Last week, The Sun Sentinel in South Florida featured an article on alternative method of prostate cancer treatment. The article contained comments of misinformation and so we responded with a Letter to the Editor. The Sentinel did not publish the article, so we thought we'd provide it here for reader review and comments.
Original article link is HERE
Our response is as follow:
Subject: Reader Response to Story, Prostate Cancer Surgery a Big Business, dated 9-11-2011
Dear Editor,
Robotic surgery for prostate cancer changes everything… saving lives, advancing medicine by leaps. I know, I am a PC survivor and a volunteer robotics surgery advocate (www.VIPfriendsonline.com ). Your article, Prostate cancer surgery a big business, but at what cost? that was published September 11, 2011 is irresponsible reporting which cites only one man’s opinion (a physician who studied in the 1970s, wayyyy before technology advanced and the medical procedure for robotic prostate cancer treatment was even invented). Dr. Vorstman’s 30 years of experience staying the course of conservativism and tradition just might be a problem. Your article begs for redress and the other side of the story.
1. The first sentence of your article state, “Amid these numbers, and the fear and uncertainty they spawn, a booming, lucrative business has emerged around what some consider an often overly aggressive treatment, one with unproven results and the possibility of increased risk of lasting effects on sexual and urinary function.” Please cite the sources, for there is a wealth of disputing data amid 2010 and 2011 medical journals.
2. The second sentence of your article states, “And yet robot-assisted "key-hole" surgery to remove cancerous prostates has exploded in popularity as the treatment of choice in America, growing fourfold in the past four years by some estimates and far surpassing traditional laparoscopies.” Why do you think this is happening? Are people just hordes of unwashed dopes being led like sheep blindly to a slaughter house? Dr. Vorstman uses terms like “Russian Roulette” and “a direct assault on manhood” in the white paper touted in the Sun’s article – and he says in your article that the use of “clever” marketing is steering people down a wrong path. Could so many people be so duped as Vorstman alleges? Or could it be a more sophisticated patient does his research and makes competent choices? I challenge you to ask those who chose robotic surgery as to their experience and outcomes. You’ll find that the majority are educated, deliberate decision-makers who favor robotics based on facts and not schemes.
3. Dr. Vorstman’s 32 page white paper is, in and of itself, a marketing tool and persuasive piece of layman scare tactics (a technique to which he accuses his competition of using). The language in the paper uses marketing “jargon” that lacks academic quality or supporting citations. Vorstman is upping his face time by issuing his own press releases as if they were news by the AP, and posting videos on his website (again, the same marketing techniques he criticizes).
4. The referenced “Johns Hopkins Study” in your article regarding outcomes was flawed. Please contact me for clarification – I can put you in touch with data that shows the misinterpretation to clarify the truth.
Two other points in your article are contradictory,
5. You describe Dr. Vorstmans’s hifu treatment, noting that the FDA considers it experimental. You compare this to the robotic surgery approach, which is a fairly recent phenomenon. Hello kettle, you’re black.
6. Within your article, there is a seeming slam against profitability in this business (robotics) and in the same breath you state that Vorstman has investment share in his equipment. Ahem! Say that again? Where I come from, we call that kickbacks.
As a prostate survivor who is cancer-free almost three years, I am completely continent with no erectile dysfunction and that is because of robotic surgery... something that any patient going with the outdated/passé Vorstsman technique cannot say for certain. I implore you with urgency to give equal time to the advocates of Robotic Surgery. I highly recommend you contact the Global Robotics Institute of Florida, Dr. Vipul Patel. His web address is: www.globalroboticsinstitute.com If I can be of assistance in preparing your responsible and clarifying a new article, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Ralph E. Jordan
Survivor
Advocate for Robotic Prostatectomy
Volunteer President
www.VIPFriendsOnline.com
Email: rjordan@vipfriendsonline.com
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