Robotic Prostatectomy

Robotic Surgery – daVinci Prostatectomy

Robotic Surgery – daVinci Prostatectomy Robotic assisted surgery, allows doctors to perform many types of complex procedures with more precision, flexibility and control than is possible with conventional techniques. Robotic surgery is usually associated with minimally invasive surgery — procedures performed through tiny incisions and are considered part of laparoscopic surgery.
Robotic surgery with the da Vinci Surgical System was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. The technique has been adopted by many hospitals in the United States and Europe for use in the treatment of a wide range of conditions, including the surgical treatment of many urological diseases and cancers. Here at the Arizona Center for Urology we are proud to offer robotic surgery as a choice for many of our patients. It is the most common surgical treatment for Prostate Cancer.

The most widely used clinical robotic surgical system includes a camera arm and mechanical arms with surgical instruments attached to them. The surgeon controls the arms while seated at a computer console near the operating table. The console gives the surgeon a high-definition, magnified, 3-D view of the surgical site. The surgeon leads other team members who assist during the operation.

Surgeons who use the robotic system find that for many procedures it enhances precision, flexibility and control during the operation and allows them to better see the site, compared with traditional techniques. Using robotic surgery, surgeons can perform delicate and complex procedures that may have been more difficult with other methods. Robotic surgery allows the surgeon to create a pattern for doing an operation that allows for consistent results that will minimize side effects and improve the quality of each operation.

Prostate Specialist Near Glendale AZ

Often, robotic surgery makes minimally invasive surgery possible and creates distinct advantages over more traditional open surgery. The benefits of minimally invasive surgery include:

  • Fewer complications, such as surgical site infection
  • Less pain and blood loss
  • Quicker recovery
  • Smaller, less noticeable scars

Robotic surgery involves risk, some of which may be similar to those of conventional open surgery, such as a small risk of infection and other complications. Your surgeon will discuss those specific risks further with you at the time of the planning for an operation and what is done to minimize the risks that come with any surgery.

Radiation Therapy

Radiotherapy, the use of ionizing radiation to destroy cancer cells, has been proven to be effective in the treatment of many cancers including prostate cancer. It has one of the lowest side effect profiles of all prostate cancer treatments and is performed by a radiation oncologist who works with your urologist.

Hormonal Ablation Therapy

Prostate cancer grows in response to testosterone. Testosterone is produced in the testicles and the adrenal gland. Testosterone production can be stopped medically and surgically which will stop and reverse prostate cancer growth. This is often used in patients with advanced disease but can be combined with radiation to improve cure rates in local prostate cancer.

Metastatic Prostate Cancer

Some patients present with cancer that is already outside of the prostate, or metastatic prostate cancer. These patients are usually started on hormonal ablation therapy and for those who respond well may end up treating the prostate with radiation.

Hormone Resistant Prostate Cancer

At some point some cancer cells quit responding to hormones. We call this hormone resistant or Castrate Resistant prostate cancer. For patients who have hormone-resistant prostate cancer growth, there are still many options. While chemotherapy used to be the next option we have seen a number of new treatments that may allow these patients to avoid chemotherapy. Some
of these include:

  • Advanced Anti-Androgens – Newer medications such as Xtandi and Zytiga can block the hormones and recepters at a cellular level and can be effective when normal treatments fail.
  • PARP Inhibitors – Certain genetic factors in prostate cancer may make them susceptible to a new line of medications called PARP inhibitors.
  • Provenge – This treatment involves removing some of your blood and training your immune system to fight your metastatic prostate cancer. This takes 2 days, every other week, for 3 treatment cycles and has been show to significantly increase life expectancy in advanced, metastatic prostate cancer.