Kenneth Nepple

• University of Iowa

Docetaxel is commonly used for treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Unfortunately, many prostate cancer patients develop resistance to docetaxel. Clinical markers less invasive than biopsies, such as blood samples, would be ideal for monitoring and predicting patient treatment outcomes to docetaxel. Lipid alterations are often associa...

PURPOSE This study investigates a real-world multicenter cohort of patients with urinary tract cancer (UTC), with primary disease sites including the bladder, urethra, and upper tract, who enrolled for research molecular testing of their germline and tumor. The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors that could affect the likelihood of identi...

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) tends to undergo intravascular tumor growth along the renal vein, forming tumor thrombi that may extend into the inferior vena cava (IVC) or even the right atrium (Level IV). Managing such cases requires a multidisciplinary approach, especially in patients with acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infecti...

No previous works have analyzed whether the order in which surgical teams see patients on morning rounds affects discharge efficiency at teaching hospitals. We obtained perioperative urologic surgery timing data at our academic institution from 2014 to 2019. We limited the analysis to routine postoperative day 1 discharges. Univariate and multivari...

Background Bladder cancer poses a significant public health burden, with high recurrence and progression rates in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Current treatment options include bladder-sparing therapies (BST) and radical cystectomy, both with associated risks and benefits. However, evidence supporting optimal management...

Background Robotic retroperitoneal partial nephrectomy (rRPN) has numerous advantages over transperitoneal surgery, including direct access to the renal hilum and posterior tumors, and avoidance of the peritoneal cavity in patients with a hostile abdomen. Although the use of the retroperitoneal approach has increased over the last decade, there is...

Malnutrition in hospitalized patients can impact health outcomes, quality of life, and health equity. Quality improvement initiatives and quality measurement can help improve the care of those hospitalized patients with malnutrition. The new Global Malnutrition Composite Score (GMCS) was recently adopted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Servi...

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) presents most frequently as bladder cancer and is the most common cancer of the urinary system in the United States. UC relapse and progression are common and impose a significant negative impact on the lives of patients and healthcare resources. To elucidate the biological mechanisms of UC and find novel biomarkers, we an...

Purpose: Programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) receptor and ligand interactions are the target of immunotherapies for more than 20 cancer types. Biomarkers that predict response to immunotherapy are microsatellite instability, tumor mutational burden, and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) immunohistochemistry. Structural variations (SVs) in PD-L1...

Introduction : Single agent intravesical chemotherapy regimens have historically compared unfavorably to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) as initial treatment following resection for patients with high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). However, there have been few reports of multi-agent intravesical chemotherapy regimens in this settin...

Purpose: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is currently recommended as adjuvant therapy following complete transurethral resection of bladder tumor for high-risk nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). In response to the BCG shortage, gemcitabine plus docetaxel (Gem/Doce) has been utilized at our institution in the BCG-naïve setting. We report the...

Introduction: Intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel (Gem/Doce) has emerged as an efficacious and well-tolerated salvage therapy for NMIBC. However, further rescue therapies are needed for subsequent recurrences or intolerance, particularly when cystectomy is refused or precluded. Valrubicin is an FDA-approved agent for BCG unresponsive disease, yet a...

Expectant management (EM) has been widely recommended for men with low-risk prostate cancers (PCa). We evaluated trends in EM and the sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with EM, initiating a National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline-concordant active surveillance (AS) monitoring protocol, and switching from EM to active treatmen...

451 Background: Outside of Lynch syndrome, few genetic factors have been associated with urothelial cancer (UC). This project seeks to describe the frequency of germline variants in a multi-center UC cohort. Methods: Patients diagnosed with UC from 1980 to 2019 and consented to the Total Cancer Care protocol by members of the Oncology Research Info...

497 Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is currently recommended as adjuvant therapy following complete transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). However, continued BCG production shortages have precluded the use of BCG in many urologic practices. Efficacy of sequential intrave...

573 Background: Intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the first-line treatment for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Unfortunately, disease recurrence/progression is common and associated with increased risk of death from bladder cancer. While radical cystectomy remains the preferred treatment for BCG unresponsive NMIBC...

496 Background: Intravesical gemcitabine-docetaxel (Gem/Doce) has emerged as an efficacious and well-tolerated therapy for NMIBC. At first cytoscopic evaluation, success rate for BCG failures is 75-80% with 60% of responders remaining disease free at 24 months. Success rates are even higher for BCG naïve patients with close to 90% disease free at 3...

