Articles
New Study Advances Search for Accurate Blood Markers for Acute Kidney Injury
Findings seen as a step toward ending need for invasive kidney biopsies to predict AKI, and to help manage and assess treatment of serious kidney inflammations.
How PIN Turns to Prostate Cancer
If you’ve had a prostate biopsy, you may have seen the words “prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN)” on the pathology report. What is it? Based on years of study, much of it led by Brady scientists, “we recognize PIN as a warning sign ...
Déjà Vu: Transforming How Surgery is Practiced and Performed
On his computer screen, urologist Ahmed Ghazi, M.B.B.Ch., M.D., is showing a strange video: a radical prostatectomy in double vision. The screen is split, and the operation seems to be shown in duplicate. On both sides of the screen, the ...
Focal Therapy: Killing the Cancer, Not the Prostate
Focal therapy, although not the standard of care, is emerging as a way to treat localized prostate cancer in carefully selected patients. The Brady is proud that one of the leaders in this field, urologist Arvin K. George, M.B.B.Ch., is ...
Who Will Benefit from Immunotherapy for Metastatic ccRCC?
Important clues can be found in routine pathology slides. Immunotherapy drugs called “checkpoint inhibitors” have revolutionized treatment for patients with metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma (ccRCC), the most common type of kidney cancer.
What do MicroRNAs Have to Do with Inherited Prostate Cancer?
The genes linked to prostate cancer – that we know of — are just the tip of the iceberg. What about the other 98 percent of the genome?
Urine “Liquid Biopsies” for Bladder Cancer
“Our current methods to detect the presence of bladder and upper tract urothelial cancers are suboptimal,” says David McConkey, Ph.D., Director of the Johns Hopkins Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute.
Treating Kidney Cancers with Proton Therapy
There is no one-size-fits-all therapy for localized kidney cancer. For example, surgery, the mainstay of treatment, is not an option for patients who have other serious medical conditions or complicated tumor presentations.
Treating High-Risk Kidney Cancer Before it Spreads
Is it a question of timing? Should we try the drug even earlier? “When cancer is localized within the kidney, nephrectomy (kidney removal) is the treatment of choice,” says Mohamad Allaf, M.D.
Super-sized, Chemo-Resistant Cancer Cells
Some cancer cells basically thumb their nose at treatment. Other cells may succumb, but not these hardy survivors.
Salvage Radiation after Prostatectomy: Watch the PSA!
To minimize risk of metastases, treat with salvage radiation while PSA is below 0.5. If PSA becomes detectable and starts to rise after prostatectomy, salvage radiation can still cure the cancer.
Every facet of ERAS targets factors of delayed recovery, such as slow return of bowel and urinary function, immobility, and pain.
New Clues to Treating Two Forms of Bladder Cancer
Small cell/neuroendocrine bladder cancers (SCBCs) are rare, highly aggressive, and difficult to treat. But in a recent study, published in European Urology, Brady scientist Woonyoung Choi, Ph.D., and colleagues have gained insights that ...
Narrowing the Racial Gap in Prostate Cancer
“Despite advances in early detection, prevention, and treatment, Black men in the U.S. remain disproportionately affected by prostate cancer,” says urologist Arthur Burnett, M.D., the Patrick C. Walsh Professor of Urology.
Why are Black patients more likely than White patients to die of kidney cancer? Nirmish Singla, M.D., M.Sc., Director of the Kidney Cancer Program, is leading research efforts to find out more.
Inherited Prostate Cancer in Black Men
Previously in Discovery, we reported that the first-known prostate-specific cancer susceptibility gene, HOXB13, identified in 2012 by Brady scientist William Isaacs, Ph.D., and colleagues – had thrown researchers a curve ball: For a decade, ...
Inflammation, Club Cells, and Prostate Cancer
What’s wrong with inflammation? Sometimes, it is good. For example, when you skin your knee, inflammation protects your body from bacteria and germs.
In-Depth Study of ccRCC Yields New Insights
In a series of elegant studies, pathology scientists Hui Zhang, Ph.D., M.S., and T. Mamie Lih, Ph.D., together with investigators from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), have discovered several new ways of characterizing ...
Improving Quality of Life After Radical Cystectomy
Do all those organs need to come out? Radical cystectomy is a tough operation. It’s not just removal of the bladder: in men, it includes removing the prostate and seminal vesicles, and in women, it includes removing the anterior vaginal ...
