KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment must consider each patient’s unique situation, including age, family history, and overall health.
- Treatment options for prostate cancer include watchful waiting, active surveillance, and surgical removal of the prostate (radical prostatectomy).
- Robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy has become the standard of care for many patients, offering increased precision, faster recovery times, and fewer complications.
Prostate cancer is a common and significant health concern for men worldwide. Early detection and appropriate treatment are crucial for improving survival rates and ensuring the best possible outcomes. Dr. David S. Harris, a leading urologist in Fort Myers, FL, and part of the Advanced Urology Institute, discusses the diagnosis and treatment options for prostate cancer.
Assessing the Risk of Prostate Cancer
The first step in diagnosing prostate cancer is obtaining a biopsy, which provides crucial information about the cancer’s aggressiveness. Additionally, genomic testing can offer patients quantitative data to help them better understand their risk and potential outcomes with or without treatment.
Dr. Harris emphasizes the importance of considering each patient’s unique situation, including age, family history, and existing medical conditions, to determine the most appropriate treatment approach.
Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer
Once the patient’s risk level and overall health have been assessed, Dr. Harris and his team discuss the available treatment options. For some patients, especially those with low-risk cancer, watchful waiting or active surveillance may be appropriate.
However, for younger patients with aggressive cancer, more proactive treatment options may be necessary. One such treatment is radical prostatectomy, or surgical removal of the prostate. This procedure is generally recommended for patients with riskier cancers and is typically performed on healthier individuals.
Robotic-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy
In recent years, robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy has become the standard of care for many patients. This minimally invasive procedure offers numerous benefits, including increased precision, faster recovery times, and fewer complications. Patients at the Advanced Urology Institute have access to some of the most experienced and skilled robotic surgeons in the field.
Advanced Urology Institute: A Leader in Prostate Cancer Care
The Advanced Urology Institute is the largest urology practice in Florida, offering comprehensive care for a wide range of urologic conditions, including prostate cancer. With a team of highly skilled and experienced urologists, the Advanced Urology Institute is dedicated to providing personalized, cutting-edge care for each patient.
TRANSCRIPTION:
My name is David Harris and I’m a urologist with Advanced Urology Institute in Fort Myers.
So if we’re talking about prostate cancer, at this point we do get several different pieces of information that help us define the risk or the aggressiveness of the cancer. And one is the biopsy itself. The other big piece now that we refer to is the genomic testing. And that can actually quantitatively, very specifically, give numbers that the patients can understand. This is tangible to help them understand their risk.
Where would they be in 10 years with treatment, without treatment? So we’ve got that information and we come back and we sit down with that man. Who is this guy? What’s his age? What is his family history? What are his medical problems? What are the risks he might be under to proceed with treatment? And we’ll see, is that a situation where this guy is at risk? And so we can then talk about the selection of what we would do. So again, there may be a subset of patients that we prefer to watch.
If we’re going to go ahead and treat, then we lay out what the options are. And how we select a treatment will be different for a healthy 52-year-old guy than it’s going to be for a 76-year-old guy with heart problems. It’s going to be different. So for the younger guys, aggressive cancer that we know we need to treat, we would be more inclined to offer a treatment like surgical removal, which is called a radical prostatectomy.
And that is one of the standards of care. And generally speaking, a prostatectomy for cancer would be performed for riskier cancers, on healthier men. That can be performed several ways. In this phase, this time in our options, in our armamentarium of treatments, most radical prostatectomies are being done robotically, and our patients have access to the most experienced and finest robotic surgeons.
REFERENCES:
- “Prostate cancer – Diagnosis and treatment – Mayo Clinic.” 14 Dec. 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/prostate-cancer/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20353093.
- “Tests to Diagnose and Stage Prostate Cancer.” https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/how-diagnosed.html.
- “Robotic Prostatectomy | Johns Hopkins Medicine.” https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/robotic-prostatectomy.
