Part 1: Close Up Radio Welcomes Back Urologic Oncologist Dr. Michael Whalen

Washington, DC – Dr. Michael Whalen is a Urologic Oncologist renowned for his expertise in the surgical management of high-risk genitourinary cancer patients. As a surgical oncologist, Dr. Whalen is on the cutting edge of precision and personalized medicine.

“We try to minimize the bad but promote the good in terms of early detection and saving people's lives in the process,” says Dr. Whalen. “The challenge for us is to identify patients that would have an adverse impact from prostate cancer. Once it's metastatic, it's not curable, so we want to promote early detection as a pathway to cure and certainly less morbidity and potential side effects.”

Despite all of our advances in knowledge and technology, physicians still have a lot to learn about cancer. No two tumors are exactly the same, so the path is not always straight forward. However, doctors are beginning to understand that there is more of a genetic component to cancer than we may have fully realized in the past.

“There is a developing understanding of the genetic differences between tumors from different populations,” says Dr. Whalen. “Certain populations who have higher average testosterone levels are at higher risk. African American men are the highest risk for prostate cancer. They tend to have more advanced disease and have higher rates of death from prostate cancer. Asian men are the lowest risk.”

“It's important to know these things because people want to feel like you're treating them with the most current knowledge,” says Dr. Whalen. “Being smarter about patient selection and understanding that systemic therapy or hormone manipulation might be required, that's where an understanding of the genetic profile of the tumor is beneficial.”