Some with low-risk prostate cancer not likely to succumb to the disease

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/jhm-ssw083115.php

Public Release: 31-Aug-2015
Study: Some with low-risk prostate cancer not likely to succumb to the disease
Data on long-term outcomes of 1,298 men point to value of surveillance versus surgery or radiation for some, say Johns Hopkins researchers
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Men with relatively unaggressive prostate tumors and whose disease is carefully monitored by urologists are unlikely to develop metastatic prostate cancer or die of their cancers, according to results of a study by researchers at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins, who analyzed survival statistics up to 15 years.

Specifically, the researchers report, just two of 1,298 men enrolled over the past 20 years in a so-called active surveillance program at Johns Hopkins died of prostate cancer, and three developed metastatic disease.

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Carter acknowledges that outcomes in the current study may be due to doctors' careful selection of patients for active surveillance. "With longer follow-up, the data may change, but they're unlikely to change dramatically, because men in this age group tend to die of other causes," he says.

Most of the men in the study were also Caucasian, and Carter cautions that these outcomes may not apply to African-American men, who tend to have more aggressive cancers.

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