Both sides of the scalpel: the patient and the surgeon view

Abstract

As clinicians and surgeons, the experience of prostate cancer is one that happens on an almost daily basis. We are used to the feeling of making a diagnosis, to reassuring our patients, to the calm and sterility of an operating theatre, and to the worry of waiting for pathology results. For our patients, this experience is new and often terrifying, and only rarely do we consider the two experiences — doctor and patient — together. If we are to ask a patient to tell their story in writing, there are few people who are better placed to do so than one who does this professionally and who has done so for the best part of four decades. In this Viewpoint, Stephen Fry describes his prostate cancer journey from initial concerns through diagnosis and surgery to follow-up, alongside the same story told by his surgeon, Ben Challacombe. Thus, this unique article reminds us that the same events provide a different experience for patient and surgeon and enables us to consider both sides of the scalpel.