Anthony J. Costello

Anthony J. Costello
Born
Melbourne, Australia
Known forRobotic surgery
Medical career
Institutions
Awards

Anthony James Costello, FRACS, FRCSI, is an Australian urologist. He served as head of the department of urology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Australia. He established the first robotic prostate cancer surgery programme in Australia and published the first series of men who had laser surgery for benign prostate enlargements.

Costello has been an advocate for PSA testing in men and robotic surgery for prostate removal in treating prostate cancer. Based on microdissections of cadavers, he described the anatomy of the nerves near the prostate, significant for preserving erectile function.

Early life and education

Anthony Costello was born in St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne. His father was an Australian Air Force pilot and general practitioner who practiced from home, where his mother stayed with their eight children. His ancestors had emigrated from Ireland in the mid 1800s.[1]

Between 1957 and 1966 he attended Xavier College, and then studied at Newman College, a residential college of the University of Melbourne. He gained his medical degree in 1972 from the University of Melbourne, Medical School.[1][2]

Career

In 1981 Costello completed a fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, under the supervision of urological surgeon Douglas E. Johnson. Subsequently, he spent five years back in Melbourne and then took a sabbatical as a returning fellow in Houston in 1989, when he developed an interest in emerging technologies relating to prostate cancer. He then returned to Melbourne in 1990 and became head of the unit at St. Vincent's.[1][2][3]

He established an international urologic-oncology fellowship programme.[4] In 1992, he published the first series of men who had laser surgery for benign prostate enlargements using the Nd:YAG laser.[5] In 1999, he was appointed head of urology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where, in 2001, he established a laboratory for prostate cancer research at its Department of Surgery. He also helped establish the Victorian Prostate Cancer Foundation.[1][6]

In 2003, he began using the da Vinci Surgical robot for prostate surgery at his private practice in Epworth Hospital in Richmond, and established the first robotic prostate cancer surgery programme in Australia.[1][4]

Costello has been an advocate for PSA testing in men and robotic surgery for prostate removal in treating prostate cancer.[7][8] He popularised the use of an endoscopic closure device for raising the prostate during robotic assisted radical prostatectomy.[9] Based on a series of microdissections of cadavers, he described the anatomy of the nerves near the prostate in detail, significant for preserving erectile function.[10][11] With his colleagues, he has questioned the neuroanatomy relating to the prostate gland and felt that the nerves located within the "veil of Aphrodite" (veil of tissue) mainly provide the nerve supply to the prostate, rather than to the corpora cavernosa for sexual function.[12][11][13][14]

Urologists he trained include Ben Challacombe and Declan G. Murphy.[15][16]

Awards and honours

Costello is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,[17] a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons,[1] and on the board of the Australian Prostate Centre.[18]

In 2015, he became a member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to medicine in the field of urology as a clinician, administrator and author, to cancer research, and to medical education”.[17] The following year he became the first honorary life member of Irish Association of Urologists.[17]

In 2017 he was awarded the St Pauls Medal by the British Urological Association.[17][19]

Personal and family

As a student Costello had been captain of football and swimming teams and later took up running. Of his siblings, four became doctors, one a judge and one a teacher.[1]

In his 30s, he owned a vineyard and made wine. He is married and has grandchildren.[1]

Selected publications

  • Costello, Anthony J.; Brooks, Matthew; Cole, Owen J. (1 November 2004). "Anatomical studies of the neurovascular bundle and cavernosal nerves". BJU International. 94 (7): 1071–1076. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2004.05106.x. ISSN 1464-4096. PMID 15541130. S2CID 35070487.
  • Murphy, D. G.; Costello, A. J. (September 2008). "High prostatic fascia release or standard nerve sparing? A viewpoint from the Royal Melbourne Hospital". Journal of Robotic Surgery. 2 (3): 181–185. doi:10.1007/s11701-008-0102-x. ISSN 1863-2483. PMID 27628257. S2CID 30522663.
  • Murphy, Declan G.; Agarwal, Dinesh; Costello, Anthony J. (1 February 2009). "Anterior retraction of the prostate during robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy using the closure device". BJU International. 103 (4): 558–562. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2009.08393.x. ISSN 1464-4096. PMID 19187352. S2CID 46485867.
  • Costello, Anthony (2019). "Why a robot took my bladder". ANZ Journal of Surgery. 89 (12): 1536. doi:10.1111/ans.15574. hdl:11343/286657. ISSN 1445-2197. PMID 31769182. S2CID 208298527.
  • Costello, Anthony J. (March 2020). "Considering the role of radical prostatectomy in 21st century prostate cancer care". Nature Reviews Urology. 17 (3): 177–188. doi:10.1038/s41585-020-0287-y. ISSN 1759-4820. PMID 32086498. S2CID 211234353.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "An interview with Anthony Costello, MD FRACS FRCSI (hon) MBBS: FACE TO FACE". BJU International. 108 (3): 303–304. August 2011. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2011.10327.x. S2CID 221530707.
  2. ^ a b Curriculum Vitae. Anthony Costello MD FRACS FRCSI(hon) MBBS. 2014
  3. ^ "Profile Anthony Costello. ResearchGate.
  4. ^ a b Costello, A. (1 July 2010). "Prostate Cancer Care Down Under". BJU International. 106 (2): ii–v. doi:10.1111/j.1464-410X.2010.09476.x. ISSN 1464-4096. PMID 20645976. S2CID 41302878.
  5. ^ Lerner, Lori B.; Shirk, Joseph; Nimeh, Tony (2014). "9. Holmium Ablation of Prostate". In Bilal Chughtai, Bilal; Te, Alexis E.; Kaplan, Steven A. (eds.). Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Modern Alternative to Transurethral Resection of the Prostate. Springer. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-4939-1586-6.
  6. ^ "Urology | The Royal Melbourne Hospital". www.thermh.org.au. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  7. ^ Medew, Julia (1 August 2012). "Cancer treatment 'hijacking' a fallacy: urologists". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  8. ^ MacKenzie, Ross; Chapman, Simon; Holding, Simon; McGeechan, Kevin (November 2007). "'A matter of faith, not science': analysis of media coverage of prostate cancer screening in Australian news media 2003–2006". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 100 (11): 513–521. doi:10.1177/014107680710001114. ISSN 0141-0768. PMC 2099410. PMID 18048709.
  9. ^ McLoughlin, John; Burgess, Neil; Motiwala, Hanif; Speakman, Mark J.; Doble, Andrew; Kelly, John (4 March 2013). Top Tips in Urology. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-67293-8.
  10. ^ Challacombe, Ben; Costello, Anthony J. (2011). "21. Transferring knowledge of anatomical dissection from the laboratory to the patient: An Australian perspective". In Menon, Mani; Ashok Kumar, Hemal (eds.). Robotics in Genitourinary Surgery. Springer. p. 252. ISBN 978-1-84882-114-9.
  11. ^ a b Eichel, Louis; Skarecky, Douglas; Ahlering, Thomas E. (2016). "4. Pathophysiology of nerve injury and its effect on return of erectile function". In Sanjay Razdan (ed.). Urinary Continence and Sexual Function After Robotic Radical Prostatectomy. Springer. p. 61. ISBN 978-3-319-39446-6.
  12. ^ Mandhani, Anil (2009). "Prostatic fascia and recovery of sexual function after radical prostatectomy: Is it a "Veil of Aphrodite" or "Veil of mystery"!". Indian Journal of Urology. 25 (1): 146–148. doi:10.4103/0970-1591.45558. ISSN 0970-1591. PMC 2684308. PMID 19468450.
  13. ^ Hyun Park, Yong; Jeong, Chang Wook; Eun Lee, Sang (1 December 2013). "A comprehensive review of neuroanatomy of the prostate". Prostate International. 1 (4): 139–45. doi:10.12954/PI.13020. ISSN 2287-8882. PMC 3879050. PMID 24392437.
  14. ^ Dasgupta, Prokar; Fitzpatrick, John M.; Kirby, Roger; Gill, Inderbir S. (2010). "21. Technologies for imaging the neurovasular bundle during prostatectomy". New Technologies in Urology. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 176. ISBN 978-1-84882-177-4.
  15. ^ Margo, Jill (8 March 2019). "Stephen Fry and his surgeon describe how it felt to treat his prostate cancer". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Upwardly mobile life in a land down under". Irish Medical Times. 13 September 2011. Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  17. ^ a b c d "AUA 2019 Annual Meeting". eventscribe.com. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  18. ^ "Board of Directors". Australian Prostate Cancer Centre. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  19. ^ "BAUS 2017 Glasgow Annual Meeting. SEC Glasgow, 26–28 June 2017