We had a panel of three speakers - a medical oncologist, a radiation oncologist, and a urologist - give us a review of recent developments in their fields. The senior urologist is prominent locally and has been one of our sponsors for about a dozen years. In fact he was the surgeon for several of our regular participants.

He said he is at the point in his career when he chooses not to learn the new robotic techniques, but refers patients to a colleague in his practice for robotic. What struck me was when he stated that he now does only a handful of radical prostatectomies a year, instead referring almost all patients to his colleague for robotic.

He is one more doctor I have heard of many who said he is impressed with the lower apparent level of complications and side effects, as well as more rapid recovery, from robotic surgery. We have had several patients say the same thing about their experiences with robotic, though one patient had a complication and was not as pleased as the others.

I have heard only one doctor call attention to some negative consequences of robotic. He was a prominent urologist formerly known for his RP work who had switched to cryosurgery and who had become a cryo advocate. He pointed out that there were quite a few cases where robotic surgery had caused some serious complications. That led me to recall a conference presentation I had heard on robotic, and between the lines the expert robotic specialist who was presenting hinted at the same thing. He did that when he briefly talked about the learning period for robotic, stressing that a surgeon needed to do a few hundred procedures before he was really proficient, and noting that slip-ups could be bad for the patient.