It's a gruesome percentage, not only for the males. It is a no-win situation that no man should have to find himself in. Definitely a grim future for patients suffering from prostate cancer. They go the hospital to have the prostate cancer removed, then they come home to hang their "tools" in the closet. It's not a good joke, I know. It's just the sad reality as it is today.

Finally, some good news. A new technique, developed just at the beginning of this millennium is now helping men around the world cope with prostate cancer.

Robot assisted prostate surgery is now delivering surprisingly good results. A group of journalists had the opportunity to witness such an operation on a cinema screen, with the aid of 3-D glasses. It mostly consisted of a view from inside the patient's body cavity as a pair of robot "hands", inserted through a couple of keyhole incisions in the abdomen, gently snipped away at a prostate while avoiding the delicate nerves that keep a man virile.

One of the advantages of this technique is the fact that it's a less invasive procedure, which means small incisions, which speed recovery time. Another one is that the already heightened senses of a good surgeon are artificially amplified, giving them the ability to magnify what they're looking at and to make tiny precise movements that would be difficult or even impossible if conducted without robot aid.

They are not cheap applications, on the contrary, but if your health insurance will cover it, it's definitely the best solution to a male tragedy. The incredible results achieved with this machine are worth every effort, since a new operation performed by robot means that 90 per cent of patients are still able to make love after having their prostate taken away.

It is a huge progress over the 50 percent of men that suffer from impotence after having conventional surgery to remove the prostate affected by cancer.