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Advancing the Diagnosis and Treatment of Urological Diseases through Big Data
Editor: Hao Chi

Submission Deadline: 28 February 2026 (Status: Closed)


Special Issue Editor


Dr. Hao Chi      Email   |   Website
John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
Interests: oncology; urologic diseases; multi-omics; precision medicine; immune microenvironment; machine learning; bioinformatics


Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Big data analytics has emerged as a transformative force in modern medicine, providing unprecedented insights into urological diseases, refining diagnostic precision, and optimizing therapeutic strategies. Integrating multi-source data, including genomics, proteomics, clinical records, imaging data, and real-world evidence, facilitates biomarker discovery, disease progression prediction, and personalized therapeutic development.

This Special Issue focuses on groundbreaking research elucidating the transformative role of big data in enhancing the diagnosis and therapeutic management of urological diseases. We encourage submissions that explore innovative applications of big data analytics, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and network-based methodologies, to address key challenges in urology.

This Special Issue will cover a broad range of topics related to the application of big data in urology, including but not limited to:

Innovative Approaches in Big Data Analytics for Urological Disease Diagnosis

Multi-Omics Integration in Urological Diseases

Predictive Models for Treatment Response in Urology

Personalized Therapeutic Strategies for Urological Conditions

Artificial Intelligence in Urological Clinical Decision-Making

Biomarker Discovery through Big Data in Urological Diseases


Hao Chi
Guest Editor


Keywords

big data; urologic diseases; precision medicine; multi-omics integration; machine learning; biomarker


Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted via our online editorial system at https://www.aeurologia.com/journalx_aedu/authorLogOn.action by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to start your submission. Manuscripts can be submitted now or up until the deadline. All papers will go through peer-review process. Accepted papers will be published in the journal (as soon as accepted) and meanwhile listed together on the special issue website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts will be thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. Please visit the Instruction for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted manuscripts should be well formatted in good English.

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  • Review
    Charlotte Delrue, Marijn M. Speeckaert
    Archivos Españoles de Urología. 2026, 79(2): 169-178. https://doi.org/10.56434/j.arch.esp.urol.20267902.21
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    Background: Urological cancers, such as prostate, bladder and renal cell carcinoma, contribute substantially to the global cancer burden. Their management remains challenging due to extensive molecular and clinical heterogeneity. Conventional single-omics approaches (e.g., genomics and transcriptomics) have led to important discoveries but provided only partial views of tumour biology, which limit the robustness of biomarkers and therapeutic precision. Multi-omics integration offers a systems-level perspective that captures the complex regulatory networks underlying tumour initiation, progression and treatment resistance.

    Methods: We conducted a comprehensive narrative review of recent literature on multi-omics integration in urological cancers. Sources included PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science, and only English-language peer-reviewed studies published before September 2025. We synthesised findings from studies employing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenomics, alongside computational integration frameworks, such as machine learning, graph neural networks, stemnessbased classifiers and spatial multi-omics.
    Results: Multi-omics integration enables the refinement of molecular subtypes, identification of prognostic and predictive biomarkers and discovery of therapeutic targets across prostate, bladder and renal cancers. Examples include stemness-based classifiers in prostate cancer that stratify patients by prognosis and therapy sensitivity, consensus molecular subtypes of bladder cancer with differential therapeutic vulnerabilities and programmed cell death-based signatures in renal cancer linked to 
    prognosis and immune responses. However, key challenges persist, including data heterogeneity, limited cohort sizes, lack of standardised analytical pipelines and translational gaps between discovery and clinical implementation.

    Conclusions: Multi-omics integration is rapidly evolving from an exploratory research tool into a cornerstone of precision urology. Through mechanistically grounded, clinically interpretable models of disease, multi-omics holds the potential to improve individualised diagnosis, prognostication and therapy selection. Translation of multi-omics into routine clinical practice will hinge on overcoming current limitations through standardisation, collaborative consortia and explainable artificial intelligence.

