The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is unlike anything seen before by modern science-based medicine. Health systems across the world are struggling to manage it. Added to this struggle are the effects of social confinement and isolation. This brings into question whether the latest guidelines are relevant in this crisis. We aim to support urologists in this difficult situation by providing tools that can facilitate decision making, and to minimise the impact and risks for both patients and health professionals delivering urological care, whenever possible. We hope that the revised recommendations will assist urologist surgeons across the globe to guide the management of urological conditions during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
A single instillation of chemotherapy immediately after resection reduces the risk of recurrence in non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer; however, it should not be given to patients at high risk of recurrence due to its lack of efficacy in this subgroup.
66Evidence acquisition: A systematic literature search was undertaken incorporating Medline, 67 Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Studies were critically appraised for risk of bias (QUIPS).
68For prognosis, the primary outcome was progression to muscle-invasive or metastatic 69 disease. Secondary outcomes were disease recurrence, overall and cancer-specific survival.
70For reproducibility, the primary outcome was inter-observer variability between 71 pathologists. Secondary outcome was intra-observer variability (repeatability) by the same 72 pathologist. Progression rates in G1 patients were similar to those in low grade patients; progression 77 rates in G3 patients were higher than in high grade patients. Survival data was limited.
Objectives
To determine if a re-TUR in the presence or absence of muscle at the first TUR in T1-high grade (HG)/G3 bladder cancer patients makes a difference in recurrence, progression, cancer specific (CSS) and overall survival (OS).
Methods
In a large retrospective multi-centre cohort of 2451 T1-HG/G3 patients initially treated with BCG, 935 (38%) had a re-TUR. According to the presence or absence of muscle in the specimen of the primary TUR, patients were divided in 4 groups: group 1 (no muscle, no re-TUR), group 2 (no muscle, re-TUR), group 3 (muscle, no re-TUR) and group 4 (muscle, re-TUR). Clinical outcomes were compared across the 4 groups.
Results
Re-TUR had a positive impact on recurrence, progression, CSS and OS only if muscle was not present in the primary specimen. Adjusting for the most important prognostic factors, re-TUR in the absence of muscle had a borderline significant effect on time to recurrence (HR = 0.67, p = 0.08), progression (HR = 0.46, p = 0.06), CSS (HR = 0.31; p = 0.07) and OS (HR = 0.48, p = 0.05). Re-TUR in the presence of muscle in the primary specimen did not improve the outcome for any of the endpoints.
Conclusions
Our retrospective analysis suggests that re-TUR may not be necessary in T1-HG/G3 patients if muscle is present in the specimen of the primary TUR.
PurposeWe conducted an open-label, single-arm Phase I/II clinical trial in metastatic CRPC (mCRPC) patients eligible for docetaxel combined with treatment with autologous mature dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with killed LNCaP prostate cancer cells (DCVAC/PCa). The primary and secondary endpoints were safety and immune responses, respectively. Overall survival (OS), followed as a part of the safety evaluation, was compared to the predicted OS according to the Halabi and MSKCC nomograms.Experimental designTwenty-five patients with progressive mCRPC were enrolled. Treatment comprised of initial 7 days administration of metronomic cyclophosphamide 50 mg p.o. DCVAC/PCa treatment consisted of a median twelve doses of 1 × 107 dendritic cells per dose injected s.c. (Aldara creme was applied at the site of injection) during a one-year period. The initial 2 doses of DCVAC/PCa were administered at a 2-week interval, followed by the administration of docetaxel (75 mg/m2) and prednisone (5 mg twice daily) given every 3 weeks until toxicity or intolerance was observed. The DCVAC/PCa was then injected every 6 weeks up to the maximum number of doses manufactured from one leukapheresis.ResultsNo serious DCVAC/PCa-related adverse events have been reported. The median OS was 19 months, whereas the predicted median OS was 11.8 months with the Halabi nomogram and 13 months with the MSKCC nomogram. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that patients had a lower risk of death compared with both MSKCC (Hazard Ratio 0.26, 95% CI: 0.13–0.51) and Halabi (Hazard Ratio 0.33, 95% CI: 0.17–0.63) predictions. We observed a significant decrease in Tregs in the peripheral blood. The long-term administration of DCVAC/PCa led to the induction and maintenance of PSA specific T cells. We did not identify any immunological parameter that significantly correlated with better OS.ConclusionsIn patients with mCRPC, the combined chemoimmunotherapy with DCVAC/PCa and docetaxel was safe and resulted in longer than expected survival. Concomitant chemotherapy did not preclude the induction of specific anti-tumor cytotoxic T cells.
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