Andrew Cho조반음

Reporter

Medical Insights Korea

Andrew Cho reports on urology in South Korea for Medical Insights Korea, covering urological practice, treatment evidence, and the research behind it.

Covers: Urology · Prostate · Prostate cancer · Korean health system · Treatment decisions · Active surveillance · Cancer screening
Record: 8 written
Contact: jowilder96@gmail.com

Written by Andrew Cho

News · Prostate

Korea's prostate cancer prevalence rose 170 percent in a decade. The men it accumulated are 73, and most of them are on hormone therapy

This coverage has asked repeatedly what happens to the men Korea finds late. The answer, in national prescribing data, is androgen deprivation — and two studies now put numbers on what that costs.

Andrew Cho10 Sept 20267 min read

News · Prostate

Prostate cancer in South Korea: what the evidence says about who is found late, and what happens next

The country that became the world's reference case for finding cancer too early has the opposite problem in prostate cancer. This is what the published data shows, where it runs out, and what it never recorded at all.

Andrew Cho8 Sept 20269 min read

News · Prostate

Radiotherapy spares the things prostate surgery damages, and damages something surgery leaves alone

Three articles here have described what prostate surgery does to continence and none has described the alternative. Randomised patient-reported data and two Korean series fill the gap — and disagree about how much is happening, for a reason worth knowing.

Andrew Cho7 Sept 20267 min read

FAQ · Prostate

For localised prostate cancer, should I have surgery or active surveillance?

Fifteen years of randomised follow-up found survival did not depend on the choice. What it depends on is which harms a man is willing to take, and — in Korean data — which hospital he attends.

Andrew Cho4 Sept 20267 min read

FAQ · Prostate

Should I have a PSA test for prostate cancer?

The randomised evidence is now mature enough to give real numbers on both sides. Korea's own data suggests its question is not the one the trials were designed to answer.

Andrew Cho3 Sept 20266 min read

News · Prostate

Whether a prostate operation leaves a man incontinent is partly decided before he reaches theatre

Pooled data on 12,620 men finds age, urethral length and existing urinary symptoms predict continence after robotic prostatectomy. All three are measurable at the clinic visit where the decision is made.

Andrew Cho2 Sept 20266 min read

News · Prostate

Korean men under prostate cancer surveillance started antidepressants more often than men who were treated. On survival, the study could not tell the difference

A target trial emulation using national linkage data found four prostate cancer deaths in total between surgery and surveillance. The finding it could measure was psychological.

Andrew Cho2 Sept 20266 min read

News · Prostate

Korea diagnoses thyroid cancer too early and prostate cancer too late. Half of prostate cases are already high-risk when found

In 27,075 biopsy-confirmed cases from 51 hospitals, 53.9 percent were high-risk at diagnosis and the low-risk share fell from 11.4 to 7.6 percent over a decade. Rural men fared worse than urban ones.

Andrew Cho2 Sept 20266 min read