  • Article
    Fesih Ok, Ibrahim Halil Sukur, Zahide Orhan Ok, Tunahan Ates, Mutlu Deger
    Archivos Españoles de Urología. 2026, 79(2): 247-254. https://doi.org/10.56434/j.arch.esp.urol.20267902.30
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    Background: Pediatric urolithiasis is an increasingly important health concern, and affected children and their families require information that is both accurate and easily understandable. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots have become widely used sources of health information; however, the readability, quality, and reliability of their outputs remain insufficiently evaluated. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and reliability of AI chatbots in providing patient-oriented information on pediatric kidney stone disease and to identify factors influencing the quality and readability of their responses.

    Methods: Four AI chatbots (ChatGPT-5, Google Gemini, Claude 3 Opus, and DeepSEEK) were queried with 30 standardized questions related to pediatric kidney stones. Readability was evaluated using the Average Reading Level Consensus (ARLC), Automated Readability Index (ARI), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). Response quality and reliability were asssessed using the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) tool and Modified DISCERN score. Statistical analyses included one-way analysis of variance ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and appropriate post hoc comparisons.

    Results: Readability differed significantly among the chatbots. Google Gemini demonstrated the highest reading levels across all metrics (ARLC: 14.93, ARI: 16.2, and SMOG: 13.32), whereas ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSEEK produced less complex test (p < 0.001; large effect sizes, η⊃2; = 0.195–0.512). EQIP scores did not differ significantly between models (p = 0.491, ε⊃2; = 0.021, negligible effect), indicating comparable informational quality. In contrast, reliability varied significantly: ChatGPT and Google Gemini achieved higher Modified DISCERN scores (median 4.00) than Claude and DeepSEEK (median 3.00; p = 0.001, ε⊃2; = 0.318, large effect). Subgroup analyses by question category revealed notable differences in performance, highlighting model-specific strenghts and limitations.

    Conclusions: Substantial variability exists in the readability and reliability of AI-generated health information on pediatric urolithiasis. Although ChatGPT and Google Gemini provided more reliable information, Google Gemini’s responses were consistently more complex and less accessible. These findings emphasize the need for careful validation and language simplification of AI-generated content before its use in patient and caregiver education.

  • Review
    Stamatios Katsimperis, Lazaros Tzelves, Ioannis Kyriazis, Panagiotis Neofytou, Sotirios Kapsalos-Dedes, Georgios Feretzakis, Andreas Skolarikos
    Archivos Españoles de Urología. 2026, 79(1): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.56434/j.arch.esp.urol.20267901.1
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    Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are transforming urological oncology by enhancing diagnostic precision, prognostic assessment and treatment personalisation for prostate, bladder and kidney cancer.

    Methods: We searched PubMed and MEDLINE up to September 2025 for English-language, peer-reviewed human studies using terms including “artificial intelligence”, “deep learning”, “radiomics”, “real-world evidence” and “urological oncology”.

    Results: AI-driven radiomics and deep learning models have demonstrated high accuracy in detecting and characterising urological malignancies by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) and histopathology. In prostate, bladder and kidney cancers, AI-driven radiomics and deep learning models have demonstrated high diagnostic performance, with reported area under the curves (AUCs) typically ranging from 0.80 to 0.95 for lesion detection, staging and risk stratification. Sensitivities and specificities in cystoscopic image analysis often exceed 90%, but radiogenomic models for renal cancer achieve mutation prediction accuracies of 85%–95%.

    Conclusions: AI and big data are reshaping urological oncology by integrating diagnostic imaging, pathology and real-world practice. Their continued integration promises a precise, equitable and adaptive model of cancer care. Despite these robust results, most studies rely on retrospective or single-centre datasets with limited external validation, raising concerns about generalisability. Future progress will depend on multicentre standardisation, federated learning frameworks and incorporation of multimodal real-world data to facilitate clinically robust and implementable AI systems.