Thursday, 15 March 2007
BERKELEY, CA (Newswise) – After being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, many men are told that their disease is untreatable and that less aggressive treatment is best. Often this means patients are told to watch and wait — that is, to do nothing at all. A new study by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center turns conventional wisdom on its head, finding either surgical removal of the prostate (prostatectomy) or radiation treatment more than doubles the life expectancy for these patients when compared with those receiving the conservative approach.
Patients with the most aggressive non-metastatic prostate cancers (Gleason scores 8–10), if treated with prostatectomy or radiation, can expect to live more than 14 years; those treated conservatively will live, on average, less than 7 years. The study appears in the March Journal of Urology.
I’ve been aggressive at treating high grade prostate cancers with surgery. These patients tend to have more side effects after surgery (I am sure with radiation as well) than lower grade cancer patients. I will look forward to reading the actual study. A study like this is prone to selection bias.