- Is
treatment of prostate cancer his/her area of special interest?
I
am the Lead Clinician for urology cancer at Bradford and
over 80% of my practise involves dealing with patients having
a urological cancer.
- How
many operations did he carry out in the last year?
I
carried out approximately 2 major cancer procedures a week
in the last year, approximately one procedure a week was
a radical prostatectomy – 41 radical prostatectomies in
2006
- Does
he perform both laparoscopic and open procedures, if not
why?
I
offer my patients both the procedures but restrict laparoscopic
surgery to patients with low PSA, low volume tumours. This
may change in the future.
- What
was the average hospital stay for his patients in the last
year?
The
average hospital stay for all the radical prostatectomy
patients was 3 days
- What
was the blood transfusion rate during or following surgery?
None
of my patients required a blood transfusion during or after
surgery.
- What
were the major complications during or after surgery?
The
most common problem was nausea and vomiting which delayed
discharge by a day (3 to 4 days) in 4 patients, this is
often a result of the post op epidural analgesia for pain
relief,
We
are looking at alternate means to provide effective pain
relief
Two
patients required prolonged catheterisation for 12 days
and one patient required a repeat catheterisation. None
of the complications were life threatening or had long term
consequences.
- How
long did the patients need a catheter after their operation?
On
average the catheter was removed 5 days after open radical
prostatectomy and 7 days after laparoscopic procedure.
- What
is my chances of remaining free of PSA progression at 5
yrs, 10 years and 15 years
We
can calculate your chances of PSA progression free survival
at 5years using Kattan’s normograms before and after the
operation. Patients with undetectable PSA at 5 years are
assumed to be cured.
You
should be provided written information or access to a website
which gives you information about continence rates and potency
rates after the procedure.
The
following questions should be asked from the oncologist
(radiotherapist)
Questions
about External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT)
- Do
you offer only EBRT or also offer brachytherapy to your
patients?
- Why
am I being offered EBRT and not brachytherapy or a combination
treatment?
- What
is the dose of radiation being offered to me and is this
in line with the recommended doses in international literature?
- What
is my chances of remaining free of PSA progression at 5
yrs, 10 years and 15 years
-
What data are available for response rate and complication
rates for this treatment at the centre treating you.
