Emerging Risk Factors for Urologic Diseases

Modern medicine has brought us many miracle cures. In the 21st century, especially, we are blessed with increasingly powerful disease combating tools, such as functional genomics, proteomics and stem cells. Decades of medical and pharmaceutical research have produced thousands of medicines that allow us to treat and prevent diseases better than ever before. Furthermore, risk factors for many major diseases are being identified. To name a few, we now know that high cholesterol and chronic inflammation are two most prominent risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. We also know that obesity is one of the major contributing factors for type II diabetes. Cigarette smoking and air pollution are major environmental causes of respiratory diseases and lung cancers. Unfortunately, specific risk factors for many urologic diseases are yet to be identified. In this editorial, I will discuss emerging urologic risk factors based on recent research findings and their implications on what we should be looking ahead. Understanding risk factors is obviously important because it allows us to avoid disease development in the first place. Risk assessment facilitates clinical prognosis and understanding of disease development mechanisms.