Department of Urologic Surgery

|    Prostate    |    Bladder    |    Kidney    |    Testis    |

The Vanderbilt Urologic Cancer Surgery Program, under the directorship of Chairman Dr. Joseph A. Smith, Jr., aims to treat patients with all types of genitourinary cancers.  Our heartfelt mission is to cure the patient and to preserve the highest quality of life.  The common malignancies treated include prostate cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, testis cancer, and penile cancer, but more rare cancers are often referred to our institution. 

At Vanderbilt, we have seven fellowship-trained faculty members with specific interest and expertise in Urologic Oncology.  We have one of the largest volumes of clinical and operative Urologic Oncology cases in the nation and frequently receive patient referrals from throughout the Southeast and the country.  In addition to our Urology faculty, we work closely with Medical Oncologists and Radiation Oncologists with procedures focused specifically on genitourinary malignancies.  The following graph shows the number of patients seen in the Vanderbilt Urologic Oncology Clinic in 2008-2009 with various genitourinary malignancies.

 2008-2009 Vanderbilt Urology Clinic Patient Volume (# of patients)

The Department of Urologic Surgery believes in a team, multi-disciplinary approach to fighting cancer and is closely affiliated with the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center(VICC), one of the select group of National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.  The VICC is recognized as a leader in cancer prevention, care and research.  The VICC is ranked among the top cancer centers in the country in a survey by U.S. News and World Report.  Only a handful of centers in the Southeast have earned NCI designation, and the VICC is the only one in Tennessee dedicated to providing the most promising therapies and to advancing research in all types of cancer in adults and children.  Further, there is extensive departmental involvement in clinical research protocols, both on a single institutional and cooperative group basis. 

Vanderbilt has its own fellowship training program accredited by the Society of Urology Oncology. Urologists from across the country compete for prestigious and advanced training at Vanderbilt to prepare them for a clinical and research careers as national leaders in the field. 

The Vanderbilt Department of Urologic Surgery was honored in the 2009 U.S. News and World Report rankings of urology hospitals as being amongst the top ten in the country.