Prostate cancer treatment disparities and the timing of active surveillance were among the topics UCSF clinicians discussed at AUA’s 2024 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, May 2 – May 6. The AUA Annual Meeting was attended by urologists, residents, researchers and advanced practice providers, and offerered presentations about the latest advances and technologies in urology.
This year’s program featured innovative research and discussions by experts from UCSF Department of Urology. These were some highlights of leading UCSF presentations:
Panel Discussion: Increasing Prostate Cancer Screening in Black and Brown Communities
Samuel L. Washington III, MD, MAS, UCSF assistant professor of Urology and the Goldberg-Benioff Endowed Professorship in Cancer Biology at UCSF, led a plenary panel discussion on how to improve prostate cancer screening in Black and Brown communities. The panel focused on current gaps in practice and discuss examples of opportunities for change that each audience member could lead within their own respective clinical settings.
Panel Discussion: Drivers of Prostate Cancer Disparities – Policy versus Biology
Washington also spoke about treatment disparities in prostate cancer and opportunities to change national policy. He discussed the need to improve access to timely, high-quality care in order to improve outcomes and reduce racial disparities. These disparities are well-known but how to translate the research into policy remains elusive because the research and the tools often used to conduct research are not designed to inform or ‘translate’ into policy. He talked about how to adapt research approaches to include the intentional consideration of policy from the moment of conception with the goal of bridging the gap between disparities research and focused policy change.
PD13-01: Determining Long-term Prostate Cancer Outcomes for Active Surveillance Patients Without Early Disease Progression: When to Slow or Stop Surveillance
Kevin Shee, MD, PhD, resident physician in the UCSF Department of Urology, was first author for this study looking at active surveillance (AS). Active surveillance is widely accepted as a treatment pathway for low-risk and favorable intermediate-risk localized prostate cancer. The study's aim was to report the long-term progression of patients on AS to treatment. Shee and his colleagues reported that AS for favorable-risk prostate cancer seems safe and effective in the 10-year timespan. The study results included numbers of patients who progressed to treatment and of patients who developed metastasis. See abstract.
MP26-18: Alpha lipoic acid reduces stone growth for cystinuria patients: results from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
Thomas Chi, MD, MBA, UCSF Kutzmann Endowed Professor and Associate Chair for Clinical Programs with the UCSF Department of Urology, was first author and presenter for this study using alpha-lipoic acid to reduce stone growth in patients with cystinuria. Cystinuria is a rare disease that causes lifelong, recurrent nephrolithiasis. Thiol derivatives are the current standard of care, yet they are expensive and have severe side effect profiles leading to poor compliance. Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is a well-tolerated antioxidant compound. In a preclinical murine model, ALA dramatically decreased stone growth compared to controls. This randomized clinical trial aimed to assess the effect of ALA on stone recurrence in cystinuria patients. The trial indicates that ALA represents a promising alternative medication for cystinuria that reduces stone growth and has minimal adverse reactions. See abstract.
MP32-03: The impact of social deprivation on anterior urethral stricture recurrence after urethroplasty – A Trauma and Urologic Reconstructive Network of Surgeons (TURNS) analysis
Hiren Patel, MD, UCSF Fellow in Urology, was first author and presenter for this study which aimed to assess the impact social deprivation has on urethral stricture recurrence after urethroplasty. The impact of socioeconomic factors on stricture recurrence after urethroplasty is not well understood. Patient social deprivation identifies those at higher risk for functional recurrence after anterior urethral stricture repair, offering an opportunity for preoperative counseling and postoperative surveillance. See abstract.
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