Introduction Repeat BCG induction remains an option for select non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients who fail initial therapy. Alternative salvage intravesical regimens such as Gemcitabine and Docetaxel (Gem/Doce) have been investigated. We aimed to compare the efficacy BCG plus interferon a-2b (BCG/IFN) and Gem/Doce in patients with...

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the most immunologically distinct tumor types due to high response rate to immunotherapies, despite low tumor mutational burden. To characterize the tumor immune microenvironment of ccRCC, we applied single-cell-RNA sequencing (SCRS) along with T-cell-receptor (TCR) sequencing to map the transcripto...

Background Obesity is a major risk factor for renal cancer, yet our understanding of its effects on antitumor immunity and immunotherapy outcomes remains incomplete. Deciphering these associations is critical, given the growing clinical use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic disease and mounting evidence for an obesity paradox in the co...

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Active surveillance (AS) is a recognized strategy to manage low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) in the absence of cancer progression. Little prospective data exists on the decisional factors associated with selecting and adhering to AS in the absence of cancer progression. We developed a survey instrument to predict AS uptake and adher...

Understanding the effects of obesity on the immune profile of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients is critical, given the rising use of immunotherapies to treat advanced disease and recent reports of differential cancer immunotherapy outcomes with obesity. Here, we evaluated multiple immune parameters at the genetic, soluble protein, and cellular le...

Introduction: Rescue intravesical therapies for BCG failure non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients remain a critical focus of ongoing research. Sequential intravesical gemcitabine and docetaxel (Gem/Doce) has shown safety and efficacy in 2 retrospective, single institution cohorts. This doublet has since been adopted as an intravesica...

Introduction: Dystroglycan (DG) is a cell surface receptor for extracellular matrix proteins involved in tissue mechanical stability and matrix organization. Initial work has demonstrated that alpha-DG expression is decreased in many types of adenocarcinoma, including prostate, and potentially associated with the development of metastatic disease....

Objective Active surveillance (AS) is an increasingly utilized strategy for monitoring men with low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) that allows them to defer active treatment (AT) in the absence of cancer progression. Studies have explored reasons for selecting AS and for then switching to AT, but less is known about men’s experiences being on AS. We in...

Malnutrition in hospitalized patients has long been recognized as a contributor to poor patient outcomes; malnutrition often leads to higher costs of care. Thus, it is important to improve the identification of patients who are at risk for malnutrition or already malnourished and to initiate treatment to optimize outcomes. The Malnutrition Quality...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the association of marital status, a marker of social support, with all-cause and prostate cancer-specific mortality in a cohort of men with early-stage prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 3,579 men treated for localized (stage 1...

Objective: To identify factors associated with nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) American Urological Association (AUA) guideline compliance in a rural state, to evaluate compliance rates over time, and to assess the impact of patient and provider rurality on delivery of NMIBC care. Methods: We identified 847 Iowans in Surveillance, Epide...

Purpose of Review Malnutrition in a prevalent problem in patients undergoing radical cystectomy. Preoperative malnutrition has been shown to contribute to increased rates of postoperative complications. Given the significant morbidity and mortality of the procedure of radical cystectomy, there is potential for improvement in patient outcomes by nut...

Background: Multiple definitions of high-risk prostate cancer (PC) exist in clinical practice. Prior studies have primarily evaluated the variability in prediction of biochemical recurrence. Objective: To examine the impact of different definitions on mortality after radical prostatectomy (RP). Design, setting, and participants: Retrospective...

Introduction Medical transportation of prisoners carries inherent risks. Telemedicine may allow prisoners to receive appropriate evaluation, testing, and treatment with minimal need for transportation. Our medical center manages the urologic complaints of all prisoners in our state and uses telemedicine to evaluate patients prior to transportation....

Objectives: Obesity, typically defined as a body mass index (BMI)≥30kg/m(2), is an established risk factor for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) but is paradoxically linked to less advanced disease at diagnosis and improved outcomes. However, BMI has inherent flaws, and alternate obesity-defining metrics that emphasize abdominal fat are available. We inv...

Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the most effective initial intravesical therapy for high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, but many patients still fail. Combination intravesical BCG and interferon (IFN) will salvage some patients but results remain suboptimal. Objective: We hypothesized that further immunostimulation with i...

Objective: To characterize changes in surgical assistance patterns over time for commonly performed urologic operations. Methods: This study used the Medicare Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary Master File to identify cases performed by urologists from 2003-2014. CPT modifiers were used to identify operations assisted by second surgeons and ad...

Immunotherapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has shown tremendous promise. However, clinical responses remain <30% and the reasons are unclear. Obesity affects ~35% of U.S. adults and is a major risk factor for RCC. We reported previously that obesity impairs immunotherapeutic efficacy in a murine renal cancer model, due to increased myelo...

Background Malnutrition is a significant problem for hospitalized patients. However, the true prevalence of reported malnutrition diagnosis in real-world clinical practice is largely unknown. Using a large collaborative multi-institutional database, the rate of malnutrition diagnosis was assessed and used to assess institutional variables associate...

Purpose: Malnutrition is emerging as a significant factor in patient outcomes. A contemporary review of malnutrition for the urologist has not been performed. We provide a review of the available literature and current standards of care for malnutrition screening, assessment, and intervention with a focus on patients with bladder cancer treated wi...

Introduction We reviewed the safety and effectiveness of our hospital’s urologic telemedicine (TM) program that has been utilized for the Iowa prisoner population for over a decade. Methods A retrospective review of TM visits of male prisoners from 2007 to 2014 was performed. Effectiveness of TM visits was assessed by 1) concordance of TM and in-p...

Introduction: We previously showed that urological outreach clinics significantly increase access to urological clinical care in rural populations. How such clinics affect access to urological procedural care is unknown. In this study we analyzed the use of outreach facilities for outpatient hospital based urological procedural care in a rural sta...

Patients with high-grade muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) receive intravesical therapy with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) as the well-established standard-of-care. However, even with prompt induction of intravesical therapy, approximately 40 % of patients will recur within 2 years. For patients who fail BCG, options include radical cystectom...

Background: We analyzed differences in patient selection and perioperative outcomes between robotic-fellowship trained and non-fellowship trained surgeons in their initial experience with robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy. Methods: Data through surgeon case 10 was analyzed. Forty patients were identified from two fellowship train...

Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) remains the standard of care in the treatment of bladder carcinoma in situ and as adjuvant therapy after thorough transurethral resection of high-grade non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Despite BCG therapy, in up to 40% of patients it would recur and 60% to 70% of those would fail repeat BCG induction b...

Background Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is a common cancer affecting many patients in the United States. Nephroureterectomy remains the gold standard for the treatment of high grade upper tract disease or low grade tumors that are not amenable to endoscopic management. Recent reports have shown a decrease in UC recurrence in patients who underwent nep...

Background: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is the most effective intravesical therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), but patients can fail or supply shortages can develop. For BCG failures, radical cystectomy is recommended. However, in patients who desire bladder preservation or are poor surgical candidates, alternative salvage in...

To assess the utility of foreskin pathology analysis, we evaluated the outcomes and the costs of this practice in patients for whom penile cancer was not suspected. Adult circumcision specimens are routinely sent for pathologic analysis even when penile cancer is not suspected, increasing costs with little benefit. All adult patients who underwent...

Multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) is a nonfunctioning kidney that does not undergo normal differentiation and therefore has immature-appearing renal parenchyma with cystic dilations. MCDK is often diagnosed on antenatal ultrasound, where MCDK is the second most common urinary tract abnormality after hydronephrosis. MCDK is almost always unilater...

Introduction: We compared a single surgeon, single-institution experience with the Wolf Ultrasonic Model #2167.05 (Richard Wolf Medical Instruments Co., Vernon Hills, IL, USA), Lithoclast Ultra (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA, USA), and CyberWand (Gyrus/ACMI, Southborough, MA, USA) lithotripters for percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL). We assessed...

Objectives/HypothesisThis study aimed to determine the incidence of major complications following both primary and revision transsphenoidal pituitary surgery. Major complications included endocrinopathic, skull base, orbital, hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications, respiratory failure, and death. Secondarily, this study aimed to examine facto...

Purpose: Despite known survival benefits, overall use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy before cystectomy is low, raising concerns about quality of care. However, not all cystectomy patients are the eligible for this therapy. We sought to establish the maximum proportion of patients expected to receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy if all eligible patients re...

