BOSTON — Results from a study asking physicians if they recommend prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for routine cancer screening to family and friends, and whether they get tested themselves, will add perspective to the debate at the upcoming American Urological Association (AUA) 2017 Annual Meeting.
A study of men younger than 60 years with low-risk prostate cancer will evaluate active surveillance. There are limited data on this management strategy in younger men, so this study promises to add information for clinicians and patients.
On the firing line during debate-style sessions will be focal therapy for prostate cancer, radical surgery to remove or repair surgical mesh, and the treatment of stones (active extraction vs dusting).
One of the most highly anticipated sessions, which is back by popular demand, will be Crossfire: Controversies in Urology, said AUA President Richard Babayan, MD, who is chief of urology at the Boston Medical Center.
More action, less talk. That's the prescription for this year's meeting, added AUA Secretary Manoj Monga, MD, from the Cleveland Clinic. "We're trying to make things more interactive, less sit-and-listen-to-a-lecture," he told Medscape Medical News.
Here Comes the Judge
Court Is in Session, a moot court back for a second year, is one of two sessions that will focus on patient safety. Topics related to the legal implications of real-life urology issues will be "tried" before the court, including colostomy after robotic prostatectomy, myocardial infarction in a patient on androgen-replacement therapy, and sepsis after a minimally invasive percutaneous nephrolithotomy.
"We have attorneys from the Boston area coming to help us prepare discussions in a mock-trial format," Dr Monga reported.
The other patient-safety session will offer practical suggestions and solutions from the surgeon's perspective on how to cope with urgent perioperative situations that can crop up during robotic hemorrhage control, pelvic organ prolapse repair, and robotic prostatectomy.
"We've put together videos of things that are perhaps not going as well as you'd like in the operating room," Dr Monga explained. They will address "how to anticipate them, how to prevent them, and how to manage them when they occur."
The tumor board, which will draw on the expertise of radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, and urologists from Boston's renowned teaching hospitals, is new this year. Members of the board will review actual cases and provide a multidisciplinary perspective on the best way to manage prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and other urologic malignancies.
Urology Journals
The table will be turned, in a new session this year, when editors of major urology journals — the Journal of Urology, European Urology, BJU International, and Urology (the gold journal) — will make their best pitches for why an article or paper they published in 2016 is important or had a major impact on the profession.
"Those four editors will come to the meeting, they'll each pick an article, they'll present why they think it's important, and the other three will editors will say why they would never publish it in their journals," Dr Monga quipped.
Attendees who love baseball can take in a game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston's beloved Red Sox at Fenway Park, the shrine called a "lyric little bandbox of a ballpark" by the late Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Updike. The AUA block of tickets is sold out, but individual seats might still be available.
A special treat is in store for lovers of music and the cinema. An Evening With the Music of John Williams will feature scores by the legendary composer, performed by the Lexington Symphony and the New World Chorale, under the baton of Jonathan McPhee, and will benefit the Urology Care Foundation.
Dr Babayan reports an investment interest in Applied Medical. Dr Monga has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Follow Medscape Urology on Twitter @MedscapeUrology and Neil Osterweil @NeilOsterweil
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Cite this: Prostate Cancer Screening Among Hot Topics at AUA 2017 - Medscape - May 05, 2017.
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