Urology and Vascular Clinical Institute

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer and the second leading cause of male cancer deaths for Australian males. Men presenting with localised prostate cancer have numerous treatment options.

The Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR) was established at Monash University to monitor and allow benchmarking of quality of care by institutions and individual surgeons and radiation oncologists in the care of prostate cancer patients.

Epworth participates in the PCOR in order to monitor our quality of care. The PCOR monitors ten indicators of care. Many of these indicators allow comparison of hospital results with acceptable levels of care.

Results from Epworth Hospitals were consistently consistent equivalent to or better than the benchmark standard.

Surgical margin outcomes of Robotic Radical Prostatectomy are a good indicator of the quality of surgery. A positive margin is when cancer is up to the edge of where the prostate has been cut out. A positive surgical margin therefore may indicate that cancer has been left behind. The long term outcome for these patients is not as positive as when the surgical margin is negative. So, the lower the surgical margin the better.

Epworth hospitals consistently achieves a very low positive margin rate in all three categories of low, intermediate and high risk cancer. This reflected on the most recent PCOR reporting period. 

Two of the potential negative outcomes for Robotic Radical Prostatectomy for Robotic Radical Prostatectomy for Cancer of the Prostate are issues with urinary continence and erections post operatively. 

In all cases the outcomes of the Epworth Hospitals are either better than or at the average standard for continence.

One of the major concerns after Radiation therapy for Prostate Cancer is an irradiation effect of the bowel (rectum). This can lead to bothersome bowel symptoms. 

All three Epworth hospitals carrying out radiation therapy achieved outcomes that are either better than or at the average standard.

Overall, Epworth Hospitals achieved a very high standard of outcome, a terrific indicator of the quality of care provided.