Experience is Certainly Important When Contemplating Prostate Cancer Surgery

With the majority of things in life it is fair to say that the more practiced and experienced you are the better your performance and this would certainly seem to be the case when it comes to prostate cancer surgery.

A major problem with cancer is that, in spite of the best efforts of your surgeon, it has a bad habit of returning in a number of cases. In the case of prostate cancer following the removal of the prostate through radical prostatectomy recent studies show that, while the likelihood of a recurrence are about 18 percent when surgery is carried out by a relatively inexperienced surgeon, this figure falls to less than 11 percent in more experience hands. So just what do we mean when we talk about 'experienced hands'?

A recently conducted study examined nearly 8,000 prostate cancer patients who underwent radical prostatectomy in the United States between 1987 and 2003 involving no fewer than 72 surgeons from 4 major academic cancer centers around the country.

The study showed that there is an extremely steep learning curve when it comes to carrying out prostate surgery and that it takes considerable practice to master this particular surgical technique. Indeed, the study showed that it was not until surgeons had carried out a minimum of 250 operations that a marked improvement in outcomes was seen.

So just what can we learn from this study if we are faced with the possibility of having to undergo prostate surgery?

First it is extremely important for patients to choose a surgeon who regularly performs this form of surgery. Indeed, it may well be advisable to choose a surgeon who specializes solely in prostate surgery, or whose work revolves largely around such surgery. In many general hospital settings surgeons will carry out such surgery infrequently, perhaps as rarely as just one or twice a year, and this is simply insufficient to give them the expertise needed to provide you with the best possible change of a low recurrence rate.

In the light of this therefore your first choice should undoubtedly be a specialist cancer treatment center and of a surgeon whose work involves exclusively, or very largely, prostate surgery.

The study also showed however that there is a marked improvement in recurrence rates not only for specialist cancer centers, but also for teaching hospitals. This is because, within the academic setting, a great deal of emphasis is placed on supporting mechanisms designed to assess the outcome of procedures and to provide feedback in an effort to create an environment in which continuous improvement is seen. This is not always the case in non-academic environments. Also, academic centers have a tendency to attract people who are particularly interested not only in the outcome of their work but in both correcting their errors and improving their surgical technique.

So, should you find yourself in the unfortunate position of requiring prostate surgery then you would be well advised to elect to have surgery at the hands of an experienced and practiced surgeon who works in a specialist cancer center housed within a major teaching facility.