Guideline of Guidelines

Many of us have developed an addiction to sports this summer. The World Cup football in Brazil with its continuous party spirit, the lush green lawns of Wimbledon and then the Test series between India and England. Our Web Editor could not contain himself:

1. I requested our Associate Editor Stacy Loeb, who has a strong background in statistical methodology and health services research, to launch a series entitled ‘Guideline of Guidelines’. Most busy urologists tell me that they often find the many different society guidelines confusing. So we decided to publish a critical summary, finishing up with a set of ‘key points’ that our readers can use in their day-to-day practices. And what better way to kick off than with our biggest controversy – screening for prostate cancer [1].

2. At #BAUS14 we conducted a live audience poll on when (and if) we should go completely digital. Here are the results:
   

3. Inflammatory responses to tumours are recognised as being as important as stage and grade in predicting outcomes of treatment. Our ‘Article of the Month’ is a large 12-year European series of radical surgery for upper tract TCC. Neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio appears to be an important biomarker, as values of >2.7 confer worse cancer-specific and overall survivals [2]. The ratio of total neutrophils:total lymphocytes is easy to calculate from a routine preoperative blood test. I hope that many of you will be able to counsel your patients with this clinically useful biomarker.

Prokar Dasgupta
Editor-in-Chief, BJUI
Guy’s Hospital, King’s College London, London, UK

1. Loeb S. Guidelines of guidelines: prostate cancer screening. BJU Int 2014; 114: 323–325
2. Dalpiaz O, Ehrlich GC, Mannweiler S et al. Validation of pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic factor in a European cohort of patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma. BJU Int 2014; 114: 334–339