Genitourinary cancer treatment
At Hollings, our genitourinary cancer specialists understand that every patient and every cancer is different. Your care team will work with you to develop a treatment plan based on your type of cancer, how advanced it is, your overall health and your goals.
Personalized treatment options
Depending on your cancer type and stage, your treatment plan may involve one or more of the following approaches.
- Active surveillance closely monitors certain slow-growing cancers or small tumors that do not need treatment right away.
- Surgery removes the cancer and may be performed using minimally invasive or advanced robotic techniques.
- Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to destroy cancer cells while limiting damage to nearby healthy tissue.
- Tumor ablation destroys cancerous tissue without surgically removing it using extreme cold, focused sound waves, electrical pulses or other methods.
- Chemotherapy uses powerful medicines to destroy cancer cells or stop them from growing and dividing throughout the body.
- Immunotherapy uses medicines that help the immune system to better recognize and attack cancer cells.
- Targeted therapy uses medicines that attack specific features of cancer cells that help them to grow and survive.
- Clinical trials evaluate promising new treatments and approaches and may give eligible patients access to therapies that are not yet widely available.
Throughout your care, our goal is not only to treat your cancer effectively but also to protect your quality of life and long-term health.
Advanced surgical options
Hollings offers both traditional and minimally invasive surgery for genitourinary cancers. Our surgeons use advanced robotic techniques when appropriate, which may allow them to operate through smaller incisions. For some patients, that means less pain and a faster recovery.
Hollings offers several types of surgery to remove all or part of the prostate or kidney. These include single-port robotic surgery, which is performed through one small incision; multi-port robotic surgery, which uses several small incisions; and traditional open surgery.
Refer a genitourinary cancer patient
To refer a genitourinary cancer patient to Hollings, please call 843-985-3972.
Nurse navigator support
Our genitourinary cancer nurse navigators will help you understand what to expect during treatment and answer questions you may have. Brigitte Kettering, MSN, RN, OCN (ketterin@musc.edu), works with prostate cancer patients. Kristin Powers, BSN, RN (powmeekk@musc.edu), works with patients with bladder, kidney, testicular and other genitourinary cancers.
