Welcome to Episode 6 of our monthly GU Cast Journal Club! Two important papers in upper tract urothelial cancer (the POUT trial of adjuvant chemo post nephro-ureterectomy), and metastatic testicular cancer (the SEMS trial of surgery for early metastatic seminoma).

We are delighted to welcome back our GU Cast Journal Club Editors, Dr Carlos Delgado (Melbourne, AUS), and Dr Elena Berg (Munich, GER), along with main GU Cast Hosts, Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy. No prostate cancer today, and go easy on Declan he is struggling with man flu!

Links to papers below:
1. Adjuvant chemotherapy in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (the POUT trial): a phase 3, open-label, randomised controlled trial Lancet 2020


2. Surgery in Early Metastatic Seminoma: A Phase II Trial of Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection for Testicular Seminoma With Limited Retroperitoneal Lymphadenopathy J Clin Oncol 2023

GU Cast Journal Club is supported by our Partner, MSD, through an unrestricted educational grant.

Even better on our YouTube channel

About GU Cast Journal Club:
Each month, two papers are discussed, each of which are of importance to the GU Oncology community. These may be recent papers, or occasionally we will chose a classic landmark paper in GU Oncology
. The objective is to draw attention to important papers in GU Oncology, and critique these in a robust manner
. The key target audience is trainees working in Urology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, and diagnostic specialties such as Radiology and Pathology. But any of our regular audience are likely to enjoy this Journal Club series.

It is the eve of the USANZ ASM here in Melbourne (which Renu is Convening!), and some of the 27 International guests are already into town. So we grabbed Anders Bjartell (Lund University/University Hospital Malmo, SWE), for a sit down chat in studio. Anders has been a huge name in prostate cancer research in Europe for the past couple of decades, including as a senior investigator on TITAN. so we decided to pick his brain on three topical areas in prostate cancer:
1. ADT/ARPI doublets in mHSPC - can we adopt an intermittent approach before the trials read out? What about docetaxel triplet therapy?
2. The SPARC consensus on PSMA PET/CT reporting - Anders led this initiative which recently publihsed in Eur Urol. What is this and why does it matter?
3. Organised Prostate Testing - what is the difference between screening and organised prostate testing?

With usual hosts Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy

This is a Themed Podcast supported by our Gold Partners, Johnson & Johnson.

Links:
SPARC consensus paper in European Urology 

Giant bladder cancer paper in NEJM this week with the highly anticipated results of the perioperative EV-Pembro trial (EV-303 / KN-905). Already we can say this is a landmark publicaion in bladder cancer that will change practice and even challenge the role of cystectomy (maybe)! 
Declan Murphy and Renu Eapen caught up with first author Christof Vulsteke (Integrated Cancer Centre, Ghent, BEL) when we were at ESMO Asia recently and had a chat about this work and how it will change practice. 

This is a Themed Podcast supported by our Platinum Partner, Astellas. 

Even better on our YouTube channel

Links:
EV-303 in NEJM 

Following on from last week's episode on "toxicity", we are delighted today to welcome back two great friends of GU Cast from the world of radiation oncology - ASTRO President Dr Neha Vapiwala (University of Pennsylvania), and European Urology Associate Editor, Dr Amar Kishan (University of California, Los Angeles). We go through Amar and Neha's letter to the editor following the recent paper in Eur Urol Oncol from the IRRADIATE registry, and  dive into the opportunities we have working in multidisciplinary teams to look after our prostate cancer patients. Most enjoyable!

Even better on our Youtube channel

Links:
Letter to the editor (needs login) 

In case you missed it, or you've already abandoned Twitter (memo to self - must do that ourselves!), we witnessed some pretty toxic stuff over there in the past couple of weeks. Vile personal attacks, calls for resignations, accusations of nefarious behaviour etc etc, mostly triggered by an AI-generated infographic attempting to illustarte a recent paper in European Urology Oncology. 
We chat with first author Dr Riccardo Bertolo (University of Verona, ITA), about his first-hand experience of twitter toxicity, his take on that terrible infographic, and ,most importantly, we discuss the paper which he and his colleagues published on late GU toxicity following prostate cancer radiation. 

Your usual hosts are Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy, back with a bang after their summer break. 

Even better on our YouTube channel 

Links:
Bertolo et al paper in European Urology Oncology 2026
Letter from the European Urology Editors
Previous GU Cast on Radiation Cystitis 

Happy New Year and welcome to Episode 5 of our monthly GU Cast Journal Club! Today we focus on two classic papers in non-invasive bladder cancer and metastatic prostate cancer. The Lamm RCT of maintenance BCG is a landmark trial for all sorts of reasons, published in J Urol in 2000. And the CHAARTED paper of chemohormonal therapy is the landmark trial of combination therapy in mHSPC, published in NEJM in 2015.

