Time rewards those who strive, and success comes to those who persevere. As 2023 draws to a close, the year has left behind many noteworthy achievements in China’s field of urology, especially in the areas of prostate cancer surgery and drug treatments. On this occasion, Urology Frontier interviewed Xu Zhang, Academician of the Chinese PLA General Hospital and a pioneer in laparoscopic techniques in China’s urological surgery. In this interview, he shared significant developments in surgical and medical treatments for prostate cancer over the past year.

At the 2023 ESMO Congress, the field of urothelial carcinoma (UC) witnessed a major breakthrough. The global multicenter Phase III CheckMate-901 study showed that in the first-line treatment of unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (mUC), nivolumab combined with cisplatin-based chemotherapy achieved dual positive results in the co-primary endpoints of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), compared to standard cisplatin chemotherapy (Abstract LBA7). This is the first regimen in nearly 30 years to demonstrate significantly superior survival benefits over cisplatin chemotherapy in this field. Urology Frontier invited Academician Xu Zhang, the Chair-elect of the Urology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association (CUA) and from the Chinese PLA General Hospital, to discuss the general incidence, current diagnosis and treatment status, and recent advances in UC. He also provided an interpretation of the significant immunotherapy study results.

In the winter along the Neckar River, Heidelberg's old town was adorned in snow, providing a fitting backdrop for an academic atmosphere rich in culture and freedom. The "Semi-Live 2024" International Urology Conference and the CGAU Academic Annual Meeting between China and Germany were successfully held from January 18 to 20 in Heidelberg, a hub of European academia. Top urological experts from over 10 countries, including Germany, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, India, and Egypt, attended. Notable participants included Professor Markus Hohenfellner, Chair of Urology at the University of Heidelberg, Professor Vito Pansadoro, Chair of the European Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery Challenge Congress, Professor Richard Hautmann, pioneer of the "orthotopic ileal neobladder procedure," Professor Sascha Pahernik, Director of Urology at Nuremberg Hospital, Professor Liqiu Zhou from Peking University, and Professor Shuo Wang from The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine.