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Objective: To retrospectively validate the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) guidelines/recommendations concerning endocrine evaluation in a cohort of white European men presenting for couple's infertility.Design: Retrospective study.Setting: Academic reproductive medicine outpatient clinic.Patient(s): Cohort of 1,056 consecutive infertile men (noninterracial infertile couples).Intervention(s): Testicular volume was assessed with a Prader orchidometer. Serum hormones were measured (8-10 a.m.) in all cases. Hypogonadism was defined as total T < 3 ng/mL, according to the Endocrine Society definition. Semen analysis values were assessed based on the 2010 World Health Organisation reference criteria.Main Outcome Measure(s): ASRM indications for endocrine assessment in infertile men (sperm concentration <10 million/mL, impaired sexual function, and other clinical findings suggesting a specific endocrinopathy) were used to predict hypogonadism in our cohort. Moreover, a clinically user-friendly three-item nomogram was developed to predict hypogonadism and was compared to the ASRM guidelines assessment.Result(s): Biochemical hypogonadism was diagnosed in 156 (14.8%) men. Overall, 669 (63.4%) patients would have necessitated total T assessment according to the ASRM criteria; of these, only 119 (17.8%) were actually hypogonadal according to the Endocrine Society classification criteria. Conversely, 37 (23.7%) out of 156 patients with biochemical hypogonadism would have been overlooked. The overall predictive accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the ASRM guidelines was 58%, 76%, and 39%, respectively. Our nomogram was not reliable enough to predict hypogonadism, despite demonstrating a significantly higher predictive accuracy (68%) than the ASRM guidelines.Conclusion(s): The current findings show that the ASRM guidelines/recommendations for male infertility workup may not be suitable for application in white European infertile men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To determine the performance accuracy of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) after primary tumor treatment for both bladder cancer (BC) and upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC). To compare the accuracy of FDG PET/CT with that of contrast-enhanced-ceCT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)., Methods: Data of patients with recurrent urothelial carcinomas (UC) after primary treatment were collected in a retrospective, international multicenter study. Inclusion criteria were (1) patients with a known history of UC in the BC and/or in the UTUC; (2) PET/CT images after curative intent treatment of the primary tumor; (3) conventional imaging modalities (abdominal ceCT or MRI, or total body ceCT, and chest X-ray: called C.I.) performed no more than 3 months from PET/CT; (4) available standard of reference (e.g., histological data or follow-up imaging modalities) for the validation of PET/CT findings. Exclusion criteria were other abdominal tumors, chemotherapy administration prior to and/or concomitant to imaging, and non-urothelial histologic variants. Sensitivities, specificities, positive, and negative predictive values were evaluated for all patients and separately for bladder and UTUC., Results: Overall, 287 patients were enrolled. Two-hundred thirteen patients underwent cystectomy (74.2%), 35 nephroureterectomy (12.2%), 31 both cystectomy + nephroureterectomy (10.8%), 5 both cystectomy + conservative treatment for UTUC (1.4%), and 3 (1%) other types of nephron-sparing treatments for UTUC. Neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatments were performed in 36 (12.5%) and 111 (38.7%) patients, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity (95% confidence intervals) of PET/CT for the detection of recurrent UC were 94% (91% to 96%) and 79% (68% to 88%), respectively. However, sensitivity was higher for BC than UTUC (95% vs. 85%) while specificity was lower in BC (78% vs. 85% for BC and UTUC, respectively). PET/CT and C.I. findings were available in 198 patients. The results were positively concordant in 137 patients, negatively concordant in 23 patients, and discordant in 38 patients (20 negative at C.I. vs. positive at PET/CT and 18 positives at ceCT/MRI vs. negative at PET/CT) (K Cohen = 0.426; p < 0.001). Sensitivities, specificities, and accuracies (95% confidence intervals) of PET/CT vs. C.I. for the detection of recurrent BC and UTUC were 94% (90% to 97%) vs. 86% (81% to 92%), 79% (67% to 92%) vs. 59% (44% to 74%), and 91% (87% to 95%) vs. 81% (75% to 86%), respectively., Conclusions: FDG PET/CT has a high diagnostic accuracy for the identification of recurrent UC, particularly in patients with BC. Moreover, its accuracy outperforms C.I. for both BC and UTUC.

