The Prostate Cancer Center in Hamburg
The Martini-Klinik is a highly specialized private clinic for the treatment of patients suffering from prostate cancer. We offer a complete service portfolio for the diagnosis and therapy and, together with the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), we care for about 5,000 outpatients every year at the Prostate Cancer Center. With approx. 2,200 prostate cancer surgeries annually, we perform the highest number of complete surgical removals of the prostate (radical prostatectomy) worldwide.
The physicians and researchers of the Martini-Klinik are very well networked internationally and, through decades of concentrated research, they have provided many innovations regarding its diagnosis and therapy. Thus, our patients receive the best possible individual treatment based on the latest scientific findings concerning the prostate carcinoma. Urologists, Radiologists and Pathologists of our center are, in their field of practice, specialized in prostate cancer.
Martini-Klinik Diagnosis offers best diagnostic quality, especially concerning difficult first diagnoses and Active Surveillance therapy.
We are very proud of the fact that 98 % of our hospitalised patients would recommend the Martini-Klinik to their closest friends and relatives and that more and more patients from all over the world come to Hamburg for their treatment.
We take time for you – this is not a luxury, but a matter of course for us. Besides the actual treatment on the highest quality level of medicine, personal attention is very important for us – it speeds up your recovery and enables you to quickly forget the stress of the surgery. Throughout your entire stay, you will be personally cared for by one of the leading faculty physicians.
We recommend to each patient to take time for finding the therapy best suited for himself as well as – if surgery is necessary – the best possible clinic. Since, as a rule, the prostate carcinoma grows relatively slowly in comparison to other types of cancer, time is not of the essence. The crucial factor is the healing, continence and potency rates a clinic is able to produce. At the Martini-Klinik, we have been surveing our former (German-speaking) patients for years (since 1991) regarding their health and quality of life. The results are primarily used by the surgeons for reflection as well as the optimization of their personal surgical successes. This and the high frequency of four to eight surgeries that every leading physician performs per week, as well as the resulting deep experience of our high-volume surgeons allows for result qualities that are shown to be outstanding.
Wherever treatment results are measured, the quality improves dramatically.
comments Michael E. Porter, economist at the Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. He regrets that consistent measurement of the quality of results is still the exception and praises the Martini-Klinik, which is exemplary in this regard as well.
| Health of Our Patients after 10 Years | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage of Tumor | Disease-specific survival *1 | Biochemical Lack of Recurrence *2 | |
| pT2 | Tumor only within the prostate | 98 % | 87 % |
| pT3a | ...infiltrates the capsule | 98 % | 53 % |
| pT3b | ...infiltrates the seminar vesicle | 87 % | 28 % |
| pT4 | ...infiltrates the surroundings | 77 % | 6 % |
| Quality of Treatment / Quality of Life of Our Patients | Germany overall *3 | Martini-Klinik *4 |
|---|---|---|
| Full Continence | 56,7 % | 93,5 % *5 |
| Severe Incontinence *6 | 4,5 % | 0,4 % |
| Severe, erectile dysfunction (1 Year) *7 | 75,5 % | 34,7 % |
| Injury of the ureter | 0,6 % | 0,04 % |
| Sepsis | 2,5 % | 0,04 % |
| Pulmonary embolism | 0,8 % | 0,1 % |
| Wound healing disturbance | 1,7 % | 0,9 % |
| Injury of the rectum | 1,7 % | 0,2 % |
| Thrombosis | 2,5 % | 0,4 % |
Operation
In order to preserve potency, the prostate is first carefullyseparated from the very fine layer containing thevascular and nervous structures that serve the erectilefunction; then the prostate is removed and its bordersare immediately examined by an experienced uropathologistduring the course of the surgery at theMartini-Klinik. Only when he microscopically determinesthat the tumor has crossed the capsule is tissue carefullyremoved at the places affected – always with the aim topreserve the maximum amount of potency (the Neuro-SAFE technique).
In order preserve continence, a surgery method forthe complete protection of the urethral sphincter wasdeveloped at the Martini Klinik. Although a significantpart of the urethral sphincter protrudes into the prostate,we are able to preserve the entire functional lengthof the urethral sphincter as well as the entire anatomicalembedding of the sphincter within the anatomy of thepelvic floor (the FFLU technique).
Thus, in most cases, both continence and potencyremain as they were prior to the intervention.
At the Martini Klinik, two surgery techniques for thecomplete removal of the prostate (radical retropubicprostatectomy) are offered.
In case of the open-surgical removal of the prostate, theprostate is extracted through a small cut in the lowerabdomen. The surgery is performed with micro-surgicaltechnology under microscopic magnification
In the minimally invasive, robot-assisted surgery withthe da Vinci® system, the surgeon directs the microsurgicalinstruments via a console in a highly magnified,three-dimensional view that exactly translates his handmovements.An advantage of the Martini Klinik is the fact that itachieves a very good outcome quality regardless of theoperation procedure. For most of our patients, bothprocedures are equally well applicable.
