The role of surgery in high risk and advanced prostate cancer: A narrative review.

Patients with high-risk and advanced prostate cancer require safe and efficacious therapies likely to offer a survival advantage while minimizing the treatment-related toxicities. Improvements in the surgical technology, diagnostic modalities, radiological staging, and risk stratification have made surgery for high-risk and advanced prostate cancer a safe and feasible option. In this review, we outline the role of radical prostatectomy in high-risk localized, locally advanced, and metastatic prostate cancer. We overview available data evaluating the use of surgery in the context of a multi-modal approach and highlight ongoing trials in this area. Furthermore, the role of surgery as a non-systemic modality for metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) is also described. Emerging imaging modalities enabling more accurate staging and longer follow-up of clinical trials for prognostic endpoints are anticipated to help identify patient cohorts and treatment strategies, where the use of surgical treatments is likely to provide oncological benefits and acceptable toxicity.

Detection rates of recurrent prostate cancer: 68Gallium (Ga)-labelled prostate-specific membrane antigen versus choline PET/CT scans. A systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to assess the use of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-labelled radiotracers in detecting the recurrence of prostate cancer. PSMA is thought to have higher detection rates when utilized in positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scans, particularly at lower prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, compared with choline-based scans. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted comparing choline and PSMA PET/CT scans in patients with recurrent prostate cancer following an initial curative attempt. The primary outcomes were overall detection rates, detection rates at low PSA thresholds, difference in detection rates and exclusive detection rates on a per-person analysis. Secondary outcome measures were total number of lesions, exclusive detection by each scan on a per-lesion basis and adverse side effects. RESULTS: Overall detection rates were 79.8% for PSMA and 66.7% for choline. There was a statistically significant difference in detection rates favouring PSMA [OR (M-H, random, 95% confidence interval (CI)) 2.27 (1.06, 4.85), p = 0.04]. Direct comparison was limited to PSA < 2 ng/ml in two studies, with no statistically significant difference in detection rates between the scans [OR (M-H, random, 95% CI) 2.37 (0.61, 9.17) p = 0.21]. The difference in detection on the per-patient analysis was significantly higher in the PSMA scans (p < 0.00001). All three studies reported higher lymph node, bone metastasis and locoregional recurrence rates in PSMA. CONCLUSIONS: PSMA PET/CT has a better performance compared with choline PET/CT in detecting recurrent disease both on per-patient and per-lesion analysis and should be the imaging modality of choice while deciding on salvage and nonsystematic metastasis-directed therapy strategies.

Randomized double blinded placebo controlled trial comparing diclofenac and piroxicam in management of acute renal colic and its clinical implications.

PURPOSE: To compare the efficacy of sublingual piroxicam 40 mg with intramuscular diclofenac 75 mg in treatment of acute renal colic. The secondary objective was to look for factors that can affect the severity of the pain and pain relief in acute renal colic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred patients with acute renal colic were randomized into two groups. Group A (n = 50) received intramuscular diclofenac and sublingual methylcobalamin. Group B (n = 50) received sublingual piroxicam 40 mg and intramuscular distilled water. Pain severity was measured using Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and verbal and facial response scales. They were followed up for 3 h. Intramuscular injection of pentazocine 30 mg with promethazine 25 mg were used as rescue drugs. RESULTS: Both groups were comparable for age, sex distribution, body mass index (BMI), and pain duration before presentation. Significant pain relief was noticed in both groups. Sixteen percent in group A and 18% in group B had complete pain relief within 30 min (P = .75). Fifteen patients in group A and 13 patients in group B needed rescue drugs, 84% of group A and 76% of group B had complete pain relief at the end of 3 hours (P = .25). Decrease in pain by each scoring method was also comparable (P = .75). In multiple regression analysis, increasing age, positively affects the severity of pain and pain relief while increasing BMI negatively affect the initial pain relief. Acute renal colic seems to affect men more commonly than women, 81% of the study population were men. Patients with low initial pain score did not require any additional pain relief. Average pain duration before presenting to hospital is 260 min. Sixty percent of renal colics are due to stones below pelvic brim. CONCLUSION: The results show that sublingual piroxicam is as effective as intramuscular diclofenac. It can be easily self-administered and it overcomes the morbidity and time delay in getting intramuscular diclofenac.

Acute abdomen due to eosinophilic colitis with liver abscess.

Eosinophilic colitis is an uncommon condition and rarely presents as acute abdomen. We report a 65-year-old man who presented with acute abdomen-- severe pain in upper abdomen, with pyrexia, tachycardia, guarding and right-sided intercostal tenderness--secondary to eosinophilic colitis and was successfully managed. He had additional problems in form of cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, cholangitis, pyogenic liver abscesses and gout.