Our Goal

It is the goal of Dr. Gary Onik and The Center for Safer Prostate Cancer Therapy to provide the highest quality care for patients with prostate cancer. Since prostate cancer is really a spectrum of diseases ranging from very aggressive to indolent; no single treatment can adequately be applied to all patients. Our philosophy is to tailor a cancer management course for each individual patient that provides optimal cancer control while minimizing the chance for debilitating complications. In some patients with low risk cancer, this may mean carefully monitored "watchful waiting" or a course of combined androgen blockade.

In line with this philosophy, Dr. Onik has pioneered the concept of a "Male Lumpectomy", in which only the cancerous area of the prostate is destroyed by freezing. Dr. Onik's results with this procedure, which are now being confirmed by other investigators, show it to provide excellent cancer control. It also gives the patient the best chance of maintaining potency and urinary continence, compared to any other treatment for prostate cancer. Dr Onik's research in this area was honored by the Society of Uroradiology as the most important research paper at their 2004 annual meeting in Scottsdale Arizona and has appeared in a recent Wall Street Journal article This technique also is proving to be the best treatment option for patients that have previously failed radiation therapy.

The key to this individualized approach to prostate cancer treatment is an accurate assessment of a patient's cancer extent. Dr. Onik and and The Center for Safer Prostate Cancer Therapy therefore are leaders in providing unique diagnostic procedures that can better assess the amount and location of a patient's cancer. These include Color Doppler ultrasound, and a new biopsy technique called "3D Prostate Mapping Biopsy" (3D-PMB). Using 3D-PMB the extent and location of a patient's cancer can be better determined allowing a more specific plan to be made for each individual patient. Patients in whom a trans-rectal biopsy has been negative may also want to consider this biopsy technique since recent research has shown that 30% of cancer can be missed by TRUS biopsy alone.

Dr. Onik is happy to review, without obligation, the current information about your prostate cancer and give you a preliminary outline of possible courses of further diagnosis and treatment.