Some Low-risk Prostate Cancer Patients Overtreated

Featured Article
Main Category: Urology / Nephrology
Also Included In: Prostate / Prostate Cancer;  Cancer / Oncology;  Men's health
Article Date: 15 Aug 2006 - 15:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Rather than receiving radiotherapy or having their prostate removed, as is sometimes currently the case, many low-risk prostate cancer patients would be better off if their doctors kept an eye on their cancer until treatment became necessary, say researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, USA. You can read about this in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, August 16 issue.

Past guidelines for early-stage prostate cancer was to remove the prostate. However, as cancers are easier to detect these days, prostate cancers are being detected at ever earlier stages. The researchers suggest that treating the prostate cancer today at a very early stage may not be in the best interests of the patient. In fact, studies have found that early aggressive treatment does nothing to improve patient survival, and could even harm his health.

The researchers looked at data on 71,602 men, all aged over 70, who were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the period 2000-2002. They then broke them down into those who received various therapies and those who were not treated (a 'wait and see' approach).

24,825 of them had lower-risk prostate cancers. Assuming waiting for treatment would have been the best approach for these cancers, the team found that 10% of these patients were overtreated with prostate removal and 44% with radiation therapy.

The researchers wrote "Efforts to reduce overtreatment should be a clinical and public health priority."

Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients Face Overtreatment
Ariel Whitworth
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 16, 1095, August 16, 2006
Click Here To View Abstract

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations