Great Resource for Tracking Your Cancer Journey, Medical Records, Medication Schedule

An article in today's news announces the launch of a website called Navigating Cancer which helps patients navigate cancer. A link to the site is being added to our website, vipfriendsonline.com. There is information specific to prostate cancer. Please feel free to post your comments here about this resource.

A copy of the article is reprinted here:

Source: Click for Article

New site helps cancer patients network, improve treatments
January 18, 2010 | Camille Ricketts | Venture Beat

Navigating Cancer, an organization dedicated to helping cancer patients find the best treatment options, has just launched a new, free web site to help its target audience keep track of their medical records, work more closely with their physicians and find other patients going through the same thing. The idea is to give users the information they need to take charge of their health.

The web site, in its beta version, offers all of these resources — including encyclopedic information on cancer and related topics — for free. Often, as part of people’s treatment plans, physicians will provide them with contacts who have battled cancer in the past. Hearing first-hand experiences from someone else has proved very therapeutic in the recovery process. Navigating Cancer aims to make it even easier to forge these connections via forums on its site. Peer organizations like the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation, Cancer Lifeline and Prostate NET will be running group discussions on the site.

Armed with knowledge from reputable sources like the National Cancer Institute — not regular WebMD or other, more casual sites — patients will have the ability to ask their doctors more informed questions, and inquire about a full range of options so they can make sure they are getting the best care for their specific needs, the organization says.

The other major aspect of the web site, the ability to create and save detailed medical records, fits into the trend toward a more digital medical system. Just as President Barack Obama urges the need for electronic medical records, Navigating Cancer and others are allowing patients to easily keep tabs on their own health data and development.

The Navigating Cancer site lets users enter basic health information, prescriptions, doctors appointments and more so that nothing will go forgotten. On top of that, it includes a Daily Health Tracker that patients can use to record their symptoms and any treatment side effects on a day-to-day basis. All of this information could come in handy at their next doctor’s appointment. Navigating Cancer says that all of this information is kept extremely secure.

The next step is to allow patients and physicians to securely share this information on the internet. That way, doctors can keep an eye on patients and any treatment irregularities without constant checkups. Navigating Cancer is working on integrating these features soon.

Dr. Patel has Performed the Most Robotic Prostatectomies in the World

The article below suggests that if you're thinking about having prostate surgery, you might want to consider a surgeon who has performed at least 80 robotic surgeries to ensure the best outcome. Er.... say again? Was that 80?

How about closer to the 3,000 surgeries range that Dr. Patel has successfully performed?

Here's a recent article

Robot prostate surgery has downsides, needs more data

Mon, Jan 11 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Considering having a surgeon remove your cancerous prostate using a robot? You might want to see a surgeon who has done at least 80 operations for the best results, according to the authors of a new research review.

And while the robot-assisted operation is now the "dominant approach" to this surgery in the US and is gaining popularity in other wealthy nations, there's still too little information on how patients fare after the surgery, Dr. Declan G. Murphy of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne, Australia and his colleagues write.

Laparoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon performs the operation through small incisions, usually with the help of a surgical robot, has been touted as carrying a lower risk of incontinence and impotence than the standard "open" form of the surgery.

But a US study on nearly 9,000 men published in October 2009 found that while open and minimally invasive surgery were equally good for getting rid of prostate cancer, the risk of incontinence and impotence was higher with the minimally invasive approach.

In the current study, Murphy and his team looked at 68 studies of robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery to better understand its downsides. Lack of information on outcomes isn't only a problem for robot-assisted surgery, but "bedevils" the scientific literature on prostate removal overall, the researchers note in the journal European Urology.

In about one in 250 surgeries, the robot failed to work properly. There was also a lack of data on how well patients functioned after surgery, and how patients with high-risk prostate cancer fared long-term.

And while some studies showed low complication rates, the researchers add, those rates went up when doctors used a standardized approach to reporting complications. The authors did not compare robotic surgery complication rates to traditional surgery rates.

The researchers also found that surgeons who have done fewer than 20 of the robot-assisted procedures can achieve "acceptable operating times." Keeping surgeries shorter is a goal because it usually means fewer complications. It may be necessary, however, for surgeons to do 80 or more procedures to ensure that they do not leave cancerous tissue behind.

Also, the researchers add, robot-assisted surgery is no easier to perform and has no better outcomes in patients with conditions that can worsen surgical outcomes, such as being obese, having a large prostate, or having had previous surgery in the area.

Finally, the researchers note, expenses associated with the procedure--the robot costs at least 1.8 million ($2.6 million) to install, 100,000 ($145,000) a year to run, and 1,500 ($2,200) extra for each surgical case-mean the procedure is "prohibitively" expensive "for many hospitals and indeed many countries."

The researchers conclude: "The significant learning curve should not be understated, and the expense of this technology continues to restrict access to many patients."

SOURCE: European Association of Urology, online December 16, 2009

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