Wait and See Approach Appropriate for Many Cases of Prostate Cancer

By Rachel Stockton

When it comes to a cancer diagnosis, becoming passive and waiting to see what happens over time is not advice we’re used to hearing.

But that’s what the results of a new prostate cancer study reveals that the best course of action just might be, depending on the stage at which a diagnosis has been made.

The results of the study are being reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association; men who are diagnosed with the disease early on are more likely to die from other causes unrelated to the prostate in the ensuing decade.

As far as specific cancers go, prostate cancer is a bit of an anomaly for a couple of reasons:

*It’s very common –80% of men who reach the age of 80 will have developed some form of it

*In many cases, it remains localized and does not spread beyond the prostate itself.

Still, there are other, more aggressive forms of prostate cancer that do break the prostate barrier and go on to attack other organs.  This is why it is still imperative that physicians order PSA tests on their male patients.  For the more aggressive tumors, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy may be in order.

But “benign neglect”, which is the term for waiting and seeing if symptoms occur, may be the best course of action for men over the age of 65.

The study was performed by the Cancer Institute of New Jersey; the data came from the government’s Surveillance and Epidemiology and End Results registry, which gleans its information from Medicare.  Interestingly, even though waiting might be in the best interest of an older, male patient, only 10% of older men forgo treatment for a more passive approach.

This is an interesting statistic, because radical treatment has several unpleasant side effects, such as incontinence and impotence.  However, given this new information, the tide may soon turn and the numbers of those seeking surgery may decrease.

Researchers from the study credit the PSA test for helping patients to obtain an early diagnosis, giving them an opportunity to take a “wait and see” approach.  And, incidentally, benign neglect is not a completely passive approach to the disease, as it requires PSA testing every 3 months and a biopsy once a year.