression, equivalent to that with orchidectomy, in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

May 2008

Establishing the Role of Cytokine Therapy in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
This review explores the role of cytokine therapy in advanced renal cell carcinoma and investigates whether some patient populations might respond better than others.

‘Cutting for the Stone’: The Ancient Art of Lithotomy
This review explores the history of lithotomy - a fascinating story of how early surgeons forced by the culture and customs of the time dealt with common but devastating bladder stones.

Targeting the Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor-Κ B (RANK) Ligand in Prostate Cancer Bone Metastases
This review examines emerging data indicating that bone marrow-derived RANKL might also constitute a chemoattractant factor for RANK-expressing tumour cells that is likely to contribute to the pathogenesis of bone metastases, including those arising from prostate cancer.

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound in Prostate Cancer; A Systematic Literature Review of the French Association of Urology
This review discusses the efficacy and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) in patients with prostate cancer, to define the best indications for HIFU in daily clinical practice as primary therapy.

April 2008

Systemic Therapy for Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma
Metastatic UC remains a challenging disease and continued clinical research efforts as well as studies to evaluate drug-resistance are warranted.

Non-Surgical Management of Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney
Objective: To better define the outcome and association of multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) with hypertension, vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR), infection and cancer, as there is no consensus on the management of patients born with MCDK.

Novel Agents for Muscle-Invasive and Advanced Urothelial Cancer
A multidisciplinary approach and collaboration among laboratory scientists, oncologists, urologists and radiation oncologists is necessary to make therapeutic advances. Recent and ongoing trials of novel chemotherapeutic and biologic agents are reviewed.

How Quality Influences the Clinical Outcome of External Beam Radiotherapy for Localized Prostate Cancer
This overview describes what the urologist should expect from radiation oncologists to obtain the optimum results for the patients.

March 2008

Treating Asymptomatic Patients with Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer: Hormonal Manipulations for the Urologist
The reviewers attempt to provide the practicing clinician with therapeutic manoeuvres (hormonal manipulations) and an understanding of the different methods that can be used to treat the asymptomatic patient with HRPC and with an increasing PSA level.

New Blood-Based Biomarkers for the Diagnosis, Staging and Prognosis of Prostate Cancer
The future of cancer prognosis might rely on small panels of markers that can accurately predict cancer presence, stage and metastasis, and serve as prognosticators, targets, and/or surrogate endpoints of disease progression and response to therapy.

Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy Made Easier: a Practical Guide, Tips and Tricks
In this review, the technique of PCNL used in a high-volume endourology centre, where the urologist is involved in all aspects of the procedure is described.

A Dual Physiological Character for Sexual Function: The Role of Serotonergic Receptors
In this review, it is assumed that 5HT modulates sexual reflexes, establishing a functional connection between the involved somatic and autonomic structures.

February 2008

Paraneoplastic Cushing’s Syndrome in Prostate Cancer: A Difficult Management Problem
In this review, it is suggested that bilateral adrenalectomy at an early stage should be considered, possibly as a preliminary to anticancer treatments.

Sacral Neuromodulation for Treating the Symptoms of Overactive Bladder Syndrome and Non-Obstructive Urinary Retention: More Than 10 Years of Clinical Experience
SNM has emerged as a valuable minimally invasive treatment option for patients with lower urinary tract dysfunctions such as OAB and nonobstructive UR in whom conservative treatments have failed.

Pathological Variants of Invasive Bladder Cancer According to Their Suggested Clinical Significance
In this review, the most common pathological variants of urothelial carcinoma are summarized, with an emphasis on clinical implications.

Secondary Hormonal Therapy for Prostate Cancer: What Lies on the Horizon?
In this review, novel secondary hormonal agents that are under development, which work by either inhibiting androgen synthesis or directly targeting the androgen receptor are discussed.

January 2008

The Discovery of Prostate-Specific Antigen
In this review, the early research in this field to describe the chronology of the discovery of PSA is documented

Adjuvant Treatment in the Management of Testis-Confined Germ Cell Tumours After Orchidectomy
In this review, the advantages and disadvantages of the different strategies for treating seminomas and nonseminomas, and their associated prognostic factors are discussed , and then future developments are considered.