We are delighted to welcome back our GU Cast Journal Club Editors, Dr Carlos Delgado (Melbourne, AUS), and Dr Elena Berg (Munich, GER), along with main GU Cast Hosts, Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy. A very lively discussion!!

Links to papers below:
1. Maintenance bacillus Calmette-Guerin immunotherapy for recurrent TA, T1 and carcinoma in situ transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder: a randomized Southwest Oncology Group Study J Urol 2000

2. Chemohormonal Therapy in Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer
NEJM 2015

GU Cast Journal Club is supported by our Partner, MSD, through an unrestricted educational grant.

Even better on our YouTube channel

About GU Cast Journal Club:
Each month, two papers are discussed, each of which are of importance to the GU Oncology community. These may be recent papers, or occasionally we will chose a classic landmark paper in GU Oncology
. The objective is to draw attention to important papers in GU Oncology, and critique these in a robust manner
. The key target audience is trainees working in Urology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, and diagnostic specialties such as Radiology and Pathology. But any of our regular audience are likely to enjoy this Journal Club series.

Another of our special Themed Podcasts focussed on prostate cancer in China, supported by our Gold Partner, Bayer. We are joined as ever by our China Editor, Dr Yao Zhu (Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre), and also special guest Dr Yige Bao (SCU Xiamen Hospital). Not only do we learn about pandas in West China, but also some great highlights from the recent ESMO Annual Meeting in Berlin! Hosted as ever by Dr Renu Eapen and Prof Declan Murphy

Even better on our YouTube channel 

Episode 4 of our monthly GU Cast Journal Club and today we focus on two important papers in prostate cancer diagnostics and bladder cancer surgery. The PRECISION NEJM paper 2018 is a landmark publication which defined the role of mpMRI in early detection, and changed practice in many countries. The EB-StaR trial should also change practice after its European Urology 2024 publication, but has it??!

We are delighted to welcome back our GU Cast Journal Club Editors, Dr Carlos Delgado (Melbourne, AUS), and Dr Elena Berg (Munich, GER), along with main GU Cast Hosts, Renu Eapen and Declan Murphy. A very lively discussion!!

Links to papers below:
1. MRI-Targeted or Standard Biopsy for Prostate-Cancer Diagnosis NEJM 2018

2. Transurethral En Bloc Resection Versus Standard Resection of Bladder Tumour: A Randomised, Multicentre, Phase 3 Trial Eur Urol 2024

GU Cast Journal Club is supported by our Partner, MSD, through an unrestricted educational grant.

Even better on our YouTube channel

About GU Cast Journal Club:
Each month, two papers are discussed, each of which are of importance to the GU Oncology community. These may be recent papers, or occasionally we will chose a classic landmark paper in GU Oncology
. The objective is to draw attention to important papers in GU Oncology, and critique these in a robust manner
. The key target audience is trainees working in Urology, Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Nuclear Medicine, and diagnostic specialties such as Radiology and Pathology. But any of our regular audience are likely to enjoy this Journal Club series.

An exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the world-famous ORSI Academy in Belgium! Declan and Renu travelled to this remarkable facility just outside Ghent in Belgium, jammed full of tens of millions of dollars worth of robotic surgery technology from the world's top providers - Intuitive Surgical, Medtronic, Microport and more. Every day, surgeons from all around the world are getting hands-on experience using the latest robotic surgery technology in an array of training environments. Plus ORSI Academy hosts many academic programs, live surgery events, telesurgery demonstrations, and is actually expanding to do even more! 
We get a superb tour of the building hosted by Urologist, Dr Ruben de Groote, who also tells us about Surgquest, the digital arm of ORSI Academy, which hosts an incredible library of surgical education videos, and we also chat with ORSI Academy founder and CEO, Dr Alex Mottrie, world-renowned urologist and pioneer of robotic surgery. Plus we hear first hand from senior Urology Fellows, Dr Edoardo Beatrici, and Dr Mario de Angelis, about how the ORSI Academy proficiency-based progression training works in practice. 

This one much better enjoyed on our YouTube channel!

Links:
ORSI Academy
Surgquest 

World-renowned sexual health expert, Dr Chris Nelson, Chief of Psychology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, joins us in studio to run through the new Movember-supported "Guidelines for Sexual Health Care for Prostate Cancer Patients". A really helpful overview and structure for anyone working in this field, and for patients and their loved ones. Chris shares his 20-plus years of experience working in this field at one of the world's premier prostate cancer centres.

Even better on our YouTube channel 

Links:
Movember Sexual Health Guidelines