The procedure does not translate into higher survival rates for patients

Jul 21, 2012 09:54 GMT  ·  By
Early-stage prostate cancer shouldn't be addressed via surgery, a new study shows
   Early-stage prostate cancer shouldn't be addressed via surgery, a new study shows

According to the conclusions of a new study conducted by experts in the United States, it would appear that treating early-stage prostate cancers via surgery and other harsh, invasive methods, may not be the best way to go about ensuring the patients' survival.

During the investigation, which was carried out at the Massachusetts General Hospital, researchers found that prostate surgery can lead to permanent side-effects, without ensuring positive benefits.

In other words, patients who underwent this procedure did not live longer, on average, than individuals in the same situation who did not go under the knife. The research effort was focused on men above the age of 60, scientists say.

If the cancer has not spread beyond the prostate, the research group says, doctors should stick to more conservative treatment approaches. There is no point in conducting surgery so early on, since no benefits can be extracted from the procedure.

“What we found really suggests that treatment has a limited effect for most tumors. [PSA] is finding many cancers that wouldn’t have otherwise caused problems,” says scientists Dr Michael Barry.

The expert, who holds an appointment as the chief of general internal medicine at MGH, adds that PSA is a prostate-specific antigen blood test. Barry was also the coauthor of a new study detailing the findings, which was published in the latest issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

The clinical trial covered that cases of 731 individuals (average age of 67) for 12 years. When it came to surgery, only a subset of the test group – those with very high PSA levels – benefited from the procedure.

At the end of the research, 6 percent of those who went under the knife early on died, compared to 8 percent of those in the control group. The difference is not large enough to reach statistical significance.

However, surgery patients were most likely to suffer from urinary incontinence (17 percent versus 6 percent) and erectile dysfunction (81 percent versus 44 percent), Boston.com reports

“There’s been a move toward offering observational ­approaches for men with low-grade, low-risk disease. This study provides additional information to help doctors and patients ­decide what to do,” adds the director of the American Cancer Society's prostate and colorectal cancer program. Dr. Durado Brooks.