AI and Your Prostate Cells on a Slide
Nobody has a crystal ball that will accurately predict exactly what someone’s prostate cancer will do – but Hopkins pathologists are working on it.
Active Surveillance in Small Kidney Cancers
In years past, kidney cancer was treated immediately after it was detected. But now we know that not all kidney cancer needs to be treated right away; some small renal masses (SRM; less than 4 cm) may never need treatment.
The AUA's selection committee was impressed with Galansky's "unmatched understanding of public policy."
More than 60 years ago, a beautiful friendship began with a life-changing second opinion.
“Bipolar” Androgen Therapy (BAT) Trials Under Way
Several years ago, Samuel Denmeade, M.D., Director of the Division of Genitourinary Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues came up with a new concept for treating advanced prostate cancer that seemed ...
Lowering the Risk of Recurrent Prostate Cancer
Exciting results from a Hopkins-led study have catapulted a lowly immune system protein into the spotlight as a promising new target for prostate cancer immunotherapy.
Precision Medicine: Genetics and Clinical Outcomes in Advanced Prostate Cancer
No two men with prostate cancer have exactly the same disease. Instead, each has distinct genomic and molecular changes that make the cancer more or less likely to respond to a particular treatment – and scientists still have much to learn ...
Newly Discovered Mutation on HOXB13 is Linked to More Aggressive Cancer in Black Men
Three decades ago, Brady investigators William Isaacs, Ph.D., the William Thomas Gerrard, Mario Anthony Duhon, and Jennifer and John Chalsty Professor of Urology, and Patrick Walsh, M.D., characterized hereditary prostate cancer, and in ...
Burnett was recognized for his “groundbreaking advances in male sexual health, as well as advocacy, diversity and humanitarian contributions.”
Schaufeld Program Celebrates First Year
Last year in Discovery, we introduced an exciting new initiative, the Schaufeld Program for Prostate Cancer in Black Men, which addresses a critical issue: Black men are more likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer, and to die of it, than other men.
Read About the Research You Have Helped Make Possible.
How important is seed money? Priceless! Many of the scientists featured in this issue of Discovery jump-started their research careers with awards from the Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund.
GSTP1: Could This Gene Be Linked to Cancer Death in Black Men?
Black men in the U.S. are nearly twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than white men. What accounts for this terrible statistic?
Kidney Cancer and Brain Metastases
Most people with kidney cancer don’t have metastasis to the brain. But 15 percent of patients with advanced kidney cancer do, says urologic oncologist Nirmish Singla, M.D., M.S.C.S., Director of the Kidney Cancer Program.
Prostate Cancer in Transgender Patients
Although it is quite rare, aggressive prostate cancer can occur in transgender patients on long-term hormone therapy.
Kidney Cancer Program: World-class Care and Research
The Kidney Cancer Program (KCP), jointly led by urologist Nirmish Singla and oncologist Yasser Ged, was established with the goal of offering world-class, multidisciplinary clinical care and cutting-edge collaborative research “to continuously ...
Race, Ethnicity and Clinical Trials
There are significant differences in cancer – even the same type of cancer – among people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Therapy Resistance in Cancer: Learning from Bacteria
Why is metastatic prostate cancer so hard to kill? The short answer is that nobody knows.
Turning Back the Clock on Treatment-Resistant Prostate Cancer
If this hypothesis proves true, an LSD1-blocking agent could allow ADT and AR-blocking drugs to work again in men with mCRPC.
Managing a Tumor Thrombus in Kidney Cancer
Managing Kidney Cancer “Some patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) display a unique pattern of local invasion known as tumor thrombus: the cancer invades the major vein that drains the kidneys and can potentially climb up to the heart,” ...
Neoadjuvant Therapy and High-Risk Localized Prostate Cancer
The next step is a multicenter randomized, placebo-controlled trial of Enoblituzumab.
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Surgery for MIBC: What’s a Successful Response?
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for cisplatin-eligible patients with MIBC who undergo radical cystectomy (removal of the bladder).
Exercise, Immunotherapy, and Metastatic Kidney Cancer
Obesity is a known risk factor for renal cell carcinoma, and patients with renal cell carcinoma who have muscle mass loss have a less favorable prognosis,” says medical oncologist Yasser Ged, M.B.B.S.
