UCLA study finds most patients who choose “active surveillance” don’t follow up with tests and office visits
An increasing number of men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer are opting for active surveillance – closely monitoring their cancer – rather than aggressive treatment to avoid the debilitating potential side effects of surgery and radiation, such as erectile and urinary dysfunction. (more…)
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men: the American Cancer Society expects the disease will claim nearly 30,000 lives in 2013. The disease mainly affects older men—the median age of diagnosis is 67—and it’s a slow-growing cancer, so most men diagnosed with the disease are likely to die of other causes. (more…)
Groundbreaking research by a team of UCLA physicians and engineers demonstrates that prostate cancer — long identifiable only through painful, hit-or-miss biopsies — can be diagnosed far more easily and accurately using a new image-guided, targeted biopsy procedure.
Traditionally, prostate tumors have been found through so-called blind biopsies, in which tissue samples are taken systematically from the entire prostate in the hopes of locating a piece of tumor — a technique that dates back to the 1980s. But the cancer now appears detectable by direct sampling of tumor spots found using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, in combination with real-time ultrasound, the researchers say. (more…)
2008 recommendations from federal task force had no impact
New research confirms that the controversial decision by Warren Buffett – the 81-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway – to undergo a blood test screening for prostate cancer despite his age is hardly unusual. Despite recommendations in 2008 from the United States Preventive Services Task Force against testing for prostate cancer in men aged 75 years or older, almost half of men in that age group continue to get screening tests.
In 2005, before the recommendations were released, 43 percent of men age 75 and above elected to take the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. In August 2008, the Task Force stated it “recommends against the service,” arguing “there is moderate or high certainty the service has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits.” (more…)
