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# Watchful waiting as good as other treatments for prostate cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/prostate_cancer_0915160407/
- Published: 2016-09-15T05:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:31:03.000Z
- Description: In a British trial of 1,600 men aged 50 to 69 assigned to surgery, radiation or monitoring, 17 died of prostate cancer over 10 years. Monitored men were twice as likely to develop metastatic disease, 6 versus 3 percent, while treatment brought incontinence and sexual problems.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

Many men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer do not know what treatment they should receive even though [an authoritative organization](https://www.auanet.org/education/guidelines/prostate-cancer-detection.cfm?ref=foodconsumer.org) has already recommended that men older than 70 are in no need for prostate cancer screening because even if they are diagnosed with the disease, treated or not, these men are more likely to die from other conditions or diseases. In other words, the disease does not pose too much of a death risk.

A recent British study led by Dr. Freddie Hamdy of Oxford University and colleagues essentially extends such recommendation as it has found that actually prostate cancer, treated or not, kills merely 1% of patients in the study. This death rate is considered rare. This rate is similar to what is found in the U.S. where 220,000 men are estimated to be diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and some 30,000 men die annually of the disease. The U.S. data indicates that about 1% of patients die of prostate cancer if the average survival is 10 years.

The study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine involved 1600 men aged from 50 to 69 years who were randomly assigned to receiving surgery, radiation therapy or "watchful waiting". During the 10-year follow-up, 17 men died of prostate cancer and 204 had the disease advanced or metastasized. Men who did watchful waiting were found twice as likely as those who received conventional treatments - surgery or radiation, 6% versus 3% to have metastatic disease. 

The data apparently hint that treatments have some advantage over watchful waiting(watchful waiting - regularly monitored and intervened only when needed). However, treatments cause adverse effects such urine leakage and problems with sex. Men who were treated with radiation experienced sexual dysfunction during the first six months while men treated with surgery still complained about urine leakage and problems with sex six years after the operation.

Prostate cancer in most cases progresses very slowly, which actually creates a big window for the patient to explore other treatments such as alternative treatments. Some estimonials circulated on the Internet indicate that simple and cheap alternative treatments have gotten some patients into remission. 

A complete series of conventional treatments for prostate cancer often cause the patients and their insurance companies more than $100,000 in the United States which is quite appealing to an oncological clinic. Also, oncologists may be fairly conservative when it comes to whether or not to treat a patient. If a patient dies after treatment, the doctor is rarely held responsible for his death. But if the doctor does not treat the patient and then he dies, the situation can become more complicated. So, it is naturally that doctors tend to offer treatments. Prostate cancer patients need to do their homework and make good decisions for themselves. (David Liu)