Many thanks to Dr. John Barry for his commentary and sharing of these take-aways from the sessions at the 2025 meeting Napa.

  • The number of attendees was surprising for a non-Hawaii meeting.
  • The TAR-20 pretzel concept of delivering chemotherapy into the bladder is an interesting one; will it be combined with the double-J ureteral stent concept for the delivery of therapeutic agents to treat upper tract urothelial carcinomas?
  • Many of the one-slide presenters for the 2-minute poster presentations can’t count.
  • Intravesical gemcitabine is an affordable treatment for high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
  • Re-induction with Nadofaragene Firadenovec is safe.
  • Preoperative biomarker scores [neutrophil/lymphocyte (NLR) and/or hemoglobin, serum albumin, lymphocyte, platelet (HALP)] can be outcome predictors for radical cystectomy patients.
  • Sub-centimeter pulmonary nodules have no influence on outcomes in clinical stage 1 non-seminoma testis tumor patients.
  • Fluconazole should probably be added to penile prosthesis perioperative antibiotic protocols.
  • Optilume works best when it’s the first treatment for urethral strictures.
  • A single Zwitterionic coating reduced ureteral stent encrustation – in a lab model.
  • Endourologists are three times more likely than general urologists to treat symptomatic stones at initial presentations.
  • When AI doesn’t know an answer, it may hallucinate.
  • The Charlson Comorbidity Index is a weighted system, not a simple counting of comorbidities.
  • Darolutamide, an androgen receptor inhibitor (ARI), was the star of many prostate cancer presentations.
  • Health policy forums tend to run overtime.
  • The “peak” and the “end” are what one remembers about an experience.
  • When given a podium and a microphone, lawyers, like oncologists, seem to lose track of time.
  • As high-resolution micro-ultrasound develops, will it replace MRI for prostate cancer staging, biopsy targeting, and focal therapy?
  • Is whole gland treatment of prostate cancer overtreatment? Focal therapists seek to answer the question.
  • Will urine-based tumor markers, like MyProstate Score 2.0, make prostate cancer screening more likely to be done by primary care practitioners?
  • Will urine-based tumor markers, like Cxbladder, become substitutes for cystoscopy and cytology to screen for urothelial cancer and to monitor responses to therapy?
  • Check the retail drug costs for a health care system rather than costs for an individual patient.
  • Beta-3 agonists are becoming preferred over anticholinergics for over-active bladder treatment. A problem for patients is the financial gauntlet.
  • Asymptomatic bacteriuria doesn’t need to be treated, even in transplant recipients.
  • The Bubble Access Needle is a clever adjunct for percutaneous access to a kidney.
  • Topical vaginal estrogen is safe for women with hormone-sensitive cancers.
  • Machine learning algorithms are useful to predict survival of prostate cancer patients.
  • The concept of a urachus-based peritoneal hinge-flap for bladder augmentation is clever.
  • “MiGUTS” is a clever acronym; it stands for “Multi-Institutional Genitourinary Trauma Study.”
  • Should there be an AUA course entitled “Transition of Care for Pediatric Spina Bifida Patients to Adult Urology?” (There is, it was just announced.).
  • Screen for depression and suicidal thoughts in young men with testis cancer.
  • The GU Tumor Board was great as were the State-of-the-Art Lectures and Expert Panels.
  • Dr. Boorjian gave an excellent Sadoughi Lecture.
  • Passing a double-J stent in a case of ureteral obstruction due to invasive bladder cancer carries with it the risk of cancer seeding of the upper urinary tract.
  • It’s OK to biopsy small renal masses. Many of them don’t need to be treated.
  • A thulium laser will cut a stone-encased ureteral stent. A holmium laser is less likely to do so.
  • Don’t do laser lithotripsy in an air bubble.
  • Congratulations to Joel Gelman, the WSAUA Distinguished Member for 2025.
  • The Round Table was great fun. Vampires, Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and the Big Leballski were all featured.
  • Hawaii, here we come.