| Robot surgeon revolutionises cancer surgery
He has the steadiest of hands, is immune from human error and never drinks while on call. Say hello to da Vinci S, a pioneering surgeon proving to be a cut above the rest at the Royal Marsden Hospital. The £2million robotic device, with tweezer-like hands and a designer Italian name, is revolutionising the treatment of prostate cancer sufferers in Sutton. Instead of being cut open, patients now have four tiny incisions made in their abdomen, through which the rotatable robotic arms are inserted. Doctors sit with the patient in front of a screen and manoeuvre the arms from an enclosed console, like something off the Starship Enterprise. The extended vision and magnification of the robotic surgeon gives them more than 1,000 times the accuracy of the human hand when removing cancerous prostate glands.
Focal Therapy Considered As Prostate Cancer Treatment
Gold Supplement is focused on a series of 12 peer-reviewed studies on the use of focal therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer.The studies were conducted by a group of leading urologists and radiologists led by David Bostwick, M.D., a pathologist specializing in urology, and Gary Onik, M.D., an interventional radiologist, both of whom served as co-editors of the supplement. This is the first published scientific compendium dedicated solely to focal prostate cancer treatment. One of the leading focal treatment methods is cryoablation, or the minimally invasive freezing of the cancerous tumors to destroy them.The studies presented in the supplement cover a broad range of issues related to focal therapy for prostate cancer including cancer volume; patient selection; biopsy techniques to adequately find and diagnose the extent of the cancer and the long-term effectiveness of focal treatments.In basic terms, focal therapy for prostate cancer, also known as "the male lumpectomy," is a new method of treating prostate cancer where the primary objective is to destroy the cancerous tissue in the prostate gland and avoid damaging the healthy tissue including the nerve bundles at the base of the gland that control potency and continence.
Hyperthermia Combined with Radiation and Androgen Therapy Provides ...
BSD Medical Corp. (AMEX:BSM) today announced that the International Journal of Hyperthermia has published the preliminary results of a phase II clinical study involving 144 patients with locally advanced prostate cancer. In this study BSD Medical's BSD-2000 hyperthermia system was used to deliver local hyperthermia combined with conformal radiation therapy and androgen suppression therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. Hyperthermia combined with radiation and androgen therapy demonstrated results in survival similar to treatments using higher radiation doses, with no significant side effects associated with either hyperthermia or radiation therapy. The report is entitled "Conformal radiotherapy plus local hyperthermia in patients affected by locally advanced high risk prostate cancer: Preliminary results of a prospective phase II study" (see Int.
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