Hot Spots in Urogenital Basic Cancer Research and Clinics

Abstract

Urogenital cancer is very common in the male population of Western countries, a problem of major concern for public health systems, and a frequent test subject for oncological research. In this narrative, we identify the main hot topics for clinics and the basic science of urological cancer in the last few years (from 2021 onwards), considering the information given in the abstracts of almost 300 original articles published in outstanding journals of pathology, urology, and basic science. Once defined, for the top ten list of hot topics (the 2022 WHO update on the classification of urinary and male genital tumors, new entities in kidney cancer, urinary cancer-omics, update on the Gleason grading system, targeted therapies and other novel therapies in renal cancer, news on non-muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma, artificial intelligence in urologic cancer, intratumor heterogeneity influence in therapeutic failures in urologic neoplasms, intratumor microbiome and its influence in urologic tumor aggressiveness, and ecological principles and mathematics applied to urogenital cancer study), each issue is independently reviewed in an attempt to put together the most relevant updates and/or useful features accompanied by selected illustrations. This review article addresses some of the most interesting and current hot spots in urogenital basic cancer research and clinics and is mainly aimed toward clinicians, including pathologists, urologists, and oncologists. Readers are invited to explore each topic for further, more detailed information, in addition to the references provided.

Keywords: diagnosis; histology; kidney cancer; molecular analysis; penile cancer; prostate cancer; testicular cancer; treatment; urinary tract cancer; urogenital cancer.

Figure 1

Big cribriform structures indicative of poorer prognosis in a prostate adenocarcinoma (in these cases, the lack of basal cells must be confirmed by immunohistochemistry).

Figure 2

Hematoxylin-eosin staining of a eosinophilic solid and cystic renal cell carcinoma with its characteristic CK20 positivity (right).

Figure 3

Histologic images of a clear cell (upper left), large nested (upper right), trophoblastic differentiation (lower left), and plasmacytoid (lower right) urothelial carcinoma of the urinary bladder.

Figure 4

Typical histology of spermatocytic tumor (left) (original magnification, ×250) and well-differentiated papillary mesothelial tumor (right).

Figure 5

Histological features of “cuniculatum” (left), papillary (center), and verrucous (right) squamous cell carcinomas.

Figure 6

Histological (hematoxylin-eosin) and immunohistochemical (CK7+) (right) views of RCC with fibromyomatous stroma.

Figure 7

Histological view of a TFEB [t(6;11)] translocated renal cell carcinoma (left) with HMB-45 positivity (center) and FISH image (right).

Figure 8

Histological view of a SDHB-deficient renal cell carcinoma (left) with retained SDHA (center) and lost SDHB (right) proteins.

Figure 9

Example of prostate adenocarcinoma multifocality (blue circles) and intratumor heterogeneity (black rectangle) in an autopsy case.

Figure 10

Histological image of a urothelial papilloma (left) and a papillary urothelial carcinoma (right).

Figure 11

Gleason score 3 + 3 = 6 (Group 1) prostatic adenocarcinoma in a core biopsy sample.

Figure 12

Histologic example of intratumor heterogeneity in clear cell renal cell carcinoma showing low (left) and high (right) grades.