The MDRD equation systematically underestimates GFR in healthy persons. A new equation developed with patients who have chronic kidney disease and healthy persons may be a step toward accurately estimating GFR when the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease is unknown.

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. OBJECTIVE To report a long‐term experience with extirpative surgery in patients presenting with locally advanced (cT3) prostate cancer, as the best management of such patients remains a problem. PATIENTS AND METHODS In a single‐institution retrospective study identifying 5652 men who had radical prostatectomy (RP) for histologically confirmed prostate cancer since the advent of prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) testing (1987–97), 15% (842) had RP for cT3 disease. The median follow‐up of these men was 10.3 years. Cancer‐specific, overall and disease‐free survival was plotted and compared with those of patients having RP for cT2 disease during the same period. Perioperative morbidity, continence and erectile function rates were examined, with a multivariate analysis for risk factors of disease recurrence. RESULTS Freedom from local or systemic disease at 5, 10, and 15 years after RP for cT3 disease was 85%, 73% and 67%; the respective cancer‐specific survival rates were 95%, 90% and 79%. Significantly many men who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy (27%) were clinically over‐staged (pT2) and most men with pT3 disease (78%) received adjuvant therapy. The mean time to adjuvant therapy after RP was not significantly different between men with cT3 and cT2 disease (4.0 and 4.3 years). Pathological grade (≥7), positive surgical margins, and nondiploid chromatin were all independently associated with a significant risk for clinical disease recurrence, while preoperative PSA level had little effect on outcome. Complications and continence rates after RP in patients with cT3 mirrored those in patients with cT2 disease. CONCLUSIONS 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.

Extended follow-up of MLP participants did not reveal a lung cancer mortality reduction for the intervention arm. Similar mortality but better survival for individuals in the intervention arm indicates that some lesions with limited clinical relevance may have been identified in the intervention arm.

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimates from serum creatinine has not been generalizable across all populations. Cystatin C has been proposed as an alternative marker for estimating GFR. The objective of this study was to compare cystatin C with serum creatinine for estimating GFR among different clinical presentations. Cystatin C and serum creatinine levels were obtained from adult patients (n=460) during an evaluation that included a GFR measurement by iothalamate clearance. Medical records were abstracted for clinical presentation (healthy, native chronic kidney disease or transplant recipient) at the time of GFR measurement. GFR was modeled using the following variables: cystatin C (or serum creatinine), age, gender and clinical presentation. The relationship between cystatin C and GFR differed across clinical presentations. At the same cystatin C level, GFR was 19% higher in transplant recipients than in patients with native kidney disease (P<0.001). The association between cystatin C and GFR was stronger among native kidney disease patients than in healthy persons (P<0.001 for statistical interaction). Thus, a cystatin C equation was derived using only patients with native kidney disease (n=204). The correlation with GFR (r(2)=0.853) was slightly higher than a serum creatinine equation using the same sample (r(2)=0.827), the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease equation (r(2)=0.825) or the Cockcroft-Gault equation (r(2)=0.796). Averaged estimates between cystatin C and serum creatinine equations further improved correlation (r(2)=0.891). Cystatin C should not be interpreted as purely a marker of GFR. Other factors, possibly inflammation or immunosuppression therapy, affect cystatin C levels. While recognizing this limitation, cystatin C may improve GFR estimates in chronic kidney disease patients.

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