BERKELEY, CA USA (UroToday.com) The third edition of the “Progresses in Uro-oncology” symposium addressed an audience of Eastern European urologists interested in minimally-invasive surgery. It was held in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) on September 13-15, 2012.
The meeting attracted over 150 urologists, medical and radiation therapy oncologists, uro-pathologists, and nurses from 11 countries, primarily from the eastern part of our continent. During the 3 days of the meeting, 5 live surgeries were performed and over 50 state-of-the-art lectures were presented. The symposium was organized by the “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj-Napoca in collaboration with the University of Milan and the European Institute of Oncology Milan and also enjoyed the patronage of the Romanian Urologic Association.
By promoting an interdisciplinary approach of uro-oncological diseases and minimally invasive therapies (robotic surgery, HIFU, interventional imaging), the symposium organizers aimed to stimulate the development, in Eastern Europe, of urologic centers that meet Western European standards. With this third meeting, chaired by Prof. Ioan Coman, MD, PhD (Director of the Centre for Robotic Urologic Surgery in Cluj-Napoca) and Assoc. Prof. Ottavio de Cobelli, MD (Director of the Urology Division of the European Institute of Oncology, Milan), the meeting in Cluj-Napoca gained reference as the most important gathering of minimally-invasive urology interests in Eastern Europe.
The symposium was preceded by a postgraduate course for residents, focusing on “Treatment alternatives in localized prostate cancer:” surgical options (open, laparoscopic and robotic), radiation therapy (either external or brachytherapy), cryosurgery, and HIFU.
The most stimulating part of the symposium was the live surgery. It must be emphasized that, by broadcasting robotic surgical procedures performed live by surgeons from Eastern Europe, this meeting is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to highlight the high quality and potentiality of urologic surgery in Eastern Europe. Urologists from the Czech Republic (Ivan Kolombo), Greece (Vassilios Poulakis), Romania (Ioan Coman, Nicolae Crisan), as well as Western European country “supporters” (Ottavio de Cobelli, Deliu-Victor Matei, Jens Rassweiler) performed outstanding and challenging robot-assisted procedures. Antergrade and retrograde nerve-sparing radical prostatectomies, pro-peritoneal Heilbrun technique for radical prostatectomy, partial nephrectomy, as well as off-clamping renal tumor enucleation polarized the audience's attention and generated stimulating debates. A very interesting session was dedicated to the state and level of experience in urologic robotic surgery in Eastern and southeastern Europe. The main robotic centers in this part of Europe reported on the state-of-implementation of robotic surgery in uro-oncological practices and the peculiarities and difficulties of each country. Only by reporting and sharing their experiences can new solutions to building efficient strategies emerge. As a result, urologic robotic surgery centers from the Czech Republic (Ivan Kolombo), Greece (Vassilios Poulakis), Slovenia (Sandy Poteko), Romania (Nicolae Crisan), and Bulgaria (Tsvetin Ghenadiev) reported an increased awareness of the need to develop (in this area) a policy targeted on the implementation of a minimally invasive approach. Urologists from neighboring emerging countries such as Serbia, Ukraine, and Poland, having no implanted da Vinci® robotic systems available for urology, followed carefully the presentations and the discussion.
Other hotly debated sessions provided discussions about the management of robotic surgery complications (interventional radiologist Franco Orsi, radiation therapist Barbara Jereczek, both from Milan) as well as thought-provoking issues concerning nephron-sparing robotic surgery (renal mass biopsy: Franco Orsi, the use of renal scores: Vassilios Poulakis, the use of TileProbe: Ottavio de Cobelli) the timing of the radical cystectomy in T1G3-bladder TCC (Marek Babiuk, Czech Republic), bladder sparing strategies (Gabriel Kacsò, Romania), the role of radiation therapy and extended lymph node dissection in locally advanced prostate cancer (Andrei Fodor, Italy) and the laparoscopic radical nephroureterectomy (Krzysztof Szkarlat, Poland).
Satellite sessions included participation of uro-pathologists (with important special guest speakers including Prof, Rodolfo Montironi, Prof. Marina Scarpelli, both form Ancona, and Prof. Georg Micuz from Vienna), robotic gynecologic oncologists (Angelo Maggioni, Vanna Zanagnolo, both from Milan), as well as robotic surgery scrub nurses (Lichosic Danuta and Chiara Arnaboldi, Milan).
The high quality of the oral presentations, the variety of the examined items, and mainly the live surgery performed (for the very first time) by urologists from Eastern Europe made this event a milestone in the efforts of gathering urologic minimally invasive interests.
Reported by:
Deliu Victor Matei, MD, PhD student
Department of Urology
European Institute of Oncology
Via Ripamonti 435
20141 Milan, Italy
