Guidelines

Primary Urethral Carcinoma

Want to read the guideline in your own time? Download the PDF

Download full guideline

Looking for a quick overview? Check the pocket guidelines.

Download pocket guidelines

2. METHODS

2.1. Data identification

For the 2026 PUC Guidelines, new and relevant evidence has been identified, collated and appraised through a structured assessment of the literature. A broad and comprehensive literature search was performed to identify studies reporting data on urethral malignancies published since the prior search, covering a time frame between 1 May 2023 and 1 May 2025. Databases searched included Medline, EMBASE and the Cochrane Libraries. A total of 155 unique records were identified, retrieved and screened for relevance. Two new references were included in this 2026 publication. A detailed search strategy is available on the EAU Website: https://uroweb.org/guidelines/primary-urethral-carcinoma/publications-appendices.

Recommendations within the Guidelines are developed by the Panels to prioritise clinically important care decisions. The strength of each recommendation is determined by the balance between desirable and undesirable consequences of alternative management strategies, the quality of the evidence (including certainty of estimates), and the nature and variability of patient values and preferences. This decision process, which can be reviewed in the strength rating forms that accompany each Guidelines recommendation, addresses a number of key elements:

  1. the overall quality of the evidence that exists for the recommendation [4]
  2. the magnitude of the effect (individual or combined effects)
  3. the certainty of the results (precision, consistency, heterogeneity and other statistical or study-related factors)
  4. the balance between desirable and undesirable outcomes
  5. the impact and certainty of patient values and preferences on the intervention.

Strong recommendations typically indicate a high degree of evidence quality and/or a favourable balance of benefit to harm and patient preference. Weak recommendations typically indicate availability of lower-quality evidence and/or equivocal balance between benefit and harm, and uncertainty or variability of patient preferences [5].

Additional methodology information and a list of associations endorsing the EAU Guidelines is available on the EAU Website: https://uroweb.org/eau-guidelines/methodology-policies.

2.2. Review

The PUC Guidelines were peer reviewed prior to publication in 2021.