The goal of this study was to determine the incidence of major complications following primary and revision functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). In addition, this study aimed to determine factors associated with the occurrence of complications including patient and provider characteristics and the use of image guidance system (IGS) technolog...

We report the first 100 patients who underwent prostate brachytherapy as monotherapy with 125I at an institution with moderate volume radical prostatectomy but low volume brachytherapy (<2 cases per month). Learning curve and quality improvement was assessed by way of achieving prescription dose targets. From May 2002 to August 2006, 100 patients u...

The introduction of PSA in 1987 (Stamey et al. N Engl J Med 317(15):909–16, 1987) as a serum marker for prostate cancer and its subsequent development as a screening test for early detection (Catalona et al. N Engl J Med 324(17):1156–61, 1991) dramatically altered the diagnosis and management of this disease. PSA correlated directly with prostate c...

Prostate cancer detection and management continues to be an area of immense study, debate, and controversy. Despite the best efforts of urologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists, some men will die of prostate cancer despite the currently available options for prostate cancer treatment. On the opposite end of the spectrum from that...

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in men and has significant treatment-associated complications. Prostate cancer chemoprevention has the potential to decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with this disease. Chemoprevention research to date has primarily focused on nutrients and 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors (5AR...

Background: Medical comorbidity is a confounding factor in prostate cancer (PCa) treatment selection and mortality. Large-scale comparative evaluation of PCa mortality (PCM) and overall mortality (OM) restricted to men without comorbidity at the time of treatment has not been performed. Objective: To evaluate PCM and OM in men with no recorded c...

Unlabelled: WHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: Lymph node dissection and it's extend during robot-assisted radical cystectomy varies based on surgeon related factors. This study reports outcomes of robot-assisted extended lymphadenectomy based on surgeon experience in both academic and private practice settings. Objective:...

The purpose of this article is to provide an update on the current literature evaluating outcomes with laparoscopic prostatectomy. The reported perioperative, oncologic, and functional outcomes with this approach are reviewed and comparisons are made to the open and robotic-assisted approaches.

Purpose: Intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin is used to decrease recurrence rates of nonmuscle invasive urothelial carcinoma. Irritative urinary symptoms are a common side effect of treatment and frequently limit treatment tolerance. While anticholinergic medications may be used for symptom prophylaxis, to our knowledge they have not been evalua...

To evaluate the potential benefit of performing off-clamp robot-assisted partial nephrectomy as it relates to renal functional outcomes, while assessing the safety profile of this unconventional surgical approach. Twenty-nine patients who underwent off-clamp robot-assisted partial nephrectomy for suspected renal cell carcinoma at Washington Univers...

Background: Previous experimental research has reported minimal differences in pressure maintenance between different versions of standard insufflators (SI). However, a recent report identified potential clinical benefits with a valveless pressure barrier insufflator (PBI). We sought to perform a benchtop objective evaluation of SI and PBI systems...

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality with significant treatment associated complications. Chemoprevention could potentially decrease the morbidity and mortality from the disease. Prostate cancer has been an attractive target for chemoprevention. Research has primarily focused on 5 alpha reductase inhibitors and nutrients in...

Objectives: To investigate whether random bladder, and prostatic urethral biopsies and individual upper tract cytologies (restaging) provide useful clinical information in addition to cystoscopy and bladder cytology in assessing initial intravesical therapy response for high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Methods: We retrospectively r...

Partial nephrectomy has been increasingly recommended over radical nephrectomy for the management of small renal masses based on improved renal functional outcomes without sacrifice of oncologic effectiveness. Robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) has been introduced in an effort to offer another minimally invasive option for nephron-sparing su...

The adoption of robotic assistance has contributed to the increased utilization of partial nephrectomy for the management of renal tumors. However, partial nephrectomy can be technically challenging because of intraoperative hemorrhage, which limits the ability to identify the tumor margin and may necessitate the conversion to open surgery or radic...

As the American population ages, benign prostatic hyperplasia and its associated lower urinary tract symptoms have become increasingly important causes of chronic morbidity. We assessed the comparative effectiveness of 2 common forms of surgical therapy, transurethral prostate resection and laser therapy, for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Using pat...

