Pioneering the use of robotic technology for the treatment and staging of cervical, endometrial, and uterine cancers, Colleen M. Feltmate, MD, Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery in Gynecologic Oncology, and Michael G. Muto, MD, gynecologic oncologist, in the Gynecologic Oncology Program at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center have completed nearly 100 robot-assisted radical hysterectomy procedures.
Patient Benefits
Robot-assisted surgery for gynecologic cancers offers outstanding benefits for patients, including a shorter hospital stay and dramatically reduced recovery time due to significantly less pain and discomfort compared with open procedures. The robot-assisted approach also enables many gynecologic cancer patients who do not qualify for traditional laparoscopy to undergo minimally invasive surgery.
This innovative surgical approach offers:
Enhanced Safety Robot-assisted surgery also offers enhanced safety compared with traditional laparoscopy by providing improved range-of-motion, more finite control of instruments, and a three dimensional view with increased magnification of the patient’s anatomy.
Expanded Use of Robot-assisted Techniques In addition to robot-assisted approaches for the treatment of gynecologic cancers, surgeons at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital provide robot-assisted laparoscopic genitourinary surgery, including nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy. Brigham and Women’s Hospital specialists also offer:
Advanced Care for Patients with Gynecologic Cancers Led by Ross S. Berkowitz, MD, a multidisciplinary team of leading specialists at the Gynecologic Oncology Program, including medical oncologists, gynecologic oncologists, radiation oncologists, gynecologic pathologists, radiologists, and many other specialists in gynecologic cancer, works together to provide individualized patient care using the latest treatment advances.
In addition to providing innovative techniques in minimally invasive surgery, the Program also offers unique, image-guided brachytherapy treatment for select patients with gynecologic cancers.
Indications for Referral Robot-assisted surgery for gynecologic cancers may be used for:
Information and Referrals For more information regarding the Gynecologic Oncology Program at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, or to refer a patient, please contact our Referral Coordinators at 1-877-332-4294.
Posts tagged ‘Advanced’
I can’t answer that question with an absolute ‘no,’ but I can’t say yes either. The thing is that there are exceptions to every rule, and every now and then you are bound to come across somebody who breaks those rules in a way nobody else can (or has).
Advanced stage prostate cancer may be treatable but it is not generally curable, and most patients who are diagnosed with that level of the disease are not often given very long to live. I read somewhere that the prognosis at best for advance prostate cancer was seven to eight years, a time span that many doctors in fact veto, suggesting that it may be less. But incidentally, there are a few patients who have survived longer, and some who have survived less.
On the website of the National Cancer Institute, a chart covering the past twenty years in the United States showed that not all patients who were diagnosed with the disease early in the 1980s were dead by the mid 1990s. However, a statement also made it clear that a man diagnosed with early stage disease is often expected to be dead in three years. If he makes it past three, he is given another two; and if he makes it to five, he is given a further three.
There is such a thing as a miracle cure, you know; and there are men who make it past eight years of living with prostate cancer. In some instances, the disease vanishes altogether; in others it simply stops growing on its own; while in some it grows, but at a slower pace than is envisioned when the prognosis was presented. However, most patients with the disease are dead within eight years of diagnosis, even with solid palliative care.
A patient who is besotted with some other disease or diseases may not even last that long. There are in fact others that are so sick that the doctors would rather not give them any treatment at all for fear of further complicating their illness and lowering their quality of life. What can be said is that advanced prostate cancer survival is a bit of an anomaly in which there isn’t any final answer, much as is the case with prostate cancer generally. That is why there is still so much research ongoing about the disease, and why doctors and patients alike are waiting with fingers crossed for the final word on those.
And as a point of hope for those who are at high risk of getting such a diagnosis, some clinical trials are these days suggesting that the survival rate for patients with advanced prostate cancer can be doubled or even tripled with a prostatectomy in that late stage. While some doctors are eager to try anything, others are cynical, and researchers continue to press forward to see how that one goes.
