09-02-04 Healthvue

Announcer: This is KVUE NEWS at 6, with Ron Oliviera, Kristine Hass, Mark Murray, Doppler 4 forecast, and Mike Barnes with sports.

Oliviera: Prostate cancer kills 40,000 men every year. Still with early detection and treatment, it's one of the easiest cancers to treat. As part of prostate cancer awareness month, one Austin surgeon shows us the procedure now available that's more effective with a faster recovery. Healthvue, Celine McArthur has the story.

McArthur: 55 year old Leibel Harelik spends hours a day on the computer learning everything he can about prostate cancer. That's because he was diagnosed with an advanced case two years ago.

Harelik:I was at stage four and had been testified to two pelvic lymph nodes.

McArthur:Doctors told him he would die.

Harelik: Every time a doctor tells you that, you cry and you really break down. You can't see yourself in the ground and in a casket.

McArthur: So Leibel decided to fight. He found himself a new doctor at North Austin Medical Center where he went to have a procedure called laparoscopic prostatectomy.

Dr. Randy Fagin: It kind of puts up all the good things about radiation in terms of minimal invasiveness and combines it with all the good things of surgery.

McArthur: Dr. Randy Fagin says ""in traditional surgery the incisions are large enough that the surgeons can enter the patient's body to remove the cancer."" It's painful and it's risky. With the new procedure, tiny incisions are made and all the work is done using these tools. A new camera is inserted into the device so doctors can get a better look at what they're doing.

Dr. Fagin: The camera gives us an amazing magnification. It's literally taking my eyeball, magnifying what I see 14 times and taking it a centimeter away from where I'm working. It's absolutely incredible!

McArthur: This surgical technique is more efficient, it cuts down on blood loss, so there's less pain and a quicker recovery. Doctors say patients will be off the operating table and back on their feet in a matter of weeks instead of months.

Harelik: After 24 hours, I felt like I didn't even have surgery.

McArthur:While the best way to beat cancer is to stop it before it develops,To take the advice of a cancer survivor: get tested while there's still time to do something about it.

Harelik: And this takes away that fear, and at least you can see the future and see past the cancer.

McArthur: So who's most at risk? All men over 50. However, African Americans are twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as Caucasian men. Also, those that have a family history of cancer, are at a higher risk. There are some free screenings in Austin and we'll have that information on our website, KVUE.com. I'm Celine McArthur.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• The Urology Team
• Dr. Richard Chopp
• Dr. Stephen Hardeman
• Dr. Randy Fagin
• Dr. Melody Denson
• Dr. Elizabeth Houser
• Dr. Elizabeth Rutledge
• Dr. Lester Wang
• Dr. Bryan Kansas
• Dr. Eric Giesler
• Austin
• vasectomy
• prostate cancer
• HIFU