No Treatment May Be Best for Prostate Cancer
No Treatment May Be Best for Prostate Cancer
Some Men May Not Need Surgery or Radiation for Early Stage of Disease
May 3, 2005 -- Many men with early-stage prostate cancer who are treated with either surgery or radiation might fare just as well with no treatment at all.
The issue of how aggressively to treat men with prostate cancer arises frequently. That's because prostate cancer often progresses very slowly.
And now researchers have found that men with cancers confined to the prostate that do not appear aggressive -- called low grade -- have a low risk of the cancer worsening over a 20-year period.
The findings appear to contradict another large 20-year study from Sweden, published last June. Swedish researchers reported that prostate cancer deaths increased dramatically among untreated men between 15 and 20 years after a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer.
That study was widely seen as validating an aggressive treatment approach for early-stage prostate cancers. But Peter C. Albertsen, MD, who led the new study, says he was skeptical of those findings.
"We went back and analyzed our data, and did not find an accelerated death rate among [untreated] men who were still alive 15 to 20 years after their diagnosis," the University of Connecticut Health Center urology professor tells WebMD. "In fact, if anything, we found that the death rate from prostate cancer was lower during this time period."
But another expert tells WebMD that the best approach toward men with early-stage prostate cancer is still unclear.
The question of how to treat men with early-stage prostate cancer, or whether to treat them at all, is one of the most controversial in cancer medicine. In the U.S., most doctors favor an aggressive approach to treating localized, low-grade tumors. But in Europe, many more early-stage prostate cancer patients opt for so-called "watchful waiting," in which tumors are watched closely but not treated.
In an effort to better understand the long-term consequences of treatment that did not include cancer surgery or radiation, Albertsen and colleagues followed 767 men for at least two decades. All the men were diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancers confined to the prostate. None was treated with surgery or radiation, but many did receive hormone therapyhormone therapy to lower testosterone levels.
The findings are published in the May 4 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
No Treatment May Be Best for Prostate Cancer
Some Men May Not Need Surgery or Radiation for Early Stage of Disease
May 3, 2005 -- Many men with early-stage prostate cancer who are treated with either surgery or radiation might fare just as well with no treatment at all.
The issue of how aggressively to treat men with prostate cancer arises frequently. That's because prostate cancer often progresses very slowly.
And now researchers have found that men with cancers confined to the prostate that do not appear aggressive -- called low grade -- have a low risk of the cancer worsening over a 20-year period.
The findings appear to contradict another large 20-year study from Sweden, published last June. Swedish researchers reported that prostate cancer deaths increased dramatically among untreated men between 15 and 20 years after a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer.
That study was widely seen as validating an aggressive treatment approach for early-stage prostate cancers. But Peter C. Albertsen, MD, who led the new study, says he was skeptical of those findings.
"We went back and analyzed our data, and did not find an accelerated death rate among [untreated] men who were still alive 15 to 20 years after their diagnosis," the University of Connecticut Health Center urology professor tells WebMD. "In fact, if anything, we found that the death rate from prostate cancer was lower during this time period."
But another expert tells WebMD that the best approach toward men with early-stage prostate cancer is still unclear.
The question of how to treat men with early-stage prostate cancer, or whether to treat them at all, is one of the most controversial in cancer medicine. In the U.S., most doctors favor an aggressive approach to treating localized, low-grade tumors. But in Europe, many more early-stage prostate cancer patients opt for so-called "watchful waiting," in which tumors are watched closely but not treated.
In an effort to better understand the long-term consequences of treatment that did not include cancer surgery or radiation, Albertsen and colleagues followed 767 men for at least two decades. All the men were diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancers confined to the prostate. None was treated with surgery or radiation, but many did receive hormone therapyhormone therapy to lower testosterone levels.
The findings are published in the May 4 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
