St Vincent’s Prostate Cancer Centre, as Chaired by Dr Phillip Stricker, is one of five international sites to engage in a study to assess the pentafecta. The pentafecta is a new concept used to report outcomes of minimally invasive robotic surgery and was championed by Vip Patel.
Traditionally surgeons viewed robotic surgery outcomes in terms of the trifecta – cure, continence and potency. However, the pentafecta encompasses two post surgery outcomes – lack of complications and negative surgical margins; that is the absence of cancer in the edges of the removed tumour.
‘Reporting pentafecta results from major prostate cancer centres across the world will provide both surgeon and patient with a more accurate representation of outcomes or expectations. I feel very privileged to be one of this study’s international surgeons. It is anticipated that the study will involve more than 24,000 patients worldwide and will report results at the 2012 annual American Urology Meeting in Chicago,” explains Dr Stricker.
Dr Stricker’s results are also being included in a multinational study comparing all the different techniques in prostate cancer surgery. This study is being co-ordinated by Cornell University and is to be presented at The European and American Scientific Meetings in 2012.