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Introduction Thulium Fiber Laser (TFL) is the latest laser technology, which has gained increased attention for its role in stone lithotripsy. Findings from in vitro studies have shown that it can potentially deliver reduced retropulsion and efficient stone clearance. A number of clinical studies on TFL have now been reported. Our aim was to perform an up-to-date review to scope its current status in stone lithotripsy and provide a guide for the clinical urologist METHODS: A review of world literature was performed in order to identify original articles on TFL for stone lithotripsy. Our clinical experiences of using the technology have also been shared. Results To date there have been 11 clinical studies published on TFL for stone lithotripsy. Three of these have been in the setting of mini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) and the remainder have been on ureteroscopy (URS). There has only been one randomised study on this technology, which has been for URS. For URS, range of settings has been 0.1-4J x 7-300Hz for both URS and mini PCNL. Stones ranging from 0.4-3.2cm and 1.5-3cm have been treated with URS and mini PCNL, respectively. Final stone free rate (SFR) for TFL has ranged from 66.6 -100% and 85-100% for URS and mini PCNL respectively. Average length of stay ranged from 0.5-2.4 days in URS group but no studies reported this for mini PCNL. Operative times in all the studies (both URS and mini PCNL) were less than 60 minutes. Conclusion Initial clinical studies reveal that TFL appears to be efficacious in setting of stone lithotripsy. However, further randomised trials are warranted to delineate its formal position as well as determine the optimal settings for use in clinical practice.

Objective: To investigate whether pT1 renal cell carcinoma (RCC) should be followed differently after partial (PN) or radical nephrectomy (RN) based on a retrospective analysis of a multicentre database (RECUR). Subjects: A retrospective study was conducted in 3380 patients treated for nonmetastatic RCC between January 2006 and December 2011 across 15 centres from 10 countries, as part of the RECUR database project. For patients with pT1 clear-cell RCC, patterns of recurrence were compared between RN and PN according to recurrence site. Univariate and multivariate models were used to evaluate the association between surgical approach and recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific mortality (CSM). Results: From the database 1995 patients were identified as low-risk patients (pT1, pN0, pNx), of whom 1055 (52.9%) underwent PN. On multivariate analysis, features associated with worse RFS included tumour size (hazard ratio [HR] 1.32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.39; P < 0.001), nuclear grade (HR 2.31, 95% CI 1.73–3.08; P < 0.001), tumour necrosis (HR 1.5, 95% CI 1.03–2.3; P = 0.037), vascular invasion (HR 2.4, 95% CI 1.3–4.4; P = 0.005) and positive surgical margins (HR 4.4, 95% CI 2.3–8.5; P < 0.001). Kaplan–Meier analysis of CSM revealed that the survival of patients with recurrence after PN was significantly better than those with recurrence after RN (P = 0.02). While the above-mentioned risk factors were associated with prognosis, type of surgery alone was not an independent prognostic variable for RFS nor CSM. Limitations include the retrospective nature of the study. Conclusion: Our results showed that follow-up protocols should not rely solely on stage and type of primary surgery. An optimized regimen should also include validated risk factors rather than type of surgery alone to select the best imaging method and to avoid unnecessary imaging. A follow-up of more than 3 years should be considered in patients with pT1 tumours after RN. A novel follow-up strategy is proposed. (Less)

Objective To evaluate the performance of real-time elastography (RTE) in an initial biopsy setting. Patients and Methods In the period from February 2011 to June 2012, 127 consecutive patients were included in the study. We used a Hitachi Preirus with Hi-RTE module, a prostate end-fire transrectal probe was used for RTE and for targeted biopsies, and a simultaneous biplane probe was used for the standard systematic biopsies. The peripheral zone of the prostate was divided into six regions, and each biopsy obtained was referred to a specific region. All patients were first examined with RTE and, if cancer was suspected, targeted biopsies were taken. A standard systematic 10-core biopsy was then taken in all patients. Results In all, 64 (50%) patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the initial biopsy setting. Three patients were diagnosed solely on RTE-targeted biopsies, 31 were found only in systematic biopsies, and 30 were correctly diagnosed with both methods. In the RTE-positive group there was a significantly higher frequency of positive cores, a lower prostate volume, a higher Gleason score, and a higher fraction of cancer tissue in each core. In a multiple regression model RTE was an independent marker for high-risk cancer. The sensitivity of 42% for all prostate cancers increased to 60% for high-grade prostate cancers. Similarly, the negative predictive value increased from 79% to 97%. An additional eight patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer during the study period. Conclusions A positive RTE is an independent marker for detection of high-risk prostate cancer, and a negative RTE argues against such. RTE with targeted biopsies cannot replace systematic biopsies, but provides valuable additional information about the tumours.

To determine the possibly greater occurrence of multiple malignancies in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).In the 7-year period 1987-93, all 1425 patients aged 15-70 years with registered histopathologically verified RCC in Norway were included in the study. All clinical and histopathology reports were checked manually, to verify the registered diagnosis and to ensure that no tumour was a metastasis from another. After this process, 257 patients (287 tumours other than RCC) with multiple primary malignancies were identified. The primary tumours other than RCC were classified as antecedent, synchronous and subsequent. For the subsequently occurring tumours, the expected number of different tumour types was calculated according to age group, gender and observation time.Of the 1425 patients, 228 (16%) had one, 23 (1.6%) had two, three (0.2%) had three and one (0.07%) had four other primary malignancies. In all, 100 (34.8%) of the other tumours were diagnosed as antecedent, 53 (18.7%) as synchronous and 134 (46.7%) as subsequent to the RCC. Cancer in the prostate, bladder, lung, breast, colon and rectal cancer, malignant melanomas (MM) and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) were the most common other malignancies. The observed overall number of subsequent other malignant tumours was 22% higher than the expected number. The observed number of subsequent tumours was significantly higher for bladder cancer, NHL and MM. The estimated 15-year cumulative risk for patients with RCC and no previous or synchronous other malignancy for developing a later second cancer was 26.6% in men, and 15.5% in women (statistically significant, P = 0.04). Patients with antecedent or synchronous other cancer had significantly poorer overall survival than those without.Patients with RCC seem to have a significantly higher risk of developing other subsequent primary malignancies. This should be considered during the follow-up of patients with RCC.

To evaluate the performance of real-time elastography (RTE) in an initial biopsy setting.In the period from February 2011 to June 2012, 127 consecutive patients were included in the study. We used a Hitachi Preirus with Hi-RTE module, a prostate end-fire transrectal probe was used for RTE and for targeted biopsies, and a simultaneous biplane probe was used for the standard systematic biopsies. The peripheral zone of the prostate was divided into six regions, and each biopsy obtained was referred to a specific region. All patients were first examined with RTE and, if cancer was suspected, targeted biopsies were taken. A standard systematic 10-core biopsy was then taken in all patients.In all, 64 (50%) patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the initial biopsy setting. Three patients were diagnosed solely on RTE-targeted biopsies, 31 were found only in systematic biopsies, and 30 were correctly diagnosed with both methods. In the RTE-positive group there was a significantly higher frequency of positive cores, a lower prostate volume, a higher Gleason score, and a higher fraction of cancer tissue in each core. In a multiple regression model RTE was an independent marker for high-risk cancer. The sensitivity of 42% for all prostate cancers increased to 60% for high-grade prostate cancers. Similarly, the negative predictive value increased from 79% to 97%. An additional eight patients were diagnosed with prostate cancer during the study period.A positive RTE is an independent marker for detection of high-risk prostate cancer, and a negative RTE argues against such. RTE with targeted biopsies cannot replace systematic biopsies, but provides valuable additional information about the tumours.