Urologic oncology
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Renal cell carcinoma is a potentially devastating cancer, and when metastatic, remains incurable with currently available systemic therapy. Surgical nephrectomy remains the only proven modality which can offer curative options for patients with resectable disease. ⋯ Immediate questions regarding preoperative treatment with VEGF pathway targeted therapy include issues surrounding the safety of these agents in use in the perioperative time period, the expectations for response in the primary tumor, the optimal duration of therapy, and the clinical settings in which this therapy may be most beneficial. This review will discuss the current experience with neoadjuvant or preoperative therapy in locally advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma and will overview the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead for this form of multimodality therapy.
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Invasive transitional cell bladder cancer is associated with occult metastasis. Approximately 50% of patients with clinically localized, invasive bladder cancer ultimately die of their disease. Systemic chemotherapy has been combined with radical cystectomy in an attempt to improve survival. ⋯ For invasive, clinically nonmetastatic bladder cancer, neo-adjuvant chemotherapy followed by radical cystectomy is one of the new standards of care. The role of postsurgical systemic chemotherapy appears promising, but has not been proven in a randomized trial. Molecular prognostication is now being incorporated into the design of clinical trials of adjuvant chemotherapy for bladder cancer.