Category: Focal Treatment & Laser Ablation

When it comes to treating prostate cancer (PCa), proof matters. There’s a legend about a Missouri Congressman at the turn of the 20th century, Willard D. Vandiver. As a member of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, he gave a speech at a naval banquet in which he stated, “I come from a state that keep reading

Curiosity is, well, a curious thing. The philosopher Thomas Hobbes dubbed it “the lust of the mind.” After all, from birth onward the brain has a constant appetite to know stuff. In a New Science article, science writer Dan Jones states, “Curiosity is the driving force behind science, exploration and discovery.” It may occur as keep reading

Is there a perfect prostate cancer treatment? All of us—doctors and patients—wish it were so, but since all treatments (including focal laser ablation) have some risk, whatever small, there is a better question to ask. What is the perfect treatment for YOU? keep reading

It’s frustrating when I hear focal therapy described as experimental. There are still many naysayers among urologists and oncologists who insist that focal therapy has not yet demonstrated its merits. To address their skepticism, I turn to international expert Professor Mark Emberton of University College London. Mr. Emberton (see explanation below for why British surgeons keep reading

If were such a thing as a Olympics for radical prostatectomy (RP), you might expect to see a gold medal awarded to a center like Johns Hopkins Brady Urological Institute, or one earned by Patrick Walsh. Such centers and individuals demonstrated a track record for excellence in this surgery. In fact, RP is the statistical keep reading

Can you think of a time when you experienced an unexpected negative occurrence from some decision or action on your part? Hopefully it wasn’t a huge impact and was easily corrected. However, history is littered with large-scale tragedies stemming from what seemed like a good idea at the time. For example, Chairman Mao’s campaign to keep reading

I came across a July 6, 2022 commentary piece published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).[i] It raises an interesting 2-part question about focal treatment for prostate cancer (PCa): For which patients is this approach effective in controlling their PCa, and how is cancer control defined? The three authors hail from Ohio State keep reading

The respected journal Lancet Oncology has published the study results of focal therapy for intermediate risk PCa patients, as performed with MRI-guided focused ultrasound. The Sperling Prostate Center is proud to have been one of the study sites. keep reading

When you were growing up, your mom or dad no doubt cautioned you against poking anything into an electrical outlet. You didn’t need to understand the concept of conductance; you simply had to grasp that a painful thing called a shock would be the result. Depending on how dramatic the message was, you might have keep reading

No doubt you’ve heard it before, and for sure you’ll hear it again. Radical prostatectomy (RP) is the “gold standard” of prostate cancer (PCa) treatment. Sounds impressive, right? When most people hear that phrase, they assume it means the best. However, a standard simply means a baseline against which other things in the same category keep reading