Treatment of early prostate cancer can wait

Surgical treatment of early prostate cancers can be delayed for more than 2 years without reducing the chances of curing the disease, new research shows.

The study, which appears in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, compared curability rates for 38 men who had delayed surgery and 150 who were treated with immediate surgery. Men in the former group underwent surgery around 26 months after diagnosis, while those in the latter group waited only about 3 months.

Samples from the removed tumor were analyzed to determine whether the cancer was curable or not.

A slightly higher rate of curable cancer was noted in the immediate surgery group, but, from a statistical standpoint, it was not significantly different from the rate seen in the delayed surgery group, Dr. H. Ballentine Carter, from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues report.

“Men who are diagnosed with early-stage, lower-grade prostate cancer should not be led to believe that they have an urgent situation that requires immediate treatment,” the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, March 1, 2006.

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