Journal Reviews
Outcomes of sarcomatoid differentiation in urothelial carcinoma
Sarcomatoid differentiation is a rare variant of urothelial carcinoma (UC) seen in 0.6% of cases. Its response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has not been well reported. The authors have done a retrospective analysis of patients undergoing cystectomy between 1995 and...
Intravesical cytosine arabinoside + Mitomycin C for bladder cancer – is it beneficial?
Mitomycin C (MMC) is often used as an intravesical therapy for low / intermediate risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. This randomised controlled trial (RCT) was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of MMC + cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C). Ara-C was...
BCG after TURBT – does timing matter?
Intravesical bacille Calmette–Guerin (BCG) therapy continues to be widely used for patients with intermediate / high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). In this article, the researchers identified the lack of sufficient evidence with regards to timing of BCG after transurethral...
Non-urothelial tumours of bladder – impact on oncological outcomes
Non-urothelial bladder tumours are not very common and they are generally considered to be high risk tumours when compared to standard urothelial tumours. In this study the researchers analysed the oncological outcomes of patients with such histology in comparison to...
Repeat transurethral resection in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer
The authors felt this is a big problem because there is no standardised practice on re-resection following initial transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT). Getting detrusor muscle in the first specimen is thought to be important. However muscle is not...
Bladder debris on ultrasound as a predictor for positive urine culture
One of the common ultrasound findings in children who undergo renal tract evaluation is ‘debris in the bladder’. The aetiology of bladder debris is varied and the likelihood that urinary debris represents positive urine culture is debatable. The authors of...
Bladder cancer outcomes in patients with spina bifida
These authors carried out a systematic review using PubMed and a number of terms to pick up studies with an underlying diagnosis of myelomeningocele and bladder cancer, with exclusions of cord injury, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, or prior ureterosigmoidostomy. Their aim was...
Performance of non-invasive tests in diagnosing BOO in men with LUTS
A large proportion of urology involves the treatment of bladder outflow obstruction (BOO) in men. Yet BOO in men is very difficult to accurately quantify with the only regular non-invasive test being uroflowmetry. Pressure flow urodynamics may be considered the...
How effective are intravesical therapies for bladder pain syndrome?
The objective of this study was to review the clinical efficacy of currently available products for the intravesical treatment of bladder pain syndrome (BPS) / interstitial cystitis (IC) and to assess their pharmaco-economic impact. Nineteen articles were reviewed, including five...
Do complementary therapies work in painful bladder syndrome?
The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of complementary therapies in the treatment of bladder pain syndrome. An electronic search identified 1454 articles; however, after review by two independent reviewers, this was reduced to 11 articles...
The importance of second-look transurethral resection for superficial bladder cancer
This was a prospective study of 100 consecutive patients with a newly diagnosed superficial bladder tumour who underwent a second look transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) two to six weeks post initial resection. This essentially included pTa multiple and...
Bladder urothelial neoplasms in children
Urothelial bladder neoplasms are rare in children, occurring in 0.1-0.4% of the population before the age of 20. There are no current paediatric guidelines to their management. This study retrospectively reviews the files of patients from three tertiary centres between...
