Hsiang Ying Lee, MD

Hsiang Ying Lee, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, discusses upper tract urothelial carcinoma’s (UTUC) unusual prevalence in the Taiwanese population, along with the national effort to gather more information on the disease. She explains that while there are 1-2 cases of UTUC per 100,000 people in Western countries, there are 4.09-4.37 cases per 100,000 people in Taiwan, as well as a much higher ratio of UTUC to all urothelial carcinomas and a higher proportion of men with the disease compared to the West. Dr. Lee notes several possible reasons for this, including the high rates of exposure to aristolochic acid and arsenic in Taiwan. She then discusses the efforts of a whole Taiwan collaborative clinical study designed to identify high-risk patients in the country, explore new treatments, and develop a UTUC guideline for Taiwan. The presentation concludes with a Q&A session in which Dr. Lee emphasizes the need to find better biomarkers for UTUC.