Since establishing the first centre for robotic surgery in Australia at Epworth in 2003, we have now completed over 1400 radical prostatectomy surgeries.
We have audited all the patient outcomes since the inception of our program and have been very pleased to publish the data on our outcomes in several prestigious manuscripts internationally including the European Journal of Urology.
We have established a bank of tissues from our patients and also the patient informatics which has been very helpful in our research program. We are very grateful to our patients for allowing us access to their tissue and to their informatics and for filling in our forms in an ongoing capacity.
I believe we are at the forefront of provision of surgery for prostate cancer here at Epworth. In the last few months, in combination with Declan Murphy, we have established a centre for robotic prostatectomy for public patients at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. This was facilitated by a very generous donation from one of our patients.
We still continue to refine and improve our techniques. We are able now to offer a comprehensive service for our patients which includes the nursing care from Helen Crowe who has now had 20 years experience in managing patients with prostate cancer. Addie Wootten will see all of our patients for psychological counselling prior to surgery. We also work very closely with pelvic floor rehabilitation physiotherapy. I believe we have a very good program both here at Epworth Hospital and at Royal Melbourne Hospital for all patients with prostate cancer.
The Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre at Epworth is now in its first year of full operation and I believe will make great progress in the development of new drugs for advanced prostate cancer and also in other very significant areas in prostate cancer research.