Dr. Zagaja on Major Benefit With Prostatectomy

Gregory Zagaja, MD, professor of Surgery, director of the Prostate Cancer Center at the University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the benefits of radical prostatectomy for patients with prostate cancer. Zagaja shared this insight during an interview at the 2016 OncLive State of the Science Summit on GU and Prostate Cancer.

Laparoscopic or robotic prostatectomy can both provide a significant clinical benefit to patients with prostate cancer, Zagaja explains. Both techniques, he says, have fairly comparable outcomes. The major advantage of prostatectomy is that it has forced surgeons and care providers to critically look at outcomes, analyze how they deliver medical care, and how to improve such care. Additionally, it brought competition to the surgical arena of treating prostate cancer, he says. Adapted techniques and critical pathways have led patients to have expedited recoveries.

At the onset of robotic prostatectomy, it seemed that these were significant, huge advantages, but they are actually, in general, quite minimal, Zagaja says. These advantages are associated more with quality of life, and are linked to less postoperative pain and a quicker return to full functional activity on a daily basis. Continence, potency rates, and cancer control rates are fairly comparable across the spectrum of surgical treatment options.