The role of staging in urologic cancer. Physical assessment and risk factors.

Patients with urologic cancer may have improved survival if their diagnosis is made early. This task begins in the primary care physician's office through patient education on prevention and early detection procedures. A thorough history which provides for risk factor evaluation including life-style and environmental factors, a careful family history, past personal history, and finally, symptoms of current and past illness is the keystone of prevention and early diagnosis. The general physical examination as well as a specific examination of the scrotum and its contents, the penis, the prostate, and the kidney carefully done by an experienced examiner may improve chances for survival. The office urinalysis which should be available in every primary care physician's office is evaluated for its usefulness in early diagnosis. This report relates urologic cancer and its precursors to the history and physical examination with the urinalysis which in turn may be associated with morbidity and mortality.