Two Urologists Bring Their Expertise to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital

Joseph F. Renzulli Jr, MD

Joseph F. Renzulli Jr, MD

Joseph F. Renzulli Jr, MD, an expert in robotic surgery for treating urologic cancers, is joining Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Yale New Haven Health, in New London, Connecticut. He brings a specialized insight on diagnosing and treating prostate cancer to the growing team.

Renzulli served as associate professor of urology at Yale School of Medicine and uses laproscopic, robotic, and other minimally invasive surgical techniques when treating his patients with urologic cancers. He also focuses his clinical work on men’s health, including general urologic conditions.

His work has been published in over 50 peer-reviewed publications and more than 70 abstracts concerning several aspects of genitourinary cancer diagnosis and treatment. Most recently, he coauthored a patient case report of salvage pelvic lymph node dissection after recurrent metastatic prostate cancer was detected with a fluciclovine PET/CT scan. He and his colleagues concluded that based on the case they presented, surgical resection of metastatic sites in prostate cancer is a safe alternative to systemic therapy and can avoid some systemic adverse events.

Renzulli also was the lead author on a study of radium-223 (Xofigo), which illustrated the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Investigators at the Genitourinary Multidisciplinary Clinic at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, incorporated radium-223 into the treatment algorithm for patients with mCRPC and symptomatic bone metastatses. The results showed that the overall survival benefit was comparable to that of newer immuno- and hormonal therapies in similar populations and that radium-223 delayed the onset of symptomatic skeletal events.

Renzulli completed his undergraduate degree at Boston University and obtained his medical degree at its School of Medicine. He then completed a residency at The Miriam Hospital and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Joining Renzulli is Joseph Brito III, MD, another urologist noted for his work on minimally invasive techniques for managing prostate, bladder, and kidney cancers. He also provides general urologic care in the New London area.

Brito attended Middlebury College and the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He completed his residency at Rhode Island Hospital and Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He also received training in clinical oncology at the Yale School of Medicine and serves as a member of the American Urological Association.

Most recently, Brito was the lead author on a large study on the association of lymph node dissection with 30-day perioperative morbidity among patients who underwent a minimally invasive radical prostatectomy. In this large analysis of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, he and his colleagues determined that there was no associated increase in the risk of perioperative morbidity when patients underwent lymph node dissection at the time of their prostatectomy.

He also led research into the role of lymph node dissection in the management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), in one report stressing that lymph node metastases appear to have prognostic value in both nonmetastatic and metastatic settings. This could mean that lymph node dissection has an important role in staging and classifying RCC tumors and could inform how to treat patients with the disease.

Brito and Renzulli worked together on a study published in 2017 inHuman Pathology. They and their colleagues were investigating whether there was a change in tumor samples obtained from radical prostatectomies, in terms of grading and staging, as a result of the changes in the US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on screening and treatment for prostate cancer. The results of the study showed that there is a recent trend toward advanced prostate cancer at the time of radical prostatectomy. They also noted a decrease in Gleason 6 tumors, indicating that fewer patients with low-risk disease were receiving radical prostatectomies.