- A new long-term study finds a 97% survival rate among men with prostate cancer at 15 years, regardless of whether the disease was treated or not.
- While it can be difficult to decide on one’s response when faced with a prostate cancer diagnosis, the study suggests that the decision need not be too frightening.
- Men who decided not to be treated experienced double the chance of eventual metastasis, but even that did not lower their rate of survival.
When a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, he has two choices to make. He may choose to be treated or to keep a watchful eye on the often slowly progressing disease. If he selects treatment, he then must decide on the type of treatment that seems most suitable.
New research presented this month at the European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress in Milan, Italy reports the results of a study comparing the outcomes associated with each of these choices. The study is the longest-running of its kind.
While the course of their disease varied somewhat depending on their decision, even men whose cancer had metastasized survived.
The study tracked 1,643 men in the United Kingdom aged 50–69 years who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1999 and 2009 based on the results of a
As part of the study, participants agreed to be randomly assigned to actively monitor their disease, radical prostatectomy surgery, or radical radiation-based therapy.
The study appears in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The PSA or prostate-specific antigen blood test itself is somewhat controversial.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Freddie Hamdy, explained that PSA tests “can be followed by a snowball of further testing, including biopsies of the prostate.” If cancer is found, he said, it is likely localized and low risk.
“With this testing,” Dr. Hamdy warned, a ‘healthy’ man can become a ‘cancer patient’ unnecessarily.”
With this in mind, the
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