Many thanks to Dr. John Barry for his commentary and sharing of these take-aways from the sessions at the 2024 meeting Kauai.

  • It takes half an hour to get from LIH to paradise (AKA the Hyatt Regency Kauai).
  • Were there >300 posters? Yes.
  •  Urinary biomarkers are coming of age for prostate cancer screening and for urothelial cancer screening and monitoring. Primary care providers may find the former more acceptable than doing DREs and ordering PSAs, and patients may find the latter, especially with a home kit, more acceptable than cystoscopy.
  • Immunotherapy for cancer can be given to some patients without exacerbating their underlying autoimmune diseases.
  • A slow release intravesical drug delivery system (think “pretzel”) has been developed. Perhaps it can be adapted to double-J stents for upper tract urothelial carcinoma.
  • For the brief podium presentations during the poster sessions, some interpreted the “One slide” rule to mean “One slide with as many animations as I have fingers.”
  • Aquablation is turning out to be an effective procedure for benign prostatic obstruction, even for giant prostates.
  • As ureteroscopy and laser lithotripsy evolve, percutaneous nephrostolithotomy will continue to become less necessary.
  • Developments in ultrasound technology and improving practitioner skills continue to reduce the need for x-ray imaging. Think “X-ray-free ultrasound-guided PCNL.”
  • It appears that degrees and definitions of “stone-free” are becoming standardized by our endourology colleagues. Perhaps they could develop dipsticks to replace 24-hour urine jugs for monitoring the urine of stone-forming patients, and for urine self-testing after a stone-forming patient has a nasty-for-making-a-stone meal? A test strip with sites for pH, specific gravity/osmolality, calcium, phosphate, sodium, citrate, oxalate, and uric acid comes to mind.
  • An asymptomatic, small renal mass doesn’t need to be treated if surveillance is acceptable to the patient.
  • Biparametric MRI (bpMRI) with no contrast agent seems to be as good at detecting clinically significant prostate cancer as the more expensive and time-consuming multiparametric MRI (mpMRI).
  • MRI-invisible prostate cancer exists.
  • Why does an MRI cost so much more in the US than in the UK or Canada?
  • Perhaps AI can be used for PIRAD scoring to prevent inconsistent interpretations by different radiologists.
  • Transperineal prostate biopsies are gradually becoming more preferred than transrectal prostate biopsies.
  • Perhaps we should stop calling Gleason Grade Group 1 a cancer? It would be less frightening for our patients.
  • Will focal therapy for localized prostate cancer turn out to be expensive active surveillance?
  • Triplet therapy seems to have overtaken doublet therapy for metastatic prostate cancer.
  • Is it time to re-discover estrogen therapy for metastatic castrate-sensitive prostate cancer?
  • The legacy of Dr. Emil Tanagho was presented by Dr. Peter Carroll. Well done.
  • Congratulations to Dr. E. David Crawford, our Distinguished Member for 2024.
  • The GU Tumor Board continues to be great fun.
  • Microplastics are turning up in human testicular tissue. The significance is unknown.
  • There is a 40% revision rate for penile implant surgery after phalloplasty.
  • What AI doesn’t know, AI may imagine, and its hallucinations may compromise patient care.
  • When given a microphone and a podium, urologic oncologists sometimes lose track of time.
  • A stent pusher has a gentle curve and can be used as a guide for a guidewire during cystoscopy when it’s difficult to cannulate a ureteral orifice. Leave the guidewire up, pull the pusher out, then pass the stent over the wire (Round Table Bodner Award winner).
  • The Round Table was great fun.
  • We meet every other year in Hawaii.
  • To Dr. Sia Daneshmand, WSUA Secretary & Program Committee Chair: Thank you for the last four years.