DO, MSc, FACOS
Professor, Urology
Vice Chair of Research, UNC Urology
UNC-Chapel Hill
Urologic Oncology
Cancer Therapeutics Research Program
Meet Marc Bjurlin
Area of Interest
My cancer related research concentrates on the clinical outcomes and techniques of genitourinary cancer treatment, with an emphasis on risk stratification. One of my interests is the use of minimally invasive techniques in cancer surgery, coupled with innovative technologies such as fluorescence imaging, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printed models. These technologies have the potential to enhance surgical planning and therapeutic interventions. I have been actively involved in the evaluation of the use of robotic surgery in the management of genitourinary cancers. This includes clinical outcomes, with particular attention to complications, oncologic outcomes, and risk stratifying patients to allow for surgical optimization.
Additionally, another area of my academic research focuses on image guided risk stratification and disease localization for men who are at risk for prostate cancer. Specifically, I have studied the performance characteristics of multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the prostate as a non-invasive risk assessment tool to predict tumor aggressiveness, outcomes after treatment, and guide prostate biopsies by a MRI-ultrasound fusion technique. This imaging modality and biopsy technique has allowed for increased detection of clinically actionable disease, while limiting the over detection of indolent cancer, requiring fewer biopsy cores, and ultimately improving cancer risk stratification that drives appropriate management decision making.
News and Stories
UNC physician experts call for systems-based approach to prostate cancer screening decisions
Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, and Marc Bjurlin, DO, MSc, call for shared decision-making about prostate cancer screening to be built into health care systems, not left to individual clinicians alone, in a new editorial in the Journal of Urology.
Bjurlin advances global dialogue on tobacco and bladder cancer at European conference
Marc Bjurlin, DO, MSc, vice chair of research and director of clinical trials in the department of urology, joined experts from around the world in Milan, Italy, for the 10th European Conference on Tobacco or Health.
