Tag Archive for: risk assessment

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Article of the Week: NICE Advice – Prolaris Gene Expression Assay

Every Week, the Editor-in-Chief selects an Article of the Week from the current issue of BJUI. The summary is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one.

NICE Advice – Prolaris gene expression assay for assessing long‐term risk of prostate cancer progression

BAUS 2018 Highlights Day Three

BAUS Day 3—Going home images and snippets…

On the final night of BAUS, I had the honor of giving a dinner talk to the IBUS group—International British Urology Society.  With BAUS contracting from 4 to 3 days, some of the previous joint sessions fell by the wayside, but IBUS president Subu Subramonian put together a nice evening program for the group.

The Day 3 morning session started with what is likely an original debate topic: “Consenting to Death.”  The pro/con centered around whether or not every circumcision operation should be consented for the possibility of death.  The idea was nominated by Jonathan Glass who also did a Twitter poll on the subject, which was similar to this audience poll—around 90% saying no.

The general flow of the debate was whether or not the rare incidence of a complication should be left off, so as not to alarm/concern the patient with minutia.  On the other had, severe complications and death should potentially be consented even if rare.

 

Note the risk of everyday life compared to surgery: soccer was 1: 50,000.  Mr. Glass had a nice display on how choices of driving routes to the hospital could affect the risk of dying.  Turns out the bus is safest.

At the end of the debate, the voting shifted slightly to around 30% saying they would consent for death for a circumcision.

As Mr. O’Brien asked—do you also have to show the patient some horrific picture of gangrene so they are truly informed as to the risk of serious infection?

My favorite phrase on the serious but rare event is “its low risk, but never zero…perhaps a lightning strike.” Never say “routine surgery,” as that is always what the newspaper says: “ He died after routine surgery.”  Routine sounds like zero risk.  I must say also that the risk of “bleeding, infection, cardiac event, stroke, and death” is on almost every U.S. hospital template consent.  So I think patients are used to it and will not freak out.  Also vis-a-vie the Day 2 Blog on Dr. Wachter’s talk, an unintended consequence of the EPIC EMR is that we rarely print consents for patient review—rather we shows them on a screen and they digitally sign.  But I bet they read the details less often than before.  Oddly, they are not able to view their consents with their personal accounts, yet they can read clinic notes, diagnostics, imaging, path ,etc.  Need a solution here.

Always good to have some humor in the slides.

Next, we heard a lecture from a truly unique individual. Mr. David Sellu gave us his personal account of how he was brought before a criminal court for manslaughter when a patient had a bowel perforation after a knee operation—he was in call coverage.  He served time but won his appeals to drop charges and clear his name.  I’m sure there were errors in the case, but in the U.S. this would likely have been a malpractice/civil court case and the hospital would have been co-defendant (system errors). Roger Kirby has tweeted the progress of this case for years, so it was interesting to hear from him personally.

Look at the multiple layers of jeopardy his case took him through over a 6 year period.

Here is a link to a previous blog on the case:

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/03/20/the-case-of-david-sellu-a-criminal-court-is-not-the-right-place-to-determine-blame-in-complex-clinical-cases/

The Urology Foundation sponsored a session.  They recognized a recent research scholarship awarded to Mr. David Eldred-Evans “The PROSTAGRAM trial: a prospective cross-sectional study assessing the feasibility of novel imaging techniques to screen for prostate cancer.

Roger Kirby then gave a guest lecture on his personal journal with prostate cancer as a surgeon and patient.  He highlighted his actual biopsy specimens and RP path.  He is 5 years disease free.  He also showed some great nostalgia as he was being interviewed  >20 years ago at the launch of Proscar to the market.  He had 2 interviewers trying to gang up on him on conflict of interest and trying to make the drug sound toxic.  I wonder how he would have handled those two in this era.

Some highlights of his slides on advice to surgeons.  Thanks for all you do Roger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, there was an interesting session on the Global practice of urology with emphasis on training pathways and what has changed over the decade.   Alan Partin presented his department’s approach to urology training at Johns Hopkins and the US perspective.  James N’Dow outlined how diverse urologic training and credentialing is organize across Europe.  Sanjay Kulkarni gave in Indian perspective—noteworthy that the urologist does not have such constraining credentialing pathways, and often will have private practice across multiple hospitals.  He has attended over 60 and now owns one for his urethroplasty cases.  Times are changing globally for urologic training, and Dr. Partin summed it up well by pointing out that the process of training is highly scrutinized now and seemingly higher priority than the final trained product.  Does anyone think that a urology graduate in 2018 is better trained than 1998?

Ok—time to get back to work in Houston.

John W. Davis, MD, FACS

Associate Editor, BJUI.

