Prostate Cancer Study Supports No-Surgery Idea

A new study of hundreds of men with prostate cancer supports the idea that those over age 65 with slow-growing tumors may live as long without treatment as with it.

It is the first such study solely among American men, and its findings parallel previous U.S. and international data, researchers said in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cancer killer of men, after lung cancer.

Elderly men with slow-growing prostate cancers, which amount to 10% to 15% of all prostate cancers diagnosed, died no sooner than men their age in the general population, the researchers found.

Elderly men with moderately fast-growing prostate cancers died four to five years sooner than elderly men in the general population, and those with fast-growing malignancies died six to eight years earlier, researchers said.

The findings neither support nor oppose surgery and radiation to treat prostate cancer among the elderly, said the study’s lead author, Dr. Peter C. Albertsen, chief of urology at the University of Connecticut Health Center.