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By Bert VorstmanAugust 26, 2014

Beware robotics in cancer care2 0

In America, cutting-edge inventions are seen as the gateway to the future. However, thehazard of credulously accepting new technology into medical practice was warned against ina 2008 Journal of the American Medical Association editorial, "Gizmo Idolatry." Theterm gizmo idolatry describes the conviction that a high-tech approach is better than a low-tech approach, even if there's no evidence to support that view. A glaring example of medicalgizmo idolatry is robotic prostate surgery. Without credible data to prove its safety and benefitin complex surgeries, such as radical prostatectomy, this costly robotic machine has beenpromoted into near ubiquitous use in hospitals across the nation.

The approval of robotics for prostate cancer treatment is yet another shining example of junkscience and greed influencing "new research" to justify old, ill-conceived treatmentphilosophies.

Not only does this robotic prostatectomy lack scientific data to prove its safety and benefit forprostate cancer treatment but the very common so-called Gleason 6 (3+3) prostate cancerneeds no treatment because on both clinical and molecular biology grounds, it behaves asnoncancerous and is not a health risk.

Instead, most men with a prostate cancer label are over-treated for zero benefit, resulting in atrail of broken patients with bad postoperative outcomes including urinary incontinence andimpotence. A dire warning is being echoed by a number of physicians and organizations and,because of a lack of sincere regulatory oversight, this robotic procedure has generated manyproduct liability lawsuits.

Robotic prostatectomy has been mass marketed, heavily promoted for patient exploitationand now has become a profit center for medical facilities and hospitals at patient expense. With robotic surgical systems costing close to $2 million, plus a $150,000 per year servicecontract, this preoccupation with patient exploitation has led physicians and hospitals tocreate their own supply and demand as well as squander endless sums of precious health caredollars on mostly insignificant prostate cancers.

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8/27/2014 Beware robotics in cancer care - Sun Sentinel

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This intentionally misleading, broad-brush labeling of every prostate cancer as though it weresome fast moving, potential killer cancer — when only some prostate cancers exhibit thispotential — requires urgent correction to stop the many unscrupulous physicians misleadingmen about their cancer and the debilitating robotic treatment purposefully for self-gain.

America's health care system needs innovative ideas and new technologies. What ouroverburdened system does not need is vastly expensive technologies that dazzle us with theirfuturistic appeal, but only encourage fear-mongering and patient exploitation for zero patientbenefit. Robotic surgery for prostate cancer is proof.

Dr. Bert Vorstman is a urologist who practices in Coral Springs.

Copyright © 2014, South Florida SunSentinel

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