Minimally invasive surgery in oncologic urology: a recent review

This review highlights the most important advances and results in minimally invasive oncologic surgery reported in the literature within the past 12 months (between September 2006 and September 2007).

For prostate cancer, the most interesting findings concern ablative therapies for primary and recurrent prostate cancer with substantial functional and oncologic results. Unfortunately, no recent study assessed the long-term oncologic outcomes after laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. It appears that laparoscopic renal nephrectomy for localized renal cancer confers equivalent long-term oncologic results to open surgery. Recent studies reported a new minimally invasive procedure for inguinal lymphadenectomy in patients with penis cancer. Regarding bladder cancer, testis cancer and upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma, no recently published study has modified the current knowledge.

Findings from the past 12 months show both the continued progress of minimally invasive oncologic surgery and the need for further evolution to optimize morbidity and oncologic outcomes. We should acknowledge that overall the follow-up is limited and no randomized study was published allowing strong and fair evaluation of these emerging techniques.