Finding Metastatic Prostate Cancer that Doesn’t Make PSMA
Two huge advances have dramatically changed the diagnosis and treatment of metastatic prostate cancer, and both of these involve prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a molecule that sits on the surface of prostate cancer cells.
Embryonic Genes Reactivated in Advanced Prostate Cancer
Embryonic genes are supposed to fulfill their mission before we are ever born and then shut themselves off. But somehow, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) manages to reactivate these genes from our period of earliest development.
DNA Damage-Repair Gene Mutations and Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in MIBC
Mutations in DNA damage-repair (DDR) genes – the best-known of these genes are BRCA1/2, linked to breast, ovarian, colon and prostate cancer – make it more likely that someone will get cancer, and get a more aggressive form of it. But ...
After 45 Years at the Brady, John Isaacs Retires
In 2022, after a 45-year career at Hopkins, John T. Isaacs, Ph.D., Professor of Oncology and Urology, retired. John is a pioneer in the translation of basic science theory into clinical trials for lethal prostate cancer.
A Novel Study for Patients with Small Cell Bladder Cancer
Hoffman-Censits and Hopkins colleagues are testing the combination of the FDA-approved checkpoint inhibitor, Atezolizumab, and standard chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed, localized SCBC.
Gleason 3+3=6 is Not “Not Cancer”
Grade Group 1 cancer has some of the same behaviors as higher grade cancer. It’s invasive, and it can appear in perineural invasion and extra prostatic extension
For Prostate Cancer Patients with Mismatch Repair Deficiency, Immunotherapy Alone?
All patients in the study will receive nivolumab, a form of immunotherapy, without the addition of ADT
Gut Bugs and Treatment Response in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Even as medications work to suppress levels of male hormones, certain bacteria in the gut start their own hormone factory.
Low-Intensity Electrostimulation May Improve Erectile Recovery
Low-intensity electrostimulation has been shown to enhance peripheral nerve regeneration. Can it stimulate regeneration in the nerves that control erection, and improve recovery of erectile function after prostatectomy?
The PROMISE of Studying Inherited Genes
Men who participate will get free, medical-grade, hereditary cancer risk testing and access to a licensed genetic counselor to help them understand the results.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has recognizing the increased sensitivity and specificity of PSMA- PET compared to conventional imaging (CT, MRI, bone scans) for detecting micrometastatic disease, at both initial staging ...
For Advanced Prostate Cancer: Immunotherapy and… Testosterone?
Could the flat-out opposite of conventional wisdom prove to be effective against metastatic prostate cancer?
How important is seed money? Priceless! Our cover story, on Martin Pomper’s PSMA-targeting research, is an excellent example.
Renal Cell Carcinoma: Immunotherapy Before Nephrectomy
Checkpoint inhibitors may work best “when the kidney and kidney tumor are still in place, because there are more cancer cells and molecules for the immune system to recognize and treat."
Team Discovers Unique Immune Cells in RCC
A team led by cancer immunologists Debebe Theodros, M.D., Ph.D., and Jelani Zarif, Ph.D., has found something new in renal cell carcinoma (RCC)
Why Can Dogs Detect Prostate Cancer?
Dogs can smell prostate cancer. In fact, out of a bunch of urine samples, they can even distinguish aggressive prostate cancer from low-risk or intermediate cancer.
Cholesterol, Prostate Cancer, and Race
There’s a connection between cholesterol and the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. It’s not fully understood, and a new study by Johns Hopkins investigators has uncovered a further wrinkle: race.
The Patrick C. Walsh Hereditary Prostate Cancer Program
“To reduce deaths from prostate cancer, we must identify men at risk of lethal prostate cancer when cure is still possible. The best way to do that is through genetic testing.”
“For the first time, we have the potential to identify every gene involved in HPC, and to help thousands of men and their families understand their family cancer risk, seek early detection and treatment, and save many lives.”
Multidisciplinary Clinic for Patients with UTUC
For more than 130 years, Johns Hopkins has provided expertise in treating difficult and rare diseases that doctors at some hospitals might never even come across: diseases like UTUC.
In the dark early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of reliable Covid-19 tests.
Insights into Aggressive Cancer: Cellular Garbage Strikes and Sneaky Sleepers
Scientists Sarah Amend, Ph.D., Ken Pienta, M.D., and colleagues are very interested in a specialized type of immune cell, called an M2-like macrophage.
Within a few miles of Johns Hopkins are thousands of men who have the highest risk of dying from aggressive prostate cancer in the world.
