Australian-first scanner helps prostate patients

A revolutionary in-theatre scanner is being used in Australia for the first time to remove tumours more precisely during prostate cancer surgery.

Epworth Freemasons in Melbourne has used the new Histolog technology on patient Joe Giacobello, who is now recovering after surgery.

Epworth urologist Professor Nathan Lawrentschuk said the scanner helped surgeons find a crucial balance between removing as much of the prostate as necessary, while preserving nerve function.

"The trifecta for treating prostate cancer is firstly cure, then maintaining continence, and then sexual function," he said.

"The first two are pretty good these days, but the third can be tricky, because nerves are tricky.

"We want to take out as much prostate as we can to cure the patient but leave enough nerves behind that they have good function afterwards."

The technology enables surgeons to scan the entire prostate during surgery and send photos in real time to pathology.

Histolog is a digital microscopy scanner for high-resolution imaging of the surface of fresh tissue

"Pathology can tell you in a minute or two, 'Yes there's cancer there'," Prof Lawrentschuk said.

"The whole thing takes about eight minutes. We won't be able to use it for every patient, but where we might initially be sheepish about going in, with this we can see where we can be more aggressive."

Prof Lawrentschuk said the scanning technology had implications for use in other cancers as well.

"We would love to see more data, there's a huge scope for this kind of technology," he said.

"It certainly has the potential to be applied in breast cancer and other cancers."

Prof Lawrentschuk, who is Director of the EJ Whitten Centre for Prostate Cancer Research at Epworth HealthCare, said he was grateful to the private hospital's donors for their support.

"Epworth was the first in Australia to pioneer robotic surgery in prostate cancer, and they're leaders in terms of innovation in cancer care," he said.

"We're very lucky, as a benevolent private hospital, that we do receive funding from donations, and that any profits are put right back into healthcare."

He said the team at Epworth hoped to expand on the research and run their own trials of the scanning technology.

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