Session 6:

Next Generation Therapeutic Layering and Sequencing

Session Moderator

  1. The current status of health care economics is unsustainable for the nation and a transition to value-based care is both desirable and inevitable. During this transition, it is imperative that we as urologists remain actively engaged with regulatory and legislative bodies to both educate ourselves and advocate for our patients so that the resources necessary to diagnose, treat, and research new therapies for patients with genitourinary disease are appropriately allocated.
  2. We need to continue to find ways to utilize advanced practice providers (APPs) and provide a team-based approach to urological care, especially to extend access to care and improve efficiency.
  3. Next Generation Imaging (NGI) using positron-emission tomography (PET) for the detection of metastatic disease undoubtedly performs better than conventional imaging. Future directions need to focus on multidisciplinary investigation of the impact on outcomes in order to identify the appropriate test in a specific clinical situation that will lead to the greatest clinical value.
  4. Future clinical studies should strive to incorporate advanced image and data analytic tools in various clinical settings, including treatment response.
  5. Therapeutic radio-pharmaceuticals, such as radium-223 and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) targeted agents, will serve an important role in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer patients.

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS

Thomas Jefferson University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS

Leonard G. Gomella, MD, FACS, is the Bernard W. Godwin, Jr. Professor of Prostate Cancer and chair of the department of urology at Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also serves as senior director for clinical affairs. Originally from New York, Dr. Gomella completed medical school and general surgery and urology training at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. After a urologic oncology fellowship in the surgery branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, he joined Thomas Jefferson University in 1988 and was appointed chair of the urology department in 2002. From 1998 until 2020 he was urology chair for the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) (now NRG Oncology) and from 2008 until 2019 he was clinical director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Network.

Dr. Gomella is involved in translational basic science and clinical research developing new diagnostic tests and treatments for prostate, bladder, and kidney cancer through the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center where he has co-led the Biology of Prostate Cancer Program. Dr. Gomella's team was first to use molecular techniques (RT-PCR) in 1992 to detect circulating prostate cancer micrometastases, the first report of “liquid biopsy,” a discovery that led to a new field of investigation in this disease. Dr. Gomella is also recognized for developing the multidisciplinary clinic approach to prostate cancer and was an early contributor to urologic laparoscopy. He led the urology effort in the 2017 and 2019 Philadelphia Prostate Cancer International Consensus that provided the first multidisciplinary guidance on genetic testing for prostate cancer.

Dr. Gomella has given over 600 presentations nationally and internationally and written over 600 papers, chapters and monographs in urology. He has authored and edited 63 editions of 17 different books for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians, many of which have been translated into foreign languages. Dr. Gomella has consistently earned recognition for urologic oncology and prostate cancer, including a 2015 national recognition in Newsweek. In 2007, Men’s Health Magazine listed Dr. Gomella as one of the 20 top urologists in the US. Among other awards, in 2018 the Society of Urologic Oncology presented him with a “Distinguished Service Award.” In 2019, Dr. Gomella was named Enterprise Urology Vice President for Jefferson Health. Additionally, the American Urological Association (AUA) awarded him “Honorary Membership” status in 2023 in recognition for his contributions and leadership in urologic oncology. Dr. Gomella has been president of the Mid-Atlantic section of the AUA and elected to the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and the prestigious Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons.