Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become malignant.
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies. Immunotherapy is under preliminary research for its potential to treat various forms of cancer.
Kidney cancer, also known as renal cancer, is a group of cancers that starts in the kidney. Symptoms may include blood in the urine, a lump in the abdomen, or back pain. Fever, weight loss, and tiredness may also occur. Complications can include spread to the lungs or brain.
Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye. In women, they most commonly occur on the legs, while in men, they most commonly occur on the back. About 25% of melanomas develop from moles. Changes in a mole that can indicate melanoma include an increase in size, irregular edges, change in color, itchiness, or skin breakdown.
The sentinel lymph node is the hypothetical first lymph node or group of nodes draining a cancer. In case of established cancerous dissemination it is postulated that the sentinel lymph nodes are the target organs primarily reached by metastasizing cancer cells from the tumor.
Transitional cell carcinoma, also called urothelial carcinoma, is a type of cancer that typically occurs in the urinary system. It is the most common type of bladder cancer and cancer of the ureter, urethra, and urachus. Symptoms of urothelial carcinoma in the bladder include hematuria. Diagnosis includes urine analysis and imaging of the urinary tract (cystoscopy). Transitional cell carcinomas arise from the transitional epithelium, a tissue lining the inner surface of these hollow organs. When the term "urothelial" is used, it specifically refers to a carcinoma of the urothelium, meaning a transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary system.
Neoadjuvant therapy is the administration of therapeutic agents before a main treatment. One example is neoadjuvant hormone therapy prior to radical radiotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Neoadjuvant therapy aims to reduce the size or extent of the cancer before using radical treatment intervention, thus both making procedures easier and more likely to succeed and reducing the consequences of a more extensive treatment technique, which would be required if the tumor were not reduced in size or extent.
Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ARHGDIB gene. Aliases of this gene include RhoGDI2, GDID4, Rho GDI 2, and others.
Rab GDP dissociation inhibitor beta is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GDI2 gene.
A metastasis suppressor is a protein that acts to slow or prevent metastases from spreading in the body of an organism with cancer. Metastasis is one of the most lethal cancer processes. This process is responsible for about ninety percent of human cancer deaths. Proteins that act to slow or prevent metastases are different from those that act to suppress tumor growth. Genes for about a dozen such proteins are known in humans and other animals.
Douglas S. Scherr, M.D. is an American surgeon and specialist in Urologic Oncology. He is currently the Clinical Director of Urologic Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He also holds an appointment at the Rockefeller University as a Visiting Associate Physician. Scherr was the first physician at Cornell to perform a robotic prostatectomy as well as a robotic cystectomy.
A brain metastasis is a cancer that has metastasized (spread) to the brain from another location in the body and is therefore considered a secondary brain tumor. The metastasis typically shares a cancer cell type with the original site of the cancer. Metastasis is the most common cause of brain cancer, as primary tumors that originate in the brain are less common. The most common sites of primary cancer which metastasize to the brain are lung, breast, colon, kidney, and skin cancer. Brain metastases can occur in patients months or even years after their original cancer is treated. Brain metastases have a poor prognosis for cure, but modern treatments are allowing patients to live months and sometimes years after the diagnosis.
Simon J. Hall is an American researcher who is the Associate Professor and Kyung Hyun Kim, M.D. Chair of Urology and Assistant Professor, Department of Gene and Cell Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Barbara and Maurice Deane Prostate Health and Research Center at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, both in New York City.
William K. Oh, is an American medical oncologist, academic and industry leader and expert in the management of genitourinary malignancies, including prostate, renal, bladder and testicular cancers.
Active immunotherapy is a type of immunotherapy that aims to stimulate the host's immune system or a specific immune response to a disease or pathogen and is most commonly used in cancer treatments. Active immunotherapy is also used for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, prion disease, and multiple sclerosis. Active immunotherapies induce an immune response through direct immune system stimulation, while immunotherapies that administer antibodies directly to the system are classified as passive immunotherapies. Active immunotherapies can elicit generic and specific immune responses depending on the goal of the treatment. The categories of active immunotherapy divide into:
Dr. Michael A. Palese, is an American urologist specializing in robotic, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, with a special emphasis on robotic surgeries relating to kidney cancer and kidney stone disease.
Sanjiv Sam Gambhir was an American physician–scientist. He was the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor in Cancer Research, Chairman of the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a professor by courtesy in the departments of Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Additionally, he served as the Director of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS), Canary Center at Stanford for Cancer Early Detection and the Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics Center (PHIND). He authored 680 publications and had over 40 patents pending or granted. His work was featured on the cover of over 25 journals including the Nature Series, Science, and Science Translational Medicine. He was on the editorial board of several journals including Nano Letters, Nature Clinical Practice Oncology, and Science Translational Medicine. He was founder/co-founder of several biotechnology companies and also served on the scientific advisory board of multiple companies. He mentored over 150 post-doctoral fellows and graduate students from over a dozen disciplines. He was known for his work in molecular imaging of living subjects and early cancer detection.
Dr. Kodaganur S. Gopinath, MS, FAMS, FRCS (Edin) is an Indian surgical oncologist, known for his pioneering work on oncological research. He is a recipient of many awards including Dr. B. C. Roy Award, considered to be the premier medical honour in the country. The President of India recognised his services to the field of oncology, by awarding him the fourth highest civilian award, Padma Shri, in 2010.
J. William Harbour is an American ophthalmologist, ocular oncologist and cancer researcher. He is Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He previously served as the vice chair and director of ocular oncology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and associate director for basic science at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine.
Dr. Alvaro Morales, MD, FRCSC is a Colombian-Canadian urologist, surgeon and Member of the Order of Canada who is noted for his work in the fields of cancer research and testosterone deficiency. He is particularly known for his pioneering work using Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) to treat bladder cancer, the first proven immunotherapy for cancer. A 2018 article in the Canadian Urological Association Journal said Morales' cancer research "changed the course of urology" and described him as a "living legend."
