In this issue of Grand Rounds in Urology J. Curtis Nickel presents a discussion of phytotherapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) with an invited commentary from Paul D. Maroni. Though natural and herbal remedies have been around for centuries, it is only within the last 20 years that patients have embraced herbal remedies. It is time to stop viewing them as viable treatment options without de initive research studies. These treatments not only empower patients by allowing them to do their own research (via the Internet, by watching infomercials, through ready magazine and newspaper articles, etc.), but also allow patients to circumvent the traditional health care treatment process. Today’s patients are more interested in the concept of “prostate health” than those in the past, but unfortunately few if any clinical trials have been published that assess the long-term effects with respect to disease progression.

In this new year of Grand Rounds in Urology (GRU), we continue our tradition of providing the practicing urologist with the latest in information on genitourinary diseases. I am also pleased that we will exand our coverage from four issues to six in 2008. Our first issue, Vol- ume 7, Issue 1, focuses on Hypogonadism, and includes a thorough review by Dr. Al- varo Morales, Director of the Centre of Applied Urological Research at Kingston General Hospital and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Don Lamm, MD, FACS, Director, BCG Oncology Clinical Professor, University of Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, presented a lecture at the New Technologies and Innovative Treatment Strategies for Genitourinary Malignancies meeting, held September 28-30, 2007, in San Diego. The program is intended for healthcare specialists involved in diagnosing and treating genitourinary diseases.