An increase in kidney cancer was reported in the United States but overall rates may obscure trends in age specific groups. We explored whether the increase in kidney cancer incidence differs across age groups. We ascertained the 63,843 incident renal cancer cases in SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) cancer registries for 1975 to 20...

The unpredictable behavior of carcinoma in situ and its high potential for recurrence and progression make identifying patient characteristics predicting a poor prognosis a priority. We assessed which factors affect the response to bacillus Calmette-Guérin plus interferon-α therapy in patients with urothelial carcinoma in situ. We analyzed data on...

In a group of children diagnosed with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) we evaluated renal ultrasound findings, associated findings on renal scan, and prognostic impact on VUR resolution. Medical records were reviewed for children with primary reflux and no history of antenatal hydronephrosis who underwent an initial renal ultrasound. Abnormal renal ultr...

Objectives: Oncologic outcomes of robotic cystectomy have focused on pathology and not on survival endpoints. We compared pathology, recurrence, and survival in a single surgeon series of open and robotic cystectomy since the introduction of robotic cystectomy. Methods: We identified all patients treated by a single surgeon with radical cystecto...

Objective: Endorectal MRI (ER-MRI) may identify areas suspicious for prostate cancer. We evaluated the accuracy of ER-MRI compared with subsequent pathology specimen from prostatectomy. Materials and methods: We reviewed 309 open radical retropubic prostatectomy cases (RRP) from 2003 to 2008 to identify 94 men with a preoperative ER-MRI, which w...

Patients with bladder cancer who have prosthetic devices, such as a cardiac pacemaker, artificial heart valve or orthopedic hardware, and who undergo intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin therapy are theoretically at higher risk for complications, including bacterial seeding of pacemaker wires or orthopedic hardware, and at further risk for infecti...

In a multicenter, prospectively randomized study we evaluated bacillus Calmette-Guérin alone vs bacillus Calmette-Guérin plus interferon α-2b and megadose vitamins vs recommended daily allowance vitamins during induction and maintenance intravesical therapy in the treatment of nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer. Patients who were bacillus Calmette-G...

The Spanish Urological Club for Oncological Treatment recently developed a scoring model to stratify the recurrence risk in patients treated with intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin using gender, age, grade, tumor status, T category, multiplicity and associated carcinoma in situ. We investigated the ability of this model to stratify the recurrenc...

Giant renal angiomyolipomas have been reported, but typically have the pathognomonic finding of fat density on CT scan. We present the case of a 53-year-old male with a symptomatic, 35-cm, predominantly cystic renal mass without fat density on CT that on nephrectomy was found to be a fat-poor angiomyolipoma with predominantly epithelioid morphology...

Large masses are evaluated with imaging to assess primary origin and tumor spread. We present the unusual case of a 53-year-old male with a 17-cm right upper quadrant mass suspected to be renal or adrenal in origin based on radiographic findings. After surgical excision, the mass was subsequently discovered to be primary hepatocellular carcinoma wi...

A 23-year-old female was involved in a motor vehicle collision with multiple injuries, including a right acetabular fracture, but no pelvic fracture. Urology consultation was obtained due to difficulty placing a urethral catheter. Examination revealed a longitudinal urethral tear with vaginal laceration extending 2 cm from the urethral meatus proxi...

Stage T1Hg bladder cancer should be considered an aggressive and potentially lethal disease. The importance of initial re-resection to identify unrecognized muscle-invasive disease is significant. Most patients with high-risk disease are candidates for initial bladder salvage with intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine for immunotherapy, a p...

Prostate biopsy involvement and Gleason score guide treatment decisions in prostate cancer. We evaluated concordance in Gleason score and laterality between biopsy and radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) specimens and factors that influenced this relationship. We reviewed 538 prostate cancer diagnoses at a Veterans Affairs medical center (2000-2...

ObjectiveTo provide an update on the use of interferon (IFN) in the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). MethodsA literature review of intravesical IFN was performed. ResultsIn vitro evidence suggested that IFN combined with BCG may have a synergistic effect on the immune response, and treatment regimens with IFN have used red...

Treatment of vesicoureteral reflux with observation or surgery is based on a number of clinical variables. We developed a prognostic calculator to predict spontaneous resolution using a computational model. External validation of the computational model is crucial for wide application in clinical practice. We reviewed the records of 82 Japanese chi...