Introduction: To develop and externally validate a novel nomogram aimed at predicting cancer-specific mortality (CSM) after biochemical recurrence (BCR) among prostate cancer (PCa) patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) with or without adjuvant external beam radiotherapy (aRT) and/or hormonal therapy (aHT)., Materials & Methods: The development cohort included 689 consecutive PCa patients treated with RP between 1987 and 2011 with subsequent BCR, defined as two subsequent prostate-specific antigen values >0.2 ng/ml. Multivariable competing-risks regression analyses tested the predictors of CSM after BCR for the purpose of 5-year CSM nomogram development. Validation (2000 bootstrap resamples) was internally tested. External validation was performed into a population of 6734 PCa patients with BCR after treatment with RP at the Mayo Clinic from 1987 to 2011. The predictive accuracy (PA) was quantified using the receiver operating characteristic-derived area under the curve and the calibration plot method., Results: The 5-year CSM-free survival rate was 83.6% (confidence interval [CI]: 79.6-87.2). In multivariable analyses, pathologic stage T3b or more (hazard ratio [HR]: 7.42; p = 0.008), pathologic Gleason score 8-10 (HR: 2.19; p = 0.003), lymph node invasion (HR: 3.57; p = 0.001), time to BCR (HR: 0.99; p = 0.03) and age at BCR (HR: 1.04; p = 0.04), were each significantly associated with the risk of CSM after BCR. The bootstrap-corrected PA was 87.4% (bootstrap 95% CI: 82.0-91.7%). External validation of our nomogram showed a good PA at 83.2%., Conclusions: We developed and externally validated the first nomogram predicting 5-year CSM applicable to contemporary patients with BCR after RP with or without adjuvant treatment., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: When treating bladder cancer patients, the most significant problems usually concern cases with high-grade non-muscle-invasive carcinoma, and a better understanding of which patients would benefit from early radical cystectomy is urgently needed. The uropathology community is seeking more user-friendly approaches to distinguishing between T1 cancers exhibiting different types of clinical behavior., Methods: After a retrospective review, we selected a group of 314 patients who underwent transurethral resection of the bladder (TURB) and were diagnosed with high-grade urothelial carcinoma staged as T1. Three different substaging systems were applied: one was the anatomy-based T1 a/b; and two involved micrometric thresholds of either 0.5 mm of invasion (as proposed by van Rhijn et al.), or 1 mm of invasion (as proposed in the present study). Early reTUR (repeated transurethral resection) was performed in 250 patients, and the same substaging approaches were applied to cases of T1., Results: It proved feasible to apply the 1 mm substaging system in 100 % of cases, the van Rhijn system in 100 %, and the anatomy-based method (T1 a/b) in 72.3 % of cases. At a mean follow-up of 46 months, the recurrence-free survival rate was significantly better (p < 0.001) in the group that underwent reTUR, while none of the three substaging systems reliably predicted recurrences. The 1 mm did seem promising, however, as a threshold for predicting progression, reaching statistical significance in the Kaplan Meier estimates (p < 0.04)., Conclusion: Our study shows that micrometric substaging is feasible in this setting and should be extended to include any early reTUR to complete the substaging done after the first TURB. It can also provide helpful prognostic information.

Background: The role of extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) in treating prostate cancer (PCa) patients with lymph node invasion (LNI) remains controversial., Objective: The relationship between the number of removed lymph nodes (RLNs) and cancer-specific mortality (CSM) was tested in patients with LNI., Design, Setting, and Participants: We examined data of 315 pN1 PCa patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) and anatomically ePLND between 2000 and 2012 at one tertiary care centre. All patients received adjuvant hormonal therapy with or without adjuvant radiotherapy (aRT)., Outcome Measurements and Statistical Analysis: Univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses tested the relationship between RLN number and CSM rate, after adjusting to all available covariates. Survival estimates were based on the multivariable model; patients were stratified according to RLN number using points of maximum separation., Results and Limitations: The average number of RLNs was 20.8 (median: 19; interquartile range: 14-25). Mean and median follow-up were 63.1 and 54 mo, respectively. At 10-yr, the CSM-free survival rate was 74.7%, 85.9%, 92.4%, 96.0%, and 97.9% for patients with 8, 17, 26, 36, and 45 RLNs, respectively. By multivariable analyses, the number of RLNs independently predicted lower CSM rate (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.93; p=0.02). Other predictors of CSM were Gleason score 8-10 (HR: 3.3), number of positive nodes (HR: 1.2), and aRT treatment (HR: 0.26; all p ≤ 0.006). The study is limited by its retrospective nature., Conclusions: In PCa patients with LNI, the removal of a higher number of LNs during RP was associated with improvement in cancer-specific survival rate. This implies that ePLND should be considered in all patients with a significant preoperative risk of harbouring LNI., Patient Summary: We found that removing more lymph nodes during prostate cancer surgery can significantly improve cancer-specific survival in patients with lymph node invasion., (Copyright © 2014 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Radical cystectomy completed with an extended pelvic lymph node dissection represents the most adequate curative treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer. After surgery, the tumor should be considered as completely removed only if the pathologist finds negative surgical margins. However, although the presence of positive surgical margins (PSM) intuitively appears as a factor conditioning a poor prognosis, the studies published at data could not definitively confirm this relationship. This fact may be mainly attributed to the lack of statistical independence between the presence of PSM and other pathologic factors such as tumor stage and lymph node status, that are themselves well known predictors of poor prognosis.The incidence of PSM has been estimated to be 3-9%. Although the persistence of tumor at both urethral and ureteral margins has been correlated with an increased risk of local recurrence, only perivesical soft tissue PSM have been associated with a significantly reduced risk of cancer-specific survival.Female gender, locally advanced cancer, presence of vascular invasion and rare/mixed histology have been recognized as consistent risk factors for soft tissue PSM. Although, to date, the predictive role of both number and location of PSM remains totally to be investigated, there is general agreement that patients found with soft tissue PSM at the time of radical cystectomy should be proposed for adjuvant strategies, including radiation and chemotherapy. In this direction, many recent studies suggest to include the status of surgical margins in the pathologic report of any radical cystectomy.