Questions in Daily Urologic Practice: Updates for Urologists and Diagnostic Pathologists

The principal role of the diagnostic surgical pathologist is to serve a patient by assisting the clinician in charge of the patient's care. In that capacity,the pathologist provides the vital informationthat should be directly and indirectly useful in guiding the clinician toward the most appropriate therapy. The material pathologists receive most commonly is a biopsy or a part of an organ removed after a definitive pro- dure. To extract useful information, pathological evaluation proceeds according to a set of guidelines. Simply reporting a diagnosis of cancer is inadequate. Detailed additional information is needed so that the clinician can go on to establish a the- peutic plan as needed. To best serve the patient, close interaction between the cli- cian and the pathologist is vital. In the field of urological pathology, there are problems specific to this system. Typically, in the prostate, because of its location, there is little room for a surgeon to work to obtain adequate resection margins, unlike with many other organs. As a result, questions arise such as "What constitutes an adequate surgical margin?" "What is the significance of extraprostatic extension of neoplasm that is still inside the resection margin?" and "What is the significance of neoplastic glands found on the resection margin marked with the ink?" It has been shown that a prostate needle core biopsy can generate much information that is immediately useful in predicting the extent of cancer in the prostate and, consequently, the outcome for the patient.

From the reviews:

"The book is authored by 2 pathologists and 1 urologist and contains 5 parts spanning 287 pages. ... the book is user-friendly and an easy read. It contains detailed and high-quality photographs. This book will prove useful to resident physicians in pathology and urology, as well as have pragmatic value to general pathologists." (Navin C. Shah and Isabell Sesterhenn, Journal of the American Medical Association, December, 2008)

"This book focuses on important questions about malignant diseases of the prostate, kidney, bladder, testes, and adrenal glands faced by urologists. ... The book is written for the benefit of both clinical urologists and diagnostic surgical pathologists. Residents also will benefit from the broad array of relevant questions ... . By focusing on the questions asked by practicing urologists, this book offers a source of easily referenced, valuable information for physicians managing patients with urologic malignancies." (Nicholas T Leone, Doody’s Review Service, May, 2009)

"This book attempts to answer various questions in the practice of Uro-Oncology. ... The questions and answers format is very interesting, with detailed comments and references. ... I conclude by saying that this book is a must read for all exam preparing post graduates. Lot of information they get by wide search are concentrated in single hand book. This is a good reference book for practicing urologists ... . Well updated book for all pathologists, practicing Uro-Pathology." (Urology, Vol. 74 (3), September, 2009)