This Month in Clinical Urology

In the October 1999 issue of The Journal of Urology, several studies were summarized. Seigne et al. demonstrated the feasibility of creating cytokine-secreting tumor cell vaccines from human renal tumors, with 8 out of 12 tumors providing enough cells for multiple vaccines. Dechet et al. found that intraoperative frozen needle biopsy had an accuracy of 76-80% for diagnosing malignant solid renal masses in a study of 106 cases, but this was not sufficient for benign lesion diagnosis or surgical decision-making. Overstreet et al. reported that finasteride, used for male pattern hair loss, did not affect sperm parameters in a study of 181 men. Perrotti et al. used magnetic resonance imaging to predict prostate cancer likelihood, finding cancer in 21% of 33 patients with previous negative biopsies. Seltzer et al. compared imaging techniques for detecting prostate cancer relapse, with positron emission tomography and CT showing 50% positivity in patients with PSA levels over 4 ng/ml. Southwick et al. found percent free PSA to be a strong predictor of prostate cancer in a multicenter study. Borboroglu et al. reported low complication rates in 520 patients after transurethral prostatectomy. Best et al. successfully treated renal abscesses in 5 diabetic patients with antibiotics. Jacobsen et al. observed that treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia was common among elderly men in a cohort of 2,115. Taneja et al. concluded that site-specific labeling of sextant prostate biopsy cores in 243 cases did not aid in surgical decisions regarding neurovascular bundle preservation.