Research Profile: The Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass.

March 16, 2009 -- There are a lot of exciting things happening in our urology department at the clinic, at the Lahey Clinic. And they range from understanding what Gleason scoring is really all about. We have a tendency to rely very heavily on Gleason scores to predict surgical outcomes. We also use Gleason scores to select various therapeutic options.

And what we've found in looking at our database and studying well over 15,000 patients in a meta-analysis that the Gleason score is unfortunately inaccurate. If you have a Gleason six score, pre-operatively the chances of it becoming a Gleason seven are 42 percent after radical prostatectomy and another six or eight percent of the patients have higher grade Gleasons -- eight, nines, and tens.

We're doing some very interesting experimental work on partial nephrectomies using a robotic surgery and partial nephrectomy. We're working with an agent that can transiently block the blood flow to a specific portion of the kidney without blocking the blood flow to the normal portion of the kidney, therefore preserving kidney function during robotic partial nephrectomy.

We have huge experience with minimally invasive robotic prostatectomy, cystectomy. We're developing new techniques in urethral reconstruction. We have a very active erectile dysfunction department as a subspecialty in our Institute of Urology. So the wonderful collection of faculty that are here are doing many novel, exciting things in the field of urology.