Urology

In the News:

• Read about Dr. Hu's groundbreaking study on outcomes in Laparoscopy for Prostates in the New York Times and The Washington Post.

Dr. Hu's comments about the lay press perspective of his research findings:

Minimally invasive radical prostatectomy has been rapidly adopted, and similar to open radical prostatectomy, there is a steep learning curve. The nationwide results of our study do not reflect my personal results, but rather the averaged experience of many surgeons who started doing the procedure after a 2 day course rather than spending a dedicated fellowship at a high volume center. The results must be interpreted in the framework of the study. There are benefits of minimally invasive versus open radical prostatectomy; however, similar to men having open radical prostatectomy with inexperienced surgeons, surgery with an inexperienced minimally invasive surgeon may lead to suboptimal results. This was reaffirmed by the fact that our study showed that more experienced minimally invasive surgeons achieved better cancer control and a lower stricture rate. At present, less than 5 percent of my patients have required additional cancer therapies after surgery, and the stricture rate is less than 1 percent.

Finally, there is an absence of data that the sense of feel is important at the time of surgery. Most men are diagnosed with prostate cancer due to a rise in the PSA without any palpable abnormalities on digital rectal exam. Furthermore, disease is frequently microscopic, and therefore not palpable. In addition, when I performed open radical prostatectomies, I relied on the information from the pathology report to tailor therapy for each individual patient. This is the same approach that I use for robotic assisted radical prostatectomies. The biopsy determined the location and extent of prostate cancer and the biopsy may lead to scarring and an abnormal feeling prostate, which may mislead surgeons that rely on the sense of feel at the time of surgery. This is a very controversial statement that is not supported by any research.

• To read Middle East Health's interview with Dr. Jim Hu, click here.

• BusinessWeek Magazine

• Newsweek Magazine

• To learn more about how a robot-assisted prostatectomy can benefit you, click here.
  

• To see the recent Boston Globe article about Robotic Postatectomies in Boston, click here.

• To see national news coverage about the da Vinci Robot, click here.