There will be approximately 300,000 new cases of diagnosed prostate cancer and 44,000 deaths from prostate cancer. Numbers that will continue to rise as the population ages. Ninety-five percent of prostate cancers are diagnosed in men between the age of 45 and 89.

This places prostate cancer as the second leading cause of cancer death in men after lung cancer and is the second leading cancer among men behind skin cancer.

Prostate cancer shortens life expectancy dramatically. This is why therapies directed toward the cure of prostate cancer have been so aggressively sought.

Radical retropubic prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate), external beam irradiation, radioactive seed implantation, and experimental therapies such as cryotherapy have been attempted.

In patients generally less than 70 to 75 years old with prostate cancer that is felt to be confined to the prostate gland, the most effective cure has been considered to be radical prostatectomy.

This therapy has been met with mixed approval from the patient population, secondary to the complications, which in the past occurred at a much more frequent basis. These complications were: (1) incontinence; (2) impotence.

Recently, significant improvements have occurred in the surgical technique for removal of the prostate. With these improvements, the complications of incontinence and impotence have dropped dramatically.

The incidents of incontinence after radical prostatectomy has improved to less than 6%, and the potency rate following a bilateral nerve sparing radical retropubic prostatectomy has improved as well. Men between the ages of 50 to 59 can experience approximately 75% chance of maintaining erections.

Men between the ages of 60 to 69 have a 60% chance of maintaining erections, and men over the age of 70 have between a 40 to 50% chance of maintaining erections.

For men who are less than 70 to 75 years old who consider themselves sexually able and are diagnosed with prostate cancer, nerve sparing radical prostatectomies offer an excellent form of treatment while maintaining a very high likelihood of potency after surgery.

The surgical procedure of a nerve sparing prostatectomy generally requires an average hospital stay of between 2 and five days and recuperative period between 2 and 4 weeks. The surgical incision is made in the lower abdomen below the belly button and above the pubic bone.

Through this incision, access is obtained to the pelvis where the prostate is carefully removed from the nerves that control erections. After removal of the prostate, continuity of the urinary tract is reestablished by reconnecting the bladder to the urethra.

There is generally very little postoperative discomfort from this procedure, usually requiring no more than extra strength Tylenol at the time of discharge. A Foley catheter is left in place for approximately two weeks to allow the urinary tract to heal. After this time, the catheter is removed, and the first postoperative PSA blood test to confirm that adequate treatment of the prostate cancer is checked at approximately one month.

The surgeons of the Urology Health Center are well trained in this procedure and are always happy to answer any questions regarding your concerns about prostate cancer and particularly nerve sparing prostate surgery.