Surgery for the urinary tract cancer

The most common urological tumours consist of tumours of the kidney, the bladder and the prostate, which all tend to occur with an increasing frequency in the population. Along with the improved early diagnosis of renal and prostatic carcinomas, the number of patients requiring radical treatment is also increasing. Radical nephrectomy is still the treatment of choice for renal cancer. The treatment of infiltrative local bladder carcinoma is radical cystectomy, whereas superficial bladder carcinoma is still treated by using endoscopic transurethral coagulation, resection or laceration. Organ-saving surgery has also been adopted into use in the treatment of small local renal and bladder cancer. In female patients with local infiltrative bladder cancer it is possible to reserve the normal micturation by a new technique in which the urethra is retained after radical surgery, or the appendix is used for replacing the urethra after radical cystectomy. These new techniques improve the patients' quality of life. Anatomic radical retropubic prostatectomy has reduced the number of surgical complications in the treatment of prostatic cancer. The significance of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies for the patient's prognosis is still controversial and requires further research.