The Risk of Over Treating Prostate Cancer

A recent medical study conducted at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey has found that men who suffer from low-risk prostate cancer are often needlessly over treated, despite the risk of complications. Men with low risk can be safely monitored for several months or years, but many are choosing aggressive therapy when they really do not need to.

Watchful waiting is a better option for older men than undergoing aggressive treatment such as radiation therapy, which can cause incontinence and impotence. This adds to an ongoing dispute over routine cancer screening which is called the PSA, short for prostate specific antigen test, which has been responsible for over one million men being diagