Primary hyperoxalurias are a devastating family of diseases leading to multisystem oxalate deposition, nephrolithiasis, nephrocalcinosis and end-stage renal disease. Traditional treatment paradigms are limited to conservative management, dialysis and combined transplantation of the kidney and liver, of which the liver is the primary source of oxalate production. However...
Rare tumours such as penile carcinoma have been largely neglected by the urology scientific community in favour of more common — and, therefore, more easily fundable — diseases. Nevertheless, penile cancer represents a rising burden for health-care systems around the world, because a lack of widespread expertise, ineffective centralization of care and absence of research funds...
Sarcomatoid dedifferentiation is an uncommon feature that can occur in most histological subtypes of renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) and carries a decidedly poor prognosis. Historically, conventional treatments for sarcomatoid RCCs (sRCCs) have shown little efficacy, and median survival is commonly 6–13 months. Despite being first described in 1968, the mechanisms driving...
Numerous metagenome-wide association studies (MWAS) for urolithiasis have been published, leading to the discovery of potential interactions between the microbiome and urolithiasis. However, questions remain about the reproducibility, applicability and physiological relevance of these data owing to discrepancies in experimental technique and a lack of standardization in the field...
Urinary incontinence is a common and predictable consequence among men with localized prostate cancer who have undergone radical prostatectomy. Despite advances in the surgical technique, urinary continence recovery time remains variable. A range of surgical and patient-related risk factors contributing to urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy have been described...
The most common and lethal bacterial pathogens have co-evolved with the host. Pathogens are the aggressors, and the host immune system is responsible for the defence. However, immune responses can also become destructive, and excessive innate immune activation is a major cause of infection-associated morbidity, exemplified by symptomatic urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are...
Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is the most widely used vaccine worldwide and has been used to prevent tuberculosis for a century. BCG also stimulates an anti-tumour immune response, which urologists have harnessed for the treatment of non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. A growing body of evidence indicates that BCG offers protection against various non-mycobacterial and viral...
Palliative care — specialized healthcare focused on improving quality of life for patients with serious illnesses — can help urologists to care for patients with unmet symptom, coping and communication needs. Society guidelines from the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommend incorporating palliative care into standard...
External beam radiotherapy is an effective curative treatment option for localized prostate cancer, the most common cancer in men worldwide. However, conventionally fractionated courses of curative external beam radiotherapy are usually 8–9 weeks long, resulting in a substantial burden to patients and the health-care system. This problem is exacerbated in low-income and middle...
Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous cancer with widely varying levels of morbidity and mortality. Approaches to prostate cancer screening, diagnosis, surveillance, treatment and management differ around the world. To identify the highest priority research needs across the prostate cancer biomedical research domain, Movember conducted a landscape analysis with the aim of maximizing...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social changes that were required to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) have resulted in lockdowns across many countries and led to substantial numbers of people being quarantined. For single people, their opportunities to meet a partner were completely lost. For couples who lived apart, this...