Increasing percentages of some older U.S. men with intermediate-risk and high-risk prostate cancers are undergoing treatments that carry risks of side effects that can significantly reduce the quality of life without extending life, according to a new study led by Cedars-Sinai.
This trend is problematic because these men may not have life expectancies that would allow them to receive the benefits of more aggressive treatments. The research findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine . Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in the U.
S., exceeded only by breast cancer. About one-eighth of U.
S. men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a median age of 67 according to the National Cancer Institute. Most patients have slow-growing, localized tumors, confined to the prostate gland, that are unlikely to threaten their lives.
Instead of immediate treatment, these low-risk patients can be monitored through "active surveillance," in which examinations and tests are performed on a regular schedule to make sure the disease is not progressing. Use of active surveillance has increased over the last 15 years for men with low-risk prostate cancer, and it is now the most common treatment for these men. This approach allows these patients to avoid the risks of urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction and other potential side effects of surgery and radiation therapy.
" Timothy Daskivich, MD, director of Urologic Oncology Research for the Cedars-Sinai D.