Updates on bladder, kidney and prostate cancers: Bladder cancer: Once again oncology dominates the research news for this month. Catto et al. reported results from a randomised trial comparing the recovery and morbidity associated with a robot-assisted radical cystectomy with intracorporeal reconstruction versus an open radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. The primary outcome was the number of days alive and out of the hospital within 90 days of surgery. There were 20 other secondary outcomes focusing on various aspects of morbidity. Among the 338 randomized patients, 317 underwent a radical cystectomy. Of these 21 were women, 34 received neo-adjuvant chemotherapy and 89 underwent ileal conduit reconstruction. The authors found that the two approaches had virtually identical outcomes. The median days alive and out of the hospital were 82 for robotic surgery and 80 for open surgery. Thromboembolic complications and wound complications occurred less frequently with robotic surgery and morbidity was less at 5 weeks. There were no differences in recovery at 12 weeks and no differences in cancer recurrence or overall mortality after 18 months.
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