05/12/2025
besides being an inspirational post, this highlights the things to look out for that could raise your risk of prostrate cancer. Read and share with others. Together cancer CAN be overcome!
“I started at Groote Schuur Hospital in 2017 as a medical officer in urology, after which I completed my specialist training and have been employed as a consultant since 2023.
Urology is such a small department. We are currently three consultants, but we cover Red Cross, Groote Schuur, New Somerset, and Eerste River, so it gets busy. Our scope of work covers everything from paediatrics, to robotic surgery, to open surgery, lasers, reconstruction, and so much more.
My favourite part about working at Groote Schuur is the patients, who are generally just fantastic, respectful people.
We are also very privileged working at Groote Schuur. We've got access to almost anything that a patient would need. We've got the robot now, so the surgeries we're doing on the prostate are getting less invasive. Whenever we need something which is going to benefit patients, the hospital is very supportive.
Another thing is that everyone at Groote Schuur takes pride in their work, no matter what they do. There is an incredible work ethic, which is fantastic, and I don’t think I’ve really seen it elsewhere.
Self detection for prostate cancer is extremely important in South Africa, because in places like the USA and Europe, they've been able to roll out routine screening in the form of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood tests for men from age 45. We don't have resources to give every person a blood test.
But we do know there are certain risk factors, so we try to raise awareness around those. Some risk factors include:
1. If you have had a first degree relative due at a young age from prostate cancer. By first degree relative, we mean a father, brother, or uncle.
2. Another one that people are less aware of is breast cancer is a certain gene called the BRCA gene. So if you've got a mom or a sister with a BRCA gene related to breast cancer, you are more prone to more aggressive prostate cancer.
3. Finally, things like age and ethnicity, as prostate cancer is more common in people of colour in South Africa.
If you've got any of those things, we advise that you try to get a PSA. Prostate cancer is avoidable and treatable, but it's not picked up in everyone. I think our detection rate has gone up, but the earlier you detect it, the better and that there are many options to treat it.
Even if you do pick up prostate cancer, for instance, not all prostate cancer needs to be treated immediately. The reality is that any treatment you get for prostate cancer can influence things like your continence. So if we pick up a non-aggressive form of prostate cancer, we will just monitor it closely, and allow the patient to carry on living their normal life without any treatment.
We have started an initiative called Project Peacock. It's a fund where we're able to fund surgery lists on a Friday by paying for extra staff.
We don’t only treat cancer on those lists, but we also work on our backup list for kidney stones. We've lost so much theatre time through factors out of our own control, and I always say that the demand outweighs the supply. We see 30, 40 new patients with stones a week, and we have two theatre lists per week, where we can do six or seven patients, so we don't have enough theatre time to accommodate the number of people we are seeing.
We are always willing to operate. We'll operate on a Saturday or Sunday pro bono. It doesn't bother us, but we just want to get as many people as possible in the operating theatre.” – Dr Cleve Oppel, Consultant in the Urology Department.
Credit Heroes of Groote Schuur
