Editorial
Year: 2026
Type: editorial
Abstract: As this issue is released, the Editorial Team would like to express our sincere appreciation to all authors, reviewers, and readers for their continued support. Rigorous peer review and high-quality submissions remain the foundation of a clinically relevant journal, particularly as urologists balance demanding clinical practice with meaningful academic contributions. This issue showcases a diverse portfolio of scholarship spanning benign urology, functional urology, stone disease, and urologic oncology—united by a common focus on practical decision-making and patient-centered outcomes. In prostate disease, Presson and de Riese present a scoping review synthesizing evidence across multiple diagnostic eras and modalities, reporting a consistently inverse association between benign prostatic hyperplasia/prostate size and the incidence of biopsy-proven prostate cancer in the overwhelming majority of included studies. Their work offers a timely framework for interpreting prostate volume in everyday counseling and diagnostic pathways, while also emphasizing the need to disentangle biology from detection effects in future prospective studies. In reconstructive and men’s health, Soeroto and Maulana systematically review the relationship between serum testosterone and male urethral stricture, summarizing signals that low testosterone may be linked to stricture occurrence, longer stricture length, and recurrence—potentially through impaired periurethral vascularity and wound healing. This line of inquiry is clinically important because it suggests a plausible, modifiable host factor that could eventually complement existing procedural strategies for recurrent disease. Functional urology is represented by Tsai and colleagues’ review on low-energy shock wave therapy for functional bladder disorders. By consolidating mechanistic and clinical observations—anti-inflammatory effects, analgesia, regenerative signaling, and the potential to enhance intravesical drug delivery—this review helps clinicians understand where low-energy shock waves may fit within a noninvasive therapeutic continuum and what evidence gaps remain before broader adoption. Several contributions also address risk stratification and treatment selection in uro-oncology. Tsai et al evaluate the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer, reporting that elevated NLR is associated with poorer outcomes and proposing NLR as a pragmatic tool that may support surveillance intensity and treatment planning between radical cystectomy and trimodal therapy. In upper tract urothelial carcinoma, Chang et al report that concurrent bladder involvement is independently associated with worse overall survival and cancer-specific outcomes after radical nephroureterectomy, underscoring the need for vigilant bladder surveillance and early intervention strategies in higher-risk patients. Complementing outcome prognostication, Wu et al compare techniques for bladder cuff excision across a multicenter Taiwanese cohort, providing granular comparative data that can inform surgical planning when balancing oncologic control, recurrence patterns, and real-world feasibility. Finally, Lee and colleagues highlight an important epidemiologic signal: a rising prevalence of uric acid stones in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, with a particularly notable burden among older adults. Their findings reinforce the clinical relevance of metabolic risk assessment and targeted prevention strategies as population demographics shift. We hope readers find these articles both intellectually engaging and immediately applicable to practice. We remain committed to fostering high-quality science and clinically meaningful dialogue within the urological community.
Source: Urological Science
Author: Chung-Hsin Chen
Institution: National Taiwan University Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Urology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7129589016
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