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Older men with early stage, localised prostate cancer live longer if the disease is treated with radiation or surgery instead of simply waiting and watching it as is often recommended, says a new study.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients whose cancer was treated had a 31 per cent lower risk of death during the 12 years they were tracked than those who did nothing.
Even though the disease is considered a slow-developing one, the study "suggests a reduced risk of mortality associated with active treatment for low and intermediate risk prostate cancer in the elderly ... population examined," concluded the report, published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"These results must be validated by rigorous randomised controlled trials of elderly men with localised prostate cancer before the findings can be used to inform treatment decisions," it added.
Because it can be detected by a blood test there are increasing numbers of cases being diagnosed, the study noted.
Waiting and monitoring tumours is considered one option, especially for older men who have a higher risk of dying from something else, given the fact that the disease progresses slowly. But the study found that even men who were 75 to 80 benefited from treatment.
The report was based on the medical records of more than 44,000 men 65 to 80 who were diagnosed with the disease between 1991 and 1999 and who had survived more than a year past diagnosis.
Tumours can be treated with radiation or by surgical removal of the gland. Once the cancer has gone beyond the gland, hormone treatments are used to slow its spread. Patients who received that kind of treatment were not included in the study.
Two doctors, in an editorial in the same issue, noted that the findings are preliminary.
Doctors "must remain steadfast in their efforts to reduce over-treatment and under-treatment by thoughtfully defining each patient's unique balance between the natural history of prostate cancer and that individual patient's life expectancy".
- REUTERS