Four decades ago, Patrick Walsh started an ongoing series of discoveries that transformed the field of prostate cancer research and treatment.
The PSMA-Targeting Era: A Game-Changer for Men with Prostate Cancer Worldwide
PSMA is tiny; you couldn’t see it if you tried with the naked eye. It’s just a protein, one of about 2 million in the human body. So why are doctors and patients so excited about it?
Partin Stepping Down as Director
After 17 years, urologist Alan Partin, M.D., Ph.D., is stepping down as the Jakurski Family Director of The Brady Urological Institute, Urologist-in-Chief for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and Director of the Department of Urology.
An estimated 9,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC), which affects the renal pelvis or ureter and is difficult to treat.
Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer
Having one or more mutated DNA damage repair (DDR) genes – “spell-checkers” that normally stop faulty genes from replicating – has been linked to a better response to neoadjuvant (presurgical) chemotherapy in muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC).
Treatment Goals for NMIBC: What Do Patients Think?
In recent years, new clinical trial guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have stimulated the development of new drugs for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
Men and Women Respond Differently to Immune Checkpoint Blockade
Immune checkpoints are like tiny brakes that immobilize immune cells that otherwise could be fighting cancer.
New Guidance for Treating Early Testicular Cancer
Most men (94 to 100 percent) with early-stage testicular cancer, confined to the testicle or lymph nodes that drain the testicles, are cured. “For these men, the difficulty is to determine the best treatment strategy,” says urologist Phillip ...
Ultrasound and Testicular Tumors
Not all testicular lumps – particularly, those smaller than 2 cm, as seen on ultrasound – are cancer; some are not. “Most men with a testicular mass greater than 2cm have cancer, but for many men with a mass less than 2cm, it is a benign ...
“Unclassifiable” Kidney Cancer: New Insights
There are less common types of RCC, such as papillary and chromophobe – and then there are a number of kidney tumors each year that don’t fit any of these categories, and thus are known as “unclassified RCC.”
RCC: Local Recurrence Can Be Cured with Surgery
“More than half of these patients were cured with a second surgery, and were able to avoid systemic chemotherapy.”
Urogynecological Surgery Case Study—New Program’s Minimally Invasive Approach
Treatment options for stress incontinence included a pessary, a suture procedure, non-mesh slings, and permanent mesh slings.
JAMA Study: Immunotherapy May Affect Male Fertility
This study is the first to link immunotherapy for cancer with reduced sperm-producing cells.
Early-Stage Testicular Cancer: Treating with Surgery Alone?
A new Brady study, published in European Urology Focus, finds that in addition to preventing unnecessary side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, this approach might also be the most cost-effective option for men with a form of early ...
Newly Discovered Cells Shed Light on Immunotherapy in Kidney Cancer
Finding new potential biomarkers and targets for treating kidney cancer.
The Hunt for Urinary Biomarkers to Diagnose Kidney Cancer
Extracting these vesicles from the blood and urine could make it possible to diagnose kidney cancer noninvasively.
Shedding Light on the “Trickle-Down” Effect of Mutated Genes in Kidney Cancer
“We have identified candidate drug targets that have been explored in other cancer types, but have yet to be evaluated in ccRCC.”
Our Multidisciplinary Kidney Cancer Group
Meet our two new faculty – who, with Phillip Pierorazio, M.D., newly named Director of the Kidney Cancer Program – form a multidisciplinary and translational kidney cancer group.
If Bladder Cancer Responds Well to Chemotherapy, Is It Safe to Skip the Cystectomy?
Who needs surgical removal of the bladder (radical cystectomy)? And who doesn’t need it? Unfortunately, that question is still very hard to answer.
Can Biomarkers Predict Who Will Benefit from Chemotherapy in Bladder Cancer?
New tests could identify who will benefit from chemotherapy, and spare those who will not.
Tackling a Rare, Aggressive Form of Cancer
It turns out that small cell neuroendocrine bladder carcinoma has a lot in common with small cell neuroendocrine lung cancer, and this may lead to new strategies for treatment.
New Immunotherapy Targets: B Cells
B cells play a vital role in the immune response against cancer.
Targeting Hypoxia in Bladder Cancer
The Brady team is investigating whether these cancers are uniquely sensitive to therapies that target tumor blood vessels.
Coulter Joins Research Faculty
Could timing make a difference with drugs that target the androgen receptor, combined with radiation and other treatments?
