Dr. Richard E. Greenberg , chief of urologic oncology in Fox Chase Cancer Center's surgical oncology department, has a national reputation for excellence in clinical studies of prostate cancer. He is also a clinical professor of urology at Temple University. This operation is called a radical prostatectomy. This eliminates some of the potential postoperative complications associated with prostate surgery. Prostatectomy r esults in infertility, but the surgery does not necessarily affect sexual potency, the ability to have sexual intercourse.
Special techniques are available to help patients resume sexual relations.
Prostatectomy may be performed using a technique called nerve-sparing surgery that can prevent damage to the nerves needed for sexual potency. As members of the department of surgical oncology, Dr. Richard E. Greenberg and Dr. Robert G. Uzzo , are both trained in the techniques of nerve sparing radical prostatectomy and have extensive clinical and research interests in the area of prostate cancer. The average length of hospitalization after radical prostatectomy is two to three days and most patients are fully recovered within three weeks. Prostate cancer cells that have penetrated the rind or capsule of the prostate gland may spread and involve adjacent organs, lymph nodes or metastasize to other sites. When this occurs, treatment generally requires systemic therapy aimed at killing the cancer cells that have already spread.