March 12, 2023 – Active surveillance for early-stage prostate cancer offers the identical long-term survival rate as surgery or radiation to treat the cancer, in accordance with a brand new study. This option allows many men to avoid unintended effects of treatment that could cause problems with urinary, bowel and sexual function.
“It is clear that, unlike many other cancers, a diagnosis of prostate cancer should not be a cause for panic or hasty decisions,” said lead researcher Freddie Hamdy, MD, professor of surgery and urology on the University of Oxford in England, in a opinion“Patients and physicians can and should take time to weigh the benefits and potential harms of different treatments, confident that their survival will not be negatively affected.”
The results were announced on Saturday in New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a gathering of the European Association of Urology. The study checked out three different treatment courses in greater than 1,600 men living within the UK. These men were diagnosed with newly localised prostate cancer between 1999 and 2009. The men either received radiotherapy, had all or a part of their prostate removed surgically, or were actively monitored with laboratory blood tests. The men were aged between 50 and 69 and the typical age at diagnosis was 62. They were followed for 15 years after diagnosis.
Overall, 3% of men within the study died from prostate cancer. The rate was similar no matter whether or not they received treatment or surveillance.
Prostate cancer is the second commonest cancer in men within the United States, killing 33,000 men in 2020. Prostate gland is a component of the male reproductive system and is positioned just under the bladder. It is the scale of a walnut and surrounds the urethra, the tube that drains urine from the bladder. The prostate produces fluid that is a component of semen.
In the study, men who received lively surveillance were twice as prone to have their cancer spread in comparison with men within the two treatment groups. Nevertheless, the 15-year survival rate within the surveillance group was 97%, which was the identical as within the two treatment groups. At the top of the 15-year commentary period, a couple of quarter of the boys within the surveillance group had not received any invasive treatment.
“The fact that the greater disease progression under active surveillance did not lead to higher mortality will surprise and encourage urologists and patients alike,” said Dr. Peter Albers, Chairman of the Scientific Congress Office of the EAU and urologist on the University of Düsseldorf. “Active surveillance and biopsy protocols are much more advanced today than when this study was conducted, so it is possible that we can improve these results even further. It is an important message for patients that delaying treatment is safe, especially since it also means delaying side effects.”