 

Article of the Month: Further Evidence that Bladder Cancer Patients should Stop Smoking

Every Month the Editor-in-Chief selects an Article of the Month from the current issue of BJUI. The abstract is reproduced below and you can click on the button to read the full article, which is freely available to all readers for at least 30 days from the time of this post. Smoking in a daily basis can affect your lungs, make sure to improve your indoor air quality just by checking out the latest blaux portable ac reviews.

In addition to the article itself, there is an accompanying editorial written by a prominent member of the urological community. This blog is intended to provoke comment and discussion and we invite you to use the comment tools at the bottom of each post to join the conversation.

If you only have time to read one article this week, it should be this one.

Trends in the risk of second primary cancer among bladder cancer survivors: a population-based cohort of 10 047 patients

Joris Muller*,, Pascale Grosclaude, Benedicte Lapotre-Ledoux§,Anne-Sophie Woronoff§,**, Anne-Valerie Guizard§,††, Simona Bara§,‡‡, Marc Colonna§,§§Xavier Troussard§,¶¶, Veronique Bouvier§,***, Brigitte Tretarre§,†††, Michel Velten*,,§,‡‡‡ and Jeremie Jegu*,
*Bas-Rhin Cancer Registry, EA 3430, FMTS, University of Strasbourg, Department of Public Health, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, Tarn Cancer Registry, Albi, §
Francim: Reseau francais des registres des cancers, Toulouse, Somme Cancer Registry, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, University Hospital of Amiens, Amiens, **Doubs and Belfort Territory Cancer Registry, University Hospital of Besancon, Besancon, ††Calvados General Cancer Registry, Cancers & Preventions, U 1086 Inserm, Francois Baclesse Centre, Caen, ‡‡Manche Cancer Registry, Cotentin Hospital, Cherbourg-Octeville, §§Isere Cancer Registry, University Hospital of Grenoble, Grenoble, ¶¶Basse-Normandie Haematological Malignancies Cancer Registry, University Hospital of Caen, ***Calvados Digestive Cancer Registry, Cancers & Preventions, U 1086 Inserm, Francois Baclesse Centre, Caen, †††Herault Cancer Registry, Research Center, Montpellier , and ‡‡‡Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Paul Strauss Center, Strasbourg, France
Read the full article

Objectives

To determine whether the risk of second primary cancer (SPC) among patients with bladder cancer (BCa) has changed over past years.

Materials and Methods

Data from 10 French population-based cancer registries were used to establish a cohort of 10 047 patients diagnosed with a first invasive (≥T1) BCa between 1989 and 2004 and followed up until 2007. An SPC was defined as the first subsequent primary cancer occurring at least 2 months after a BCa diagnosis. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of metachronous SPC were calculated. Multivariate Poisson regression models were used to assess the direct effect of the year of BCa diagnosis on the risk of SPC.

JulAOTW1Results

Results

The risk of new malignancy among BCa survivors was 60% higher than in the general population (SIR 1.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.51–1.68). Male patients presented a high risk of SPC of the lung (SIR 3.12), head and neck (SIR 2.19) and prostate (SIR 1.54). In multivariate analyses adjusted for gender, age at diagnosis and follow-up, a significant increase in the risk of SPC of the lung was observed over the calendar year of BCa diagnosis (P for linear trend 0.010), with an SIR increasing by 3.7% for each year (95% CI 0.9–6.6%); however, no particular trend was observed regarding the risk of SPC of the head and neck (P = 0.596) or the prostate (P = 0.518).

Conclusions

As the risk of SPC of the lung increased between 1989 and 2004, this study contributes more evidence to support the promotion of tobacco smoking cessation interventions among patients with BCa.

Editorial: Analysis of Genetics to Identify Susceptibility to Secondary Malignancies in Patients with BCa

A study by Muller et al. [1] evaluated a cohort of 10 047 patients diagnosed with a first invasive (≥T1) bladder cancer and found that independent of gender and age, the risk of subsequent lung cancer was increased. This is not surprising considering the strong association of both bladder and lung cancer with tobacco, which is the main risk factor for both malignancies. While the authors limited their analysis to patients with invasive disease, the same association of bladder and lung cancer probably holds true for patients with non-invasive disease. An important question this raises is whether urologists should be more proactive in screening for lung cancer in their patients with bladder cancer. While chest radiographs are commonly used to monitor patients who undergo cystectomy, they are not routinely used for patients with non-invasive disease. Furthermore, the recommendations for screening for lung cancer based on the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST) involve use of low-dose chest CT, which is rarely done routinely by urologists [2]. In the Muller et al. [1] study, despite the large cohort and median follow-up of 3.1 years, there were still only 295 cases of lung cancer. This was three-times the expected incidence but overall a low rate.

One interesting consideration is whether use of genetic factors may be useful to identify which patients might be at higher risk at baseline for subsequent secondary cancers. Currently, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis is not used clinically in screening but other genetic abnormalities such as BRCA (BReast Cancer gene) mutations and Lynch syndrome have been used to identify secondary malignancies. However, identifying individuals at higher risk of developing cancer may inform clinicians and allow for a more targeted screening strategy, even in patients of increased baseline risk.

The USA National Cancer Institute performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for 49 492 patients with cancer and 34 131 controls to estimate the heritability of individual cancers, as well as the proportion of heritability attributable to cigarette smoking in smoking-related cancers, and the genetic correlation between pairs of cancers [3]. They calculated that at least 24% and 7% of the heritability for lung and bladder cancer, respectively, can be attributed to genetic determinants of smoking. Only four pairs of cancers had marginally statistically significant correlations including bladder and lung.

While tobacco is the major cause of lung cancer, only ≈10% of smokers develop lung cancer in their lifetime indicating there is significant individual variation in susceptibility to lung cancer. The International Lung Cancer Consortium pooled genotype data for SNPs at chromosomes 15q25 (rs16969968, rs8034191), 5p15 (rs2736100, rs402710), and 6p21 (rs2256543, rs4324798) from 21 case-control studies for 11 645 patients with lung cancer and 14 954 control subjects [4]. Associations between 15q25 and the risk of lung cancer were replicated in White ever-smokers (rs16969968) but there was no association in never-smokers or in Asians between either of the 15q25 variants and the risk of lung cancer. For the chromosome 5p15 region, they confirmed statistically significant associations in Whites for both rs2736100 and rs402710 and identified similar associations in Asians. Zhang et al. [5] undertook a gene–smoking interaction analysis in a GWAS of lung cancer in Han Chinese population of 5 408 subjects (2 331 patients and 3 077 controls) using a two-phase designed case-control study. They identified two SNPs associated with lung cancer and smoking, including one with a synergistic interaction (rs4589502) and one with an antagonistic interaction (rs131629).

There have also been several studies evaluating SNPs and risk of bladder cancer. A study of 1 595 patients and 1 760 controls, stratified for smoking habits, found that different SNP combinations were relevant in smokers and non-smokers [6]. In smokers, polymorphisms involved in detoxification of cigarette smoke carcinogens were most relevant (GSTM1 [glutathione S-transferase μ1], rs11892031), in contrast to those in non-smokers where MYC (v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog) and APOBEC3A (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like 3A) near polymorphisms (rs9642880, rs1014971) were the most influential. A study of genome-wide interaction of smoking and bladder cancer risk based on data from 3 002 patients and 4 411 controls with validation in a separate dataset identified 10 SNPs that showed association in a consistent manner with the initial dataset and in the combined dataset, providing evidence of interaction with tobacco use [7]. These studies of genetic polymorphisms add evidence regarding the impact of gene–environment interactions, which influence the detrimental effects of tobacco on risk of bladder cancer.

There are other genetic polymorphisms that have been found to increase risk of tobacco-related malignancies. A study of polymorphisms inNAT2 (N-acetyltransferase 2 [arylamine N-acetyltransferase]), GSTM1, NAT1, GSTT1 (GST θ1), GSTM3, and GSTP1 (GST π1) in 1 150 patients with bladder cancer and 1 149 controls found that compared with NAT2 rapid or intermediate acetylators, NAT2 slow acetylators had an increased overall risk of bladder cancer (odds ratio 1.4, 95% CI 1.2–1.7), which was stronger for cigarette smokers than for never smokers. No significant associations were found with the other polymorphisms [8]. The overall association for GSTM1 was also robust (P < 0.001) but was not modified by smoking status (P = 0.86).

While it may be too early to apply GWAS to all patients who smoke, a trial focusing on those with other tobacco-related malignancies may identify cohorts where screening for other malignancies is not only effective but also practical.

Read the full article
Yair Lotan, Professor of Urology
Department of Urology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, TX, USA

 

References

 

 

2 National Lung Screening Trial Research Team, Aberle DR, Adams AM et al. Reduced lung-cancer mortality with low-dose computed tomographic screening. N Engl J Med 2011; 365: 395409

 

3 Sampson JN, Wheeler WA, Yeager M et al. Analysis of heritability and shared heritability based on genome-wide association studies for thirteen cancer types. J Natl Cancer Inst 2015; 107: pii: djv279. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djv279

 

 

5 Zhang R, Chu M, Zhao Y et al. A genome-wide gene-environment interaction analysis for tobacco smoke and lung cancer susceptibility. Carcinogenesis 2014; 35: 152835

 

6 Schwender H, Selinski S, Blaszkewicz M et al. Distinct SNP combinations confer susceptibility to urinary bladder cancer in smokers and non-smokers. PLoS One 2012; 7: e51880

 

7 Figueroa JD, Han SS, Garcia-Closas M et al. Genome-wide interaction study of smoking and bladder cancer risk. Carcinogenesis 2014; 35: 173744

 

 

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