Nearly 30 years after it began, a study of prostate cancer patients shows both that the disease will not cause harm to the majority of men who have it, and that aggressive treatment is warranted for men with an intermediate risk of spread.
The nuanced results come from a new update to a landmark study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, that has followed 695 Swedish men since they were diagnosed with localized prostate cancer between October 1989 and February 1999.
The study’s duration and insights into one of the most common forms of cancer make it “arguably one of the most important publications of the year,” said Dr. Adam Kibel, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and chief of urology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who is not involved in the research.
Half of the men had their prostates removed to get rid of the cancer, and half were put on “watchful waiting,” a now-discredited approach that essentially amounted to doing nothing.
Today, roughly 20 percent of the men are still alive, although prostate cancer is generally diagnosed late in life. Of those who died, 70 percent died of something other than prostate cancer, the study found.
“Which really reminds us that we should try to treat only those who will benefit, who have a lethal disease and who are healthy enough to otherwise be able to die from prostate cancer,” said Dr. Anna Bill-Axelson, the study’s first author and an associate professor in urology at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Overtreatment is an issue because radical prostatectomy and similar therapies often cause side effects, Bill-Axelson said, most commonly erectile dysfunction and urinary leakage.
In Sweden today, 80 percent of men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer are not treated, but “actively surveilled,” to make sure their tumor is not becoming more dangerous, Bill-Axelson said. Active surveillance includes regular checkups, whereas with “watchful waiting,” follow-ups were often deferred until a man had symptoms. “The majority who are diagnosed today are diagnosed so early from PSA detection and also have usually low-risk disease. They will very likely be overtreated if they are treated immediately.”
Two American experts saw the study’s results differently: as further justification to treat intermediate prostate cancers as aggressively as possible.
The study’s take-home message is: “If you live a long time, you’re likely to live longer if you get treated than if you don’t,” according to Dr. Anthony D’Amico, chief of genitourinary radiation oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a professor at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.
Men with a result of 7 on a test called the Gleason score, who are today considered at intermediate risk, should be treated, and should not wait to see if their tumors become more dangerous, D’Amico said.
“This study proves that if a man’s going to live 20-25 years and he’s got intermediate prostate cancer, he has an opportunity to save his life,” D’Amico said.
According to the study, those men who had a radical prostatectomy at the start of the study lived an average of 2.9 years longer than men who got no therapy. But that really means more men in the treatment group were able to live out their natural lives, while men who got watchful waiting died early, D’Amico said.
D’Amico also highlighted what he called “a pretty striking statistic”: that just eight men needed to undergo treatment to save one life, according to the study. For comparison, 233 women in their 60s would need to get a mammogram to prevent one of those woman from dying of breast cancer, according to a 2012 study.
Kibel, the Brigham and Women’s urologist, said the Swedish study has been “central to our understanding of how we manage prostate cancer,” for decades, and confirms that many patients benefit from aggressive treatment.
The Swedish study was started so long ago that men didn’t routinely get PSA tests to diagnose prostate cancer, as they often do today. Routine PSA screening can overdiagnose cancers that won’t turn lethal. But combined with their Gleason score — and maybe someday with a diagnostic MRI — men should be able to figure out whether their cancer is advanced enough to warrant treatment, or to monitor it to make sure it isn’t turning more aggressive, Bill-Axelson said.
A man’s health and his disease risk — not his age — should be the determining factors in whether he should be treated for prostate cancer, Bill-Axelson said. When asked whether an 80-year-old should be treated, she said, only half-joking: “If he comes with his parents, it’s a good idea.”
The BIG lie, “Prostate cancer screening and early detection saves men’s lives”. Let’s do the math: Per the USPSTF (a US government agency): “A small benefit and known harms from prostate cancer screening” and “Only one man in 1,000 could possibly have a life saving benefit from screening”. However about 1.3 to 3.5 deaths per 1,000 from prostate blind biopsies [5]. Also 5 men in 1000 died and 20.4% had one or more complications within 30 days of a radical prostatectomy [15]. This does not include deaths and injuries from other procedures, medical mistakes, increased suicide rate, ADT therapy complications, heart attracts, etc, caused by screening and treatments. Does prostate cancer screening put men’s health and lives in danger? YES! Early detection and treatment has killed or destroyed millions of men’s lives worldwide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYii98gcejA https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/UpdateSummaryFinal/prostate-cancer-screening1 https://medium.com/@drsadeghi/early-detection-disaster-4d4740ee5828
My question is. My husband has aggressively prostate cancer and he isn’t going to do anything about it. How long will he survive. His number is a 8 and on the Gleeson score it’s a 4.
I was given a 10-day notice, and rushed into getting the Radical Prostatomy done by my urologist, Christopher Campbell Hoag who partners with other urologist in a clinic located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. According to his diagnosis, I was given no more than 6 months , or as long as between 3 to 5 years to live because of my End Stage 4 Prostate Cancer. I was not allowed a second opinion because there was no time left due to the fact that my cancer had already metasitazied into distant organs and bones – but I had no symptoms, no pains or no blood in my urine or semen. I was stupid enough to buy into his diagnosis and planned treatment (I didn’t know that Radical Prostatomy was for localized cancer only, and not for curative purposes of metastasized cancer that had already spread). My life after the Radical Prostatomy has been a living hell – complete loss of interest in life due to urinary incontinence, impotence, and infertility. I just turned 50 when I underwent the infamous Radical prostatomy, and I am now 56. 6 years of living hell and still keep going. I think, no, I know, dying of prostate cancer is a hell of a lot easily than suffering from the unstoppable side effects of the treatment!
I am so tired of this prostate cancer diagnosis, When do I get a health team that can actually answer questions truthfully. I really have no will to go through the whole surgery/recovery only to hate my life more than I do now. I don’t know what to do or who to turn to, I have to get away from this anguish, self loathing, and basically feeling hopeless and apathetic.
“D’Amico also highlighted what he called “a pretty striking statistic”: that just eight men needed to undergo treatment to save one life, according to the study. For comparison, 233 women in their 60s would need to get a mammogram to prevent one of those woman from dying of breast cancer, according to a 2012 study.”
Mammogram is an inappropriate comparator for radical prostatectomy. One is a screening test with minimal side effects. The other is a procedure with the potential for impotence, incontinence and the usual risks of surgery (perioperative MI, infection, etc.). A better comparator would be lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy.
Regardless, the ultimate interpretation needs to be through the lens of the patient’s values. There is no simple answer.
I would say that radical prostatectomy is aggressive treatment and that anyone who is diagnosed with prostate should seriously consider it. Yes there are side effects noted in this article, but they are manageable. I know this first hand as I had my prostate removed 14 years ago and fortunately still have undetectable levels of prostate-specific antigen. Forgoing aggressive treatment is a form of gambling – how do you know when the cancer cells will migrate from the prostate and metastasize. Undertaking aggressive treatment is a difficult decision for a person to make, particularly younger people, but the risks in not undertaking this form of treatment can be devastating.
Did you know that 40% to 60% of patients who underwent early Radical Prostatomy are guaranteed to have Biochemical Recurrence by year 15? Then what would you do, go for adjuvant radiotherapy which no guaranteed result of extension, but guaranteed further side effects. I am glad that you are able to manage your urinary incontince, erectile dysfunctions, or dry orgasm and still be happy about your life – not many people have that strong encourage. Sometimes we should just let nature take its course. We all have to the once so why prolong the agony?
In my opinion: Read my story. A prostate cancer survival guide by a patient and victim. Beware, the ugly truth. What doctors are not telling you! Read the sad truth about prostate cancer over testing and treatment dangers and exploitation for profit by predatory doctors that no one will tell you about, even after it’s too late. The man that invented the PSA test, Dr. Richard Ablin now calls it: “The Great Prostate Mistake, Hoax and a Profit-Driven Public Health Disaster”. Prostate cancer dirty secrets, lies, exaggerations, deceptions, elder abuse, outdated testing and treatments. Any man over 50, anyone concerned about cancer in general, dangers from clinical trials, injuries and deaths from medical mistakes, should read this document. Read “A prostate cancer survival guide by a patient and victim, Beware, the ugly truth. Free information. Go to: http://www.yananow.org/display_story.php?id=1659
Treatment doesn’t save lives. At best, it postpones death by a year or two. A crappy year or two. Big whoop.
Henry,
With all due respect your comment is absurd. Early detection and early treatment are the best ways to ensure a successful outcome with prostate cancer.
Henry, I’m with you. I was diagnosed through high PSA and the usual digit test. Because I saw a very good friend of mine go through the prostatectomy and radiation treatment, I took another route. My friend Vern, died a couple of years after his operation, from heart failure. But those two years after his operation were hell for him. He said that if he could go back in time he would never have gone the route he did.
I also had a lady friend who was diagnosed with bone cancer and given 6 months to live. She went online and found that if she changed the Ph balance of her body to a more alkaline level, it could change her chances. That was 12 years ago and because she did not get ANY treatments from the doctor, and because she changed the Ph balance to a more alkaline level, the cancer was gone in a few short months. She cut out all, and I mean ALL sugar, and took a mixture of baking soda and maple syrup, daily for 2 months. I dated this lady and knew her intimately, so this is not 3rd hand info for me. She is alive and doing well.
So I used the same method that she did and my PSA dropped dramatically and my issues with urinating ceased. In addition to the things that she did, the two things that I did that she didn’t, was to eat asparagus every day, and I also cut out simple carbs because they turn into sugar in the body. That was all 6 years ago. Today I am 65 and healthy.
I was given a 10-day notice, and rushed into getting the Radical Prostatomy done by my urologist, Christopher Campbell Hoag who partners with other urologists in a clinic located in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. According to his diagnosis, I was given no more than 6 months , or as long as between 3 to 5 years to live because of my End Stage 4 Prostate Cancer. I was not allowed a second opinion because there was no time left due to the fact that my cancer had already metasitazied into distant organs and bones – but I had no symptoms, no pains or no blood in my urine or semen. I was stupid enough to buy into his diagnosis and planned treatment (I didn’t know that Radical Prostatomy was for localized cancer only, and not for curative purposes of metastasized cancer that had already spread). My life after the Radical Prostatomy has been a living hell – complete loss of interest in life due to urinary incontinence, impotence, and infertility. I just turned 50 when I underwent the infamous Radical Prostatomy, and I am now 56. 6 years of living hell and still keep going. I think, no, I know, that dying of prostate cancer is a hell of a lot easily than suffering from the unstoppable side effects of the treatment!
I agree. And live a short and miserable life after treatment. We will all die anyway, have faith in God. He is in control of our lives.