We reviewed 261 patients who underwent a radical operation at a single institution as definitive treatment of invasive bladder cancer to evaluate the survival and accuracy of the tumor, nodes and metastasis system in characterizing the prognosis. Between January 1979 and June 1987 the 261 evaluable patients underwent 1-stage radical cystectomy with pelvic node dissection and urinary diversion. No chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy was given before or after the operation. The postoperative mortality rate was 1.8%. The over-all staging error between clinical and pathological stages was as high as 44%. The over-all actuarial 5-year survival rate was 54.5%. The 5-year survival rates were 75% for stage pT1, 63% for stage pT2, 31% for stage pT3 and 21% for stage pT4 disease. A significant difference in the survival (p less than 0.002) was observed in stage pT3 by dividing tumors confined within the bladder wall (pT3a, 50%) from those extending throughout the bladder wall (pT3b, 15%). A careful evaluation of transitional cell involvement of the prostate in stage pT4a cancer led to the identification of 2 different patterns: 1) contiguous when a bladder tumor extended directly into the prostate through the bladder wall and 2) noncontiguous when a bladder tumor and a transitional cell carcinoma of the prostate were found simultaneously. These patterns had completely different (p less than 0.05) survival rates (6 versus 37%). The patients with high grade tumors had a worse prognosis in comparison with those with grades 1 and 2 tumors (41 versus 56%, p less than 0.005). The over-all 5-year survival of patients with positive nodes was 4% in comparison with 60% of those without nodal involvement (p less than 0.001). Despite current optimal surgical treatment, nearly 50% of all patients with invasive bladder cancer continue to die. The need for a modification of the current tumor, nodes and metastasis tumor classification to provide the clinician a more reliable staging system for planning treatment modalities is indeed mandatory.

The clinical stage of groin lymph nodes and pathological findings of penectomy specimens allowed us to generate a nomogram to predict the probability of metastatic lymph node involvement in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the penis. The statistical model showed an excellent ability to identify the patients with lymph node metastases and good calibration.

In this article we propose 2 models to predict the 5-year cancer specific survival probabilities of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the penis. Both models showed good discriminating power and calibration in predicting patient 5-year cancer specific survival. These nomograms could improve the quality of prognostic data provided to patients and support physicians in planning treatment.

Objective Rheumatology is among the least compensated specialties in medicine today. This is a significant problem for clinical rheumatologists in academic medicine who are often expected to earn their salaries through clinical practice alone. Additionally, academic rheumatologists usually cannot generate revenue through office laboratory monitoring, radiographs, or bone densitometry to supplement their income (i.e., downstream income). The purpose of our study was to examine revenue generated from downstream income to a university by a clinical‐academic rheumatologist. Methods Consecutive outpatients (n = 127) seen predominately by one academic rheumatologist over one month of clinic were followed for 18 months. The total physician compensation for patient visits was calculated and compared with the revenue generated from laboratory tests, radiologic studies, consultations, and specific rheumatologic treatments and procedures performed or ordered. Medicare reimbursement rates for 2003 were used as compensation standards for all charges. Results Physician office visit billing generated $36,297 from 730 office visits. The total amount of downstream income from these office visits was $363,813 ($47,386 from laboratory tests, $35,582 from radiologic studies, $8,159 from rheumatologic procedures, $261,584 from rheumatologic infusions, and $11,101 from initial consultations). Therefore, $10.02 of downstream revenue was generated for every $1.00 of office visit compensation applied to the academic rheumatologist's salary. Conclusion Although academic rheumatologists struggle to bill their salaries through seeing more patients, they are clearly a bargain for a university hospital because they generate >$10.00 for every $1.00 they receive for an office visit.

BACKGROUNDThe current study validated the 2002 edition of the TNM staging system in a multicenter, multinational European series of localized renal cell carcinoma (RCC).METHODSThe authors analyzed the clinical data of 2217 patients who had undergone radical or partial nephrectomy for localized RCC in 7 urologic centers.RESULTSIn the current study, 1065 patients (48%) were classified as having pT1a disease, 771 (34.8%) were classified as having pT1b disease, and 381 (17.2%) were classified as having pT2 disease. Tumor histotype was conventional RCC in 1886 patients (85%), papillary in 182 (8.2%) patients, chromophobe in 64 (2.9%) patients, and unclassified in 85 (3.8%) patients. The mean follow‐up time was 65.36 ± 52.09 months. The 5 and 10‐year disease‐specific survival probabilities were 95.3% and 91.4% in patients with pT1a disease, 91.4% and 83.4% in patients with pT1b disease, and 81.6% and 75.2% in patients with pT2 disease (log‐rank test P value = 0.0000). The disease‐specific survival rates of patients with pT1a RCC were significantly higher than those recorded in patients with pT1b and pT2 RCC. Similarly, the disease‐specific survival probabilities of patients with pT1b RCCwere significantly better than those of patients with pT2 RCC. Analyzing the seven series individually, the 2002 TNM staging system provided appropriate stratification for only one series. The 2002 TNM staging system allowed significant stratification of the cancer‐related outcomes in the subgroup of patients with conventional RCC but not in those with papillary carcinomas.CONCLUSIONSThe application of the 2002 TNM staging system in the current multicenter series enabled the authors to demonstrate optimal stratification of patients with localized RCC. Stratifying by tumor histotype, the data coming from the whole group analysis were reconfirmed for clear cell RCC only. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.