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Despite common and occasionally serious side effects, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is widely used in the management of prostate cancer at all stages and presentations. ADT is frequently used in situations in which evidence of benefit is lacking, such as combined with definitive radiotherapy for favorable-risk prostate cancer, or in the primary management of elderly patients with low-risk disease. In intermediate- and high-risk disease, the role of ADT is being challenged and is decreasing in importance, as the ability to deliver very high biologically effective doses becomes more widely available, especially through the combination of external radiotherapy and brachytherapy. Appropriately selecting patients for ADT according to established indications will minimize the number exposed, whereas systematic patient education before initiating treatment can ameliorate the side effects. Minimizing the exposure to ADT and efforts to mitigate the side effects may have a beneficial effect on quality of life for many men with prostate cancer.

This review highlights the significant advances made in the diagnosis and management of penile cancer. This often-aggressive tumor phenotype has been characterized by its poor prognosis, mostly attributable to its late presentation and heterogeneity of surgical care because of the paucity of cases treated at most centers. Recent advances in understanding of the risk factors predisposing to penile cancer, including its association with the human papilloma virus (HPV), have brought forth the socioepidemiologic concept of HPV vaccination in certain high-risk populations and countries, which remains highly debated. The management of penile cancer has evolved in recent years with the adoption of penile-sparing and minimally invasive surgical approaches to the inguinal lymph nodes, which are a frequent site of regional spread for this malignancy. Lastly, this review highlights the importance of adopting a multimodal approach consisting of neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy followed by consolidative surgical resection in patients presenting with bulky/locally advanced nodal metastases from penile cancer.

This investigation reports on the biochemical and clinical outcomes of a newly created pan-Canadian Prostate Cancer Risk Stratification (ProCaRS) database developed by the Genitourinary Radiation Oncologists of Canada (GUROC). GUROC ProCaRS template-compliant data on 7974 patients who underwent radiotherapy were received from 7 unique databases. Descriptive analysis, Cox proportional hazards, and Kaplan-Meier analyses were performed using American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) biochemical failure-free survival (BFFS), prostate cancer-specific survival, and overall survival. Multivariable modeling for the primary ASTRO BFFS end point showed that age, prostate-specific antigen, T stage, and Gleason score and components such as hormonal therapy, and radiation treatment (brachytherapy with better outcome than external-beam) were predictive of outcome. Kaplan-Meier analysis of the existing GUROC and new NCCN classification system both showed good separation of all clinical outcome curves. The construction of a pan-Canadian database has informed important prostate cancer radiotherapy outcomes and risk stratification.