OBJECTIVES: To examine the clinical utility of the prostate cancer gene 3 (PCA3) urine test in predicting prostate cancer in Japanese men undergoing prostate biopsy.

METHOD: The study group included 105 men who underwent extended prostate biopsy based on an elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA). In all cases, the patients' race was Asian. Urine specimens were collected after digital rectal examination, and PCA3 score (PCA3/PSA mRNA) was determined in the urine using the APTIMA ...

Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the pathway of uracil and thymine catabolism. DPD is also the principal enzyme involved in the degradation of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which is one of the anticancer chemotherapeutic agents currently used in the treatment of bladder cancer. Little is known about the significance of DPD activity in human cancers. We investigated the activity of DPD in 74 bladder cancers and the relationship between the DPD activity and the ...

PURPOSE: Second mitochondria-derived activator of caspase/direct inhibitor of apoptosis-binding protein with low pI (Smac/DIABLO) was recently identified as a protein that is released from mitochondria in response to apoptotic stimuli and promotes apoptosis by antagonizing inhibitor of apoptosis proteins. Furthermore, Smac/DIABLO plays an important regulatory role in the sensitization of cancer cells to both immune- and drug-induced apoptosis. However, little is known about the clinical ...

PURPOSE: We assessed patient quality of life specific to each of the 7 items on the International Prostate Symptom Score, as evaluated with a novel visual analog scale questionnaire.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 246 male patients with a chief complaint of lower urinary tract symptom were asked to complete the International Prostate Symptom Score and visual analog scale questionnaires to assess bother or satisfaction regarding patient quality of life specific to each of the 7 items ...

BACKGROUND: We retrospectively reviewed a large series of Japanese men with histologically proven prostate cancer to assess the clinical characteristics of the cancer in three different eras of prostate cancer management since prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing started in 1988.

METHODS: The medical records of 1125 patients treated between 1975 and 2002 were reviewed with respect to age, chief complaints, clinical stage, tumor grade, treatment options at each stage, and prognosis. We ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to ascertain whether Bayer complexed PSA (cPSA) and volume referenced cPSA could enhance the detection of prostate cancer in Japanese men.

METHODS: A total of 214 Japanese men whose serum total PSA (tPSA) values ranged from 1.2 ng/ml to 4600 ng/ml were enrolled from two institutions. Serum samples for tPSA, free PSA, PSA-alpha-1-antichymotripsin (PSA-ACT) and cPSA (ADVIA-Centaur) were obtained in all cases. In addition, total gland (TGV) as well as ...

PURPOSE: We report our initial experience with hand assisted retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma and compared our results to those of a contemporary series of open nephroureterectomy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical data on 34 consecutive patients who underwent hand assisted retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy were reviewed and compared with those on 34 who underwent open nephroureterectomy. All specimens were extracted ...

AIM: Bladder diaries including bladder perception grades were analyzed to assess overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms in community-dwelling women 40 years of age or older.

METHODS: Three hundred ten women (mean 58 years) completed a 3-day bladder diary. The perception grades were defined as follows: 0 = no bladder sensation, 1 = sensation of bladder filling without desire to void, 2 = desire to void, 3 = strong desire to void, 4 = urgency without urge urinary incontinence (UUI), and 5 = ...

BACKGROUND: For men with clinically localized prostate cancer and candidates to receive radical prostatectomy (RP) a main concern is a cancer recurrence after treatment. Although previous studies have demonstrated the diagnostic utility of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for prostate cancer, the prognostic value of pretreatment DWI has not been investigated yet.

PURPOSE: To investigate the incremental value of MRI-based T staging using DWI and T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) as compared with ...

PURPOSE: We describe the technical aspects of real-time transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) monitoring and guidance during laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP). Furthermore, we describe the TRUS visualized anatomy of periprostatic structures during LRP.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 25 consecutive patients undergoing transperitoneal LRP, baseline preoperative, real-time intraoperative and immediate postoperative TRUS evaluations were performed. To define periprostatic anatomy precisely TRUS ...

The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic performance of transrectal real-time elastography (TRTE) to differentiate benign from malignant prostatic lesions, with pathologic diagnosis obtained by prostatic needle biopsy. Conventional gray scale transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS) and power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) were performed in 107 men who had elevated serum prostate-specific antigen level >4 ng/mL or abnormal findings on digital rectal examination. For baseline TRUS ...

In order to evaluate the erectile function in male renal failure patients treated with hemodialysis (HD), we investigated the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) in patients and healthy controls. The subjects were 174 male patients treated with HD, of whom 43 had diabetes mellitus (DM) and the remaining 131 patients did not have DM. The controls were 1133 healthy males. We evaluated the prevalence of erectile dysfunction (ED) using the erectile function (EF) score, which is ...