Study Supports Surgery for Early Prostate Cancer

A recent study has clearly shown that surgery for early prostate cancer can reduce the risk of dieing from the disease almost in half.

The choice for treatment for prostate cancer is a difficult one. The question of whether to remove cancerous prostates in early stage disease has been debated because the cancer typically grows slowly and strikes older men, who may die of other causes before it spreads. Furthermore, surgical removal of the prostate can cause serious side-effects including impotence and urinary incontinence.

Prostate cancer, after lung cancer, is the most common cause of cancer mortality in men. Early detection and treatment of the disease boosts survival. Treatment includes prostatectomy (surgery to remove the prostate), radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or a combination of treatments.

Swedish researchers said of their study “we now have better evidence that radical prostatectomy diminishes your risk of prostate cancer recurrence. And so we have a possibility to alter the natural course of the disease by radical surgery.”

(Source: New England Journal of Medicine)