Prostate cancer is a killer disease with very few survivors after the first five years despite chemotherapy. However those patients who undergo a prostatectomy stand a better chance at recovery. In fact those who undergo a robotic prostatectomy have an even lesser chance of dying from the disease.
Dr. David Samadi is the new Vice Chairman at the Department of Urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He is also the Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery at the medical center. He said that there has been a decline of 45% in the mortality rate of prostate cancer patients from 1999 to 2006.
He attributed the fact to early detection and prostate cancer treatment education besides better awareness. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) levels screenings can also give good indications of the disease.
Dr. Samadi said that patient education along with PSA screening were very effective tools in the fight against prostate cancer. He also felt that statistics supported better recovery from prostatectomy for patients who have been operated on by robots.
According to a U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) study on 100,000 males:
- American men died from prostate cancer declined from 23.5 deaths to 13 deaths per 100,000 males during the period.
- African-American men were more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer -- 69 to 50.5 deaths and 29 deaths to 22 deaths per 100,000 males during the study period, as compared to white men.
- The prostate cancer mortality rate for Hispanics and Asian-American Pacific Islanders went down from 23 to 18 and from 17 to 14, respectively, during the period.
- Men, age 65 and older, were 20% less likely to die from prostate cancer in 2006 as compared to 1999, with their mortality rate falling from 205 deaths to 164 deaths during the period
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers.The cancer cells may metastasize (spread) from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly the bones and lymph nodes. Prostate cancer may cause pain, difficulty in urinating, problems during sexual intercourse, or erectile dysfunction. Other symptoms can potentially develop during later stages of the disease.