Dr. Geoffrey Sonn is a board certified urologist who specializes in treating patients with prostate and kidney cancer. He has a particular interest in cancer imaging, MRI-Ultrasound fusion targeted prostate biopsy, prostate cancer focal therapy, and robotic surgery for prostate and kidney cancer. He was the Stanford principal investigator of a major clinical trial using MRI-guided focused ultrasound to treat prostate cancer. The goal of this trial was to treat prostate cancer with fewer side effects than surgery or radiation.
Dr. Sonn was born in Washington State and lived there until leaving for college at Georgetown in Washington DC. After graduating magna cum laude at Georgetown he returned to the West Coast for medical school at UCLA. Following medical school, Dr. Sonn completed a 6-year urology residency at Stanford where he developed particular interests in the clinical care of patients with urologic cancers and research in cancer imaging. He then spent two years at UCLA as a urologic oncology fellow where he devoted all his time to gaining additional skills and experience in clinical care and research in urologic malignancies. Since finishing his fellowship, Dr. Sonn has been at Stanford where he applies the skills he gained in residency and fellowship to provide high-quality clinical care to patients with urologic cancers. Dr. Sonn also continues to work to develop new methods to better diagnose and treat urologic cancers through research. His primary research focus is in prostate cancer focal therapy and developing artificial intelligence methods to improve prostate cancer detection on MRI and ultrasound.
Dr. Sonn's primary research interest is in improving prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment through MRI and image-targeted prostate biopsy. In collaboration with radiologists at Stanford, his group is working to define the optimal role of MRI in prostate cancer. They hope to improve cancer imaging to the point that some men with elevated PSA may safely avoid prostate biopsy. For those who need biopsy, they are evaluating novel MRI-US fusion targeted biopsy, a technique that greatly improves upon the conventional biopsy method. More accurate prostate biopsy enables better decision making about treatment options such as deciding between active surveillance and surgery.
Moving beyond biopsy, the lab is interested in the use of imaging to select patients who are candidates for prostate cancer focal therapy. Focal therapy involves ablation of prostate cancers under image guidance without destruction or removal of the normal areas of the prostate and with less damage to important surrounding structures that are important for erectile function and urinary continence.
Dr. Sonn is also interested in developing novel molecular imaging techniques such as near infrared fluorescence imaging to improve surgery for prostate and kidney cancer.