Dr. Trinh on Re-Establishing Standard Surgical Procedures in Prostate Cancer

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School; co-director of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Prostate Cancer Center; and director of the Ambulatory Clinical Operations in the Division of Urological Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discusses the challenges of re-establishing standard surgical procedures in patients with prostate cancer following the initial wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. 

In March 2020, many patients with indolent cancers had their surgeries safely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trinh explains. In general, patients were understanding of this, and accepted that postponing surgery could minimize their risk of contracting or spreading the virus.

Now, surgeries are beginning to pick back up, particularly with regard to high-priority procedures, Trinh says.

However, according to Trinh, patients are more reluctant to undergo surgery as they do not feel ready to return to the hospital.

As such, it is important to re-establish patients’ trust and inform them of any measures that have been implemented to ensure their safety in the operating room, Trinh concludes.