When PSA Comes Back: GC Test Helps Predict Risk of Metastasis
Phuoc Tran, M.D., Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences, oncology, and urology, is working to push the boundaries of curable cancer.
PSMA PET/CT with PyL Reaches a Key Milestone toward Approval
“PyL PET/CT detected localized disease in most men with biochemical recurrence presenting with negative or equivocal conventional imaging, and led to changes in management in the majority of patients.”
Targeting “Non-Coding” Genes for Prostate Cancer
In the search for better treatments for prostate cancer, protein-coding genes – genes that make proteins that cancer needs to grow and spread – have been a major focus of scientific attention.
Genes, Race, and Prostate Cancer
Understanding why African American men are at higher risk of aggressive cancer.
Prostate Cancer Immuno-therapy: A New Target
“Despite enrolling patients who had a high risk of prostate cancer recurrence, the majority of these men receiving Enoblituzumab remain cancer-free for 12 months or more after prostatectomy.”
New Imaging Techniques Highlight Specific Erection Nerves
Four decades ago, after his discovery of the bundles of nerves that control erection, Patrick Walsh, M.D., performed the first purposeful nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy.
Making Robotic Prostatectomy Even More Minimally Invasive
A new da Vinci robotic system involves only one small incision, near the patient’s navel. How does it compare to the standard robotic prostatectomy?
Just Invented: A Robotic Ultrasound Probe for the Prostate
Stoianovici’s lab has built a prototype of the new probe, and used it in preclinical tests – that were so promising, the FDA has approved the device for clinical trials.
40th Anniversary of a Lifesaving Discovery
In 1982, only 7 percent of men with prostate cancer underwent surgery. By 1992, 70 percent of men in their 50s and half of men in their 60s underwent surgery. That year, 100,000 radical prostatectomies were performed. By 2002, deaths from ...
SelectMDx: Could This Be a “Liquid Biopsy” for Active Surveillance?
For years, scientists have been searching for a liquid biopsy, a noninvasive test using blood or urine that could provide information about the aggressiveness of a man’s prostate cancer.
A New Urine Test for Aggressive Prostate Cancer?
The test looks for proteins in the urine that are made by clinically significant prostate cancer.
SelectMDx: Could This Be a “Liquid Biopsy” for Active Surveillance?
Nobody likes prostate biopsy. In fact, says epidemiologist Bruce J. Trock, M.P.H., Ph.D., the Frank Hinman, Jr. Professor in Urology, this is a major reason why men with low-risk prostate cancer, who otherwise could stay in active surveillance, ...
“Robust, Innovative, Forward-Thinking” - Personalized Active Surveillance, Safer Surgery
“It’s not just, ‘Your PSA is now 4, it used to be 3,’ but, ‘there’s an approximately 17-percent chance that you are harboring more aggressive cancer.”
This novel therapy slowed the growth in 93 percent of mice with prostate cancer, and 53 percent of mice with pancreatic cancer.
Partin: “Even in a global pandemic, our mission remains the same: to defeat urologic disease.”
Infection, Inflammation, and Prostate Cancer: “Smoking Gun” Evidence!
Because of the unique molecular tools used in this study, Sfanos, De Marzo and colleagues were able to catch the formation of these invasive cancers in real time.
Big Data Helps Shape A New Model for Live Kidney Donation
A tool developed by Morgan Grams, MD, PhD, screens potential kidney donor candidates by estimating their own chance of developing kidney disease, and it has been widely adopted by renal specialists around the globe.
If You Have Lymph Node Metastases After Radical Prostatectomy, What Should You Do?
Discovery Winter 2019
“Liquid Biopsy” for Advanced Prostate Cancer Spots Tiny Danger Signs Sooner
Discovery Winter 2019
A Key Target in Aggressive Prostate Cancer May Lead to New Drug Development
Discovery Winter 2019
Hopkins-Led Study Proves Active Surveillance is Safe for Small Kidney Tumors
Discovery Winter 2018
Immunotherapy for Kidney Cancer: Who are the “Exceptional Responders?”
Discovery January 01, 2017
Is the Androgen Receptor also responsible for bladder cancer development and progression?
Discovery January 01, 2017
At Last, a Desperately Needed Mouse Model of Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Discovery January 25, 2016
For Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer: New Hopkins Test Can Tell if Some Drugs Won't Work
Discovery January 25, 2016
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