Before Prostate Surgery, Ask These 3 Questions with Dr. Jim Hu

Before prostate surgery, there are 3 questions you should ask your surgeon—and “How many surgeries have you done?” isn’t enough.

In this episode of The Dr. Geo Prostate Podcast, Dr. Geo sits down with renowned prostate cancer surgeon Dr. Jim Hu, Ronald P. Lynch Professor of Urologic Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, Vice Chair of Clinical Research, and Director of the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery.

The conversation starts where many prostate cancer journeys begin: an elevated PSA.

Do you really need a biopsy? Should you get an MRI first? What about PSA density, the 4Kscore, or newer urine tests? And if a biopsy is necessary, should you choose transperineal instead of transrectal biopsy?

Dr. Hu explains why he now favors the transperineal approach and discusses findings from the PREVENT and UK TRANSLATE trials, including infection risk, antibiotic use, cancer detection, pain, and the learning curve physicians face when adopting the procedure.

Then the conversation turns to one of the biggest decisions a man with prostate cancer may ever make:

Surgery or radiation?

And if you choose surgery, how do you know whether your surgeon is actually good?

Dr. Hu explains why simply asking how many prostatectomies a surgeon has performed may not tell you what you really need to know. Instead, patients should be asking whether their surgeon actually tracks urinary continence and erectile-function outcomes.

Because two surgeons can perform the same “robotic prostatectomy” very differently—and those differences may matter to your quality of life.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What an elevated PSA really means—and what may come before biopsy