Prostate Cancer Center
Background information
Concentration and increasing volumes of complex surgical procedures such as robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) have been established to improve outcomes and reduce costs.
Aim and relevance of the initiative
By increasing the volume of patients treated with RARP in one location we aim to reduce perioperative complications and side-effects (urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction) of this procedure, while at the same time delivering better oncological results with less need for adjuvant treatments. This leads to better value for individual patients with less costs to the health care system.
Setting
All RARP procedures of three collaborating hospitals (Catharina Hospital Eindhoven, CWZ Nijmegen and Radboudumc Nijmegen) are performed at one location (CWZ) by a surgical team with members of all three hospitals. A quality assurance program consisting of weekly multidisciplinary and surgical strategy meetings and three-monthly feedback meetings is set in place to ensure a continuous feedback cycle.
Patient description
All patients with localized prostate cancer with limited comorbidity eligible for radical prostatectomy.
Methods
Continuous data monitoring enables feedback on outcomes for the individual surgeons and delivers the means for improvement of outcomes of RARP.
Size and scope
Within the Prostate Cancer Center over 10% of patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy in the Netherlands were treated in 2017. We aim to treat 25% of patients eligible for radical prostatectomy in the Netherlands within the next five years.
Preliminary results
We have been able to reduce perioperative complications, positive surgical margin rates and post-operative urinary incontinence rates.
Formation of partnerships
The current partners in the collaboration are the above-mentioned hospitals and currently we are aiming to include new partners in the South-eastern Netherlands.