Due to its heterogeneous nature, urology has been one of the branches most affected by technological evolution in the surgical field, in particular with the introduction of laparoscopy, robotic surgery, ever-smaller endoscopes, and precise lasers. Over the years, this has affected the treatment of not only benign urological diseases but, obviously, also genitourinary cancers. In our age, the goal of surgical treatment is not only to cure, if possible, genitourinary tumors, but also to carry out this treatment using a method that is as minimally invasive as possible. In this special series, we will deal, mainly with some reviews and original research, with some of the technological advances currently available and in progress in the minimally invasive management of genitourinary tumors.
Three contributions are focused on the treatment of renal neoplasms. In particular, the original article published by Bianchi et al. explores the importance of using 3D models for the preoperative planning of robot-assisted partial nephrectomies, with a particular focus on improving outcomes. Similarly, the systematic review proposed by Chen et al. focuses on the minimally invasive surgical treatment of special types of renal tumors such as hilar, endophytic, and cystic. Wang et al. proposed an evidence-based analysis aimed at comparing the functional and oncological outcomes of patients with complex renal tumors undergoing two different minimally invasive approaches: robotic surgery and pure laparoscopic surgery. The authors concluded that in patients with complex renal tumors (RENAL score ≥7), robotic partial nephrectomy is superior to laparoscopic partial nephrectomy in decreasing the operative time, warm ischemia time, length of stay, transfusion rate, change in eGFR, and the incidence of intraoperative complications while maintaining oncological control and avoiding a decline in renal function.
Two studies are focused on upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Lindner et al. proposed a retrospective study evaluating the follow-up protocols after kidney-sparing surgery and nephroterectomy, which is still a matter of debate. Wu et al. proposed an interesting step-by-step procedure for total intracorporeal laparoscopic kidney autotransplantation in a patient with distal high-risk upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
Teoh et al. conducted a proof-of-concept study on endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided biopsy of detrusor muscle in porcine bladders. They used five porcine bladders in this experiment and were able to find detrusor muscle in 30 out of 37 biopsies (81.1%) without any bladder perforation. They concluded that an EUS-guided biopsy of the detrusor muscle could be performed during the initial cystoscopy session.
Lastly, Eubank et al. conducted a study with the aim of developing a safe and precise method for intraprostatic injection. The study was carried out on different prostate models. The authors found that intraprostatic injection using a porous needle allows for effective and predictable tissue distribution of the injectate in the prostate.
We would like to thank the editorial office, authors, reviewers, and all the readers for their efforts in putting together this series, hoping that it will be appreciated and useful by readers.
Statements
Author contributions
FC: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. RF: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. GM: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Summary
Keywords
minimally invasive & robotic surgery, genitourinary cancer (GU cancer), bladder cancer (BCa), prostate cancer (PCa), kidney cancer
Citation
Chierigo F, Flammia RS and Mantica G (2023) Editorial: Minimally-invasive treatment for genitourinary cancers: what comes next?. Front. Oncol. 13:1285730. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1285730
Received
30 August 2023
Accepted
01 September 2023
Published
19 September 2023
Volume
13 - 2023
Edited and reviewed by
Ronald M. Bukowski, Cleveland Clinic, United States
Updates
Copyright
© 2023 Chierigo, Flammia and Mantica.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Francesco Chierigo, francesco.chierigo@gmail.com
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.