Positive Outcome

David Penson combines expert care with deep compassion to treat men undergoing
radical prostatectomy.

by Jon Nalick

For David Penson, M.D., M.P.H., simply curing a patient’s cancer is not enough.

The physician-researcher, who joined the Keck School of Medicine last spring, studies quality-of-life issues and says he has learned from his patients a simple truth: “Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.”

Depending on factors such as the age of the patient and experience of the physician, about 60 percent of men who undergo radical prostatectomy to treat their cancer suffer permanent erectile dysfunction and 5 to 10 percent suffer incontinence, Penson says.

As a result, many men trade their cancer for a new set of problems that often they—and sometimes even their physicians—are reluctant to discuss. As associate professor of urology and preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, Penson’s research aims to provide a better understanding of what happens to men after treatment and how to plan for and mitigate potential side effects.

“In my research, it became clear that as physicians, we were curing their cancer, but we weren’t necessarily making their lives better. Our goal as physicians should be to leave patients at least as good as how we found them—but without their illness,” he says.

He says that learning how to do that better is one of the reasons he chose to join the Keck School and the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“I looked at USC and the Norris and I saw a place that is really dedicated to treating cancer patients and whose nursing staff and urological department are simply terrific,” he says. “I’m looking forward to being able to maintain my surgical skills while helping build a major clinical research program in the department.”

Penson’s current research projects include a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study that he began while he was an assistant professor of urology at the University of Washington and staff urologist at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare system, both in Seattle. The study follows 750 men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995. The men have completed quality-of-life surveys at regular intervals since their diagnoses, which Penson says will let new prostate cancer patients and their physicians know more about which therapies work best, how often cancer recurs and what to expect regarding long-term side effects. He also is a member of the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study initiated by the NCI in 1995 that tracks 3,300 men nationwide.

Penson’s dedication to research, surgery and patient care issues is crucial, he says, to help fight a cancer that afflicts as many as 200,000 American men each year. Penson says, “I’m looking forward to expanding my research, increasing and sharing my knowledge, and maintaining and improving my surgical skills—all of this so that my patients and others won’t have to decide between cancer and possible disability.”