Robot-assisted surgery controls prostate cancer

Robot-assisted surgery to remove cancerous prostate glands is effective in controlling the disease for as much as 10 years, says a study.

Using several standard measures of cancer-treatment success, researchers found that 98.8% of the patients survived cancer for 10 years after their surgery.

The results are comparable to the more invasive open surgery to remove the entire diseased prostate and surrounding tissue.

"Until our analysis, there was little available information on the long-term oncologic outcomes for patients who undergo robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, or RARP," said Mireya Diaz, form Vattikuti Urology Institute, Henry Ford Health System in the US.

The researchers studied 483 men who had prostate cancer and received robot assisted surgery from 2001 to 2003.

The study was published in the journal European Urology.