Prostate cancer patients being overtreated

Oncologists are opting for aggressive treatments for prostate cancer even when there’s no benefit to the patient.

Instead, monitoring the progress of the cancer would be a better approach—but surprisingly few doctors are following it, a new study has found.

Most older men have slow-growing prostate tumours that haven’t spread, but they are still having surgery or radiation, and many won’t live long enough to see any benefit.  The interventions can also be life-destroying, often resulting in incontinence or impotence.

Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre analysed data on nearly 244,000 men, with an average age of 67, who were diagnosed with prostate cancer between 2000 and 2019.  Although ‘active surveillance’ or watchful waiting—where the cancer is regularly monitored—is still the preferred approach for many slow-growing cancers, only around 15 percent of the men were given that option.

And 45 percent of the men with a low expectation of living beyond the next five years had high-risk aggressive treatment, which amounts to over-treatment, the researchers said.

There has to be a balance between longevity and quality of life, and doctors don’t seem to be evaluating either and instead are immediately choosing aggressive interventions, the researchers say.

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