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A surgical wait time of >1 month in ureteral urothelial carcinoma was found to be an independent prognostic factor of disease recurrence and cancer-specific mortality.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the advantages of robotic surgery, comparing perioperative and oncological outcomes between robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) and open radical cystectomy (ORC).Materials and MethodsBetween August 2008 and May 2014, 112 radical cystectomies (42 RARCs and 70 ORCs) were performed at a single academic institution following Institutional Review Board approval. Patient demographics, perioperative variables (e.g., complications), and oncologic outcomes including metastasis-free survival (MFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) were reported using the Kaplan-Meier analyses.ResultsThe median follow-up period was 40 months (range, 0–70 months) vs. 42 months (range, 0–74 months) in RARC and ORC, respectively. Baseline characteristics of both groups were balanced. Blood loss (median, [range]; 300 mL [125–925 mL] vs. 598 mL [150–2,000 mL], p=0.001) and perioperative transfusion rates (23.8% vs. 45.7%, p=0.020) were significantly lower in the RARC group than in the ORC group. The overall complication rates were greater in the ORC group, but this was not statistically significant (65.7% vs. 64.3%, p=0.878). However, there were significantly higher major complication rates in the ORC group (45.7% vs. 26.2%, p=0.040). No significant differences were found with regards to MFS, CSS, and OS.ConclusionsWhile histopathological findings, overall complications, and survival rates do not reveal definite differences, RARC has more advantages compared to ORC in terms of estimated blood loss, perioperative transfusion rates and fewer perioperative major complications. We propose that RARC is a safer treatment modality with equivalent oncological outcomes compared to ORC.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether a triple combination of early-differentiated cells derived from human amniotic fluid stem cells (hAFSCs) would show synergistic effects in urethral sphincter regeneration. Materials and MethodsWe early-differentiated hAFSCs into muscle, neuron and endothelial progenitor cells and then injected them into the urethral sphincter region of pudendal neurectomized ICR mice, as single-cell, double-cell or triple-cell combinations. Urodynamic studies and histological, immunohistochemical and molecular analyses were performed. ResultsUrodynamic study showed significantly improved leak point pressure in the triple-cell-combination group compared with the single-cell-or double-cell-combination groups. These functional results were confirmed by histological and immunohistochemical analyses, as evidenced by the formation of new striated muscle fibres and neuromuscular junctions at the cell injection site. Molecular analysis showed higher target marker expression in the retrieved urethral tissue of the triple-cell-combination group. The injection of early-differentiated hAFSCs suppressed in vivo host CD8 lymphocyte aggregations and did not form teratoma. The nanoparticle-labelled early-differentiated hAFSCs could be tracked in vivo with optical imaging for up to 14 days after injection. ConclusionOur novel concept of triple-combined early-differentiated cell therapy for the damaged sphincter may provide a viable option for incontinence treatment.