Medical Articles Dawn of a New Era
Dawn of a New Era
Prostate Cancer: Dawn of a New Era
As Director of the Baylor Prostate Center for 15 years, and now Director of the Vanguard Urologic Institute and the Texas Prostate Center since 2007...
"...I have dedicated my life to the improvement of care for patients with prostate disease, primarily prostate cancer."
Despite widespread success in reducing the mortality due to prostate cancer over the past two decades, new data from randomized trials performed in this country and in Europe are leading to a sea of change in the way we care for men concerned about their risk of prostate cancer and committed to taking the necessary steps to maximize their chances of living a full life with minimal impact from this disease. Achieving this requires the right balance at every step of the process, including how often to perform PSA-based screening, when to employ methods at prostate cancer prevention and which make the most sense, when to perform a prostate biopsy and when necessary how to perform it, and what to do when prostate cancer is detected and when it is not. The answers to all of these questions have become more confusing than ever to the average man.
So for any man contemplating his options with respect to his prostate health, there are many decisions he needs to make which may greatly affect his future length and quality of life as it relates to prostate cancer. And while there remain many unknowns, these decisions can be well-informed and aided by our current extensive knowledge and informatics tools to assist the decision-making process at every step.
The Vanguard Center for Screening, Prevention, Detection, Surveillance, and Minimally Invasive and Focal Therapy for Prostate Cancer was recently inaugurated specifically to bring to bear the entire body of knowledge with respect to these issues during the decision making process between each patient and our physicians, who are leaders in the field, and to use the latest online Web-enabled nomograms and other tools, to help men make the best, most well-informed decisions that fits each man’s philosophy and goals with respect to his health.
"Of course, when treatment for prostate cancer is required, our extensive experience with the latest technologies, including Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy (RALP), performed by Dr. Slawin in over 1,000 patients since he performed the first case in Houston in 2001, provides patients with the best achievable outcomes. But this may not be the right choice for every man... we don't view ourselves as a robotic prostatectomy "assembly line" but rather a center for the comprehensive evaluation and treatment of prostatic disease. For example we also offer Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT), and minimally invasive therapies like High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), along with active surveillance in appropriate cases. You can read more about these and other services within these pages."
I hope this website helps those of you searching for answers regarding prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), while providing a glimpse of some of our exciting and novel work in these areas. In addition to text, this website contains links to scientific papers and presentations, surgical videos, electronic nomograms and other useful tools for patients and physicians.
Dr. Kevin M. Slawin
