Surgical treatment for prostate cancer

With the recent increase in the elderly population, and the Westernization of the diet and increased consumption of meat products, a significant rise in the incidence of prostate cancer has been noted in the Republic of Korea. In cases with localized prostate cancer and sufficiently long life expectancy, the standard treatment is surgical resection of the prostate. Such surgical treatment is so far the only modality demonstrated through randomized prospective studies to be beneficial in terms of disease-specific survival; this procedure involves not only surgical removal of the prostate but also pelvic lymphadenectomy for accurate staging and neurovascular bundle preservation to aid in postoperative functional recovery. Prostatectomy can be carried out either with an open technique, laparoscopically, or under robot assistance. Reviews of the literature and meta-analyses have shown that laparoscopic and robot-assisted procedures offer significant reductions in blood loss and transfusion rates and advantages in terms of recovery from postoperative complications such as incontinence and impotence over open prostatectomy. However, no long-term oncologic outcomes are available for laparoscopic or robot-assisted procedures, and the long-term prevalence of incontinence and impotence for these two methods doesnot differ significantly from those for open prostatectomy, despite the laparoscopic and robot-assisted procedures being far more costly. Therefore, surgical treatment of prostate cancer should be carefully decided on following ample deliberation of various factors including the stage, age, comorbidities, and economic status of the patient and provision of sufficient information to the patient.