Meet Dr. Arthur Sagalowsky

When you're faced with life-threatening diseases like bladder cancer and kidney cancer, you want an experienced surgeon as your ally. Arthur Sagalowsky, M.D., offers surgical expertise that few can match for urologic cancers.

We all are proud to improve the quality of our patients’ lives."

A Texas Monthly Super Doctor and a U.S. News Top Doctor, Dr. Sagalowsky has one of the largest referral practices in the United States for patients with bladder cancer or kidney cancer. He was one of the first surgeons in the world to perform a continent urinary diversion for patients who need their bladder removed. The procedure creates a pouch inside the body that acts like a bladder.  

Dr. Sagalowsky is also well known for performing open partial nephrectomy for patients with complex kidney tumors that may not be amenable to nephron-sparing surgery by minimally invasive surgical techniques. These complex techniques allow both control of the tumor and maximize preservation of renal function. 

He and his colleagues also help patients with large kidney tumors as well as those with tumor thrombus that grows out of the renal vein and into the vena cava – in some cases, as far as into the heart. Dr. Sagalowsky has helped UT Southwestern Medical Center become the largest regional referral destination for such patients.

Dr. Sagalowsky also works with the Urologic Oncology team at UT Southwestern to pioneer cancer treatments. The team has been involved in a 10-year project investigating unique panels of molecular markers in bladder cancer that affect tumor behavior in terms of risk for recurrence, progression, and mortality.

Identification of such high-risk features may improve patient care through more frequent follow up, earlier treatment, and potential development of specific treatments that attack the related features of the tumors.

Dr. Sagalowsky may be known for his experience with complex surgeries, but he stresses that it’s the multidisciplinary Urologic Cancer team – including medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, and diagnostic radiology – that makes UT Southwestern a unique place for cancer care in Texas.

"Our multidisciplinary team approach is necessary to provide patients with optimal care," he says.

Clinical Interests

Cancer

• Bladder cancer, both non-invasive and invasive
• Kidney cancer
• Penile cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Testicular cancer

Urinary Diversion

• Orthotopic neobladder
• Cutaneous reservoirs      

Surgery

• Continent urinary diversion
• Complex open partial nephrectomy
• Radical nephrectomy, and tumor thrombectomy of vena cava and cardiac tumor thrombus
• Radical cystectomy
• Primary and debulking retroperitoneal lymph node dissection after chemotherapy
• Radical ilioinguinal lymph node dissection for penile cancer