St George Hospital’s Prostate Cancer Institute turns 20

St George Hospital’s Prostate Cancer Institute (PCI) recently reached a major milestone, celebrating 20 years of operation.

Many of the original staff who set up the PCI in 2002 are still part of the team, including Radiation Oncologist Dr Joseph Bucci and Urological Surgeon Dr David Malouf.

According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer in Australian men. In Sydney’s Inner South West and East region alone, over 420 new men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and nationally around 18,000 men are diagnosed each year – that’s one in six men diagnosed in their lifetime.

St George Hospital’s Cancer Care Centre provides world-class treatment, where men with prostate cancer receive individual assessment and treatment according to the nature and type of prostate cancer.

St George Hospital was the first and remains the only public facility in NSW that provides seed brachytherapy for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Raymond Garland was one of the first patients to receive brachytherapy from Dr Bucci at St George Hospital in 2002. Twenty years later he is still going strong, with no complications or side effects.

“I have nothing but praise and admiration for what Dr Bucci does and how efficiently he did it for me. I now know more about prostate cancer and over the past 20 years I have discussed my treatment with many people who had the same diagnosis and everyone is so impressed with my treatment and lack of side effects. I was lucky with how I responded and that I had a very good doctor. Everyone in the hospital and Dr Bucci’s team were all top notch,” Mr Garland said.

Staff standing in front of the Cancer Care Centre