Prostate cancer is the third leading cancer among men in India after lung and mouth cancers. Cases of prostate cancer have shot up by over 220% in recent years.
“Not everyone who gets diagnosed with prostate cancer actually needs treatment,” said Dr Ashutosh K Tewari, Chairman of Urology, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. He has performed more than 5,500 robotic prostatectomies and has been associated with da Vinci since its inception.
Prostate cancer is today the most common cancer and a leading cause of death among men in the US. The cancer is diagnosed through a digital rectal exam and blood tests for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Men with a PSA level between 4 and 10 have about a 1-in-4 chance of having prostate cancer. If the PSA is more than 10, the chance of having prostate cancer is over 50%. However, it is still not clear if the benefit of testing all men with prostate cancer outweighs the risks, such as diagnosis and treating the cancer that probably never would have caused any problem.
“Finding out about cancer and doing the biopsy needs to be balanced with the need for an intervention. You have to balance the pros and cons of early detection and have a plan in place which supports and encourages active surveillance,” said Dr Tewari.
Robotic surgery for prostate cancer
Robotic-assisted prostatectomy is today evolving as the most popular modality for treating prostate cancer. The robotic procedure is effective in treating localised prostate cancer while minimizing the effects that the treatment may have on the bowel, urinary, and sexual functioning.
Talking about the advantages of robotic surgery, Dr Tewari said, “There is less amount of blood loss, incisions are smaller, infection rate is lower, fewer complications and the recovery is much faster.”
Nearly 95 percent of all robotic prostate surgery patients whose cancer is confined to the prostate receive a negative surgical margin (no cancer is found on the specimen surface) on their surgical pathology reports.
Dr Tewari added, “Even today the surgeon is most important for a good outcome in any robotic surgery.”
Research in prostate cancer
New research on gene changes associated with prostate cancer is helping scientists in getting a better understanding on not only how prostate cancer develops but also design medicines to target those changes.
“Understanding the genomic complexities is very important for doing targeted therapy and imaging, to stage cancer and know what will happen,” said Dr Tewari.
He further said, “There is crucial need for more investment in research pertaining to prostate cancer among Indians.”
Scenario of prostate cancer in India
Prostate cancer is the third leading cancer among men in India after lung and mouth cancers. Cases of prostate cancer have shot up by over 220% in recent years.
“In India, it is very sad to see patients with advanced cancers being diagnosed for the first time. We have to detect prostate cancer in a more curable stage especially when the treatment options are so limited,” said Dr Tewari.
India’s National Cancer Registry Programme estimates that the cancer incidence is expected to grow rapidly by the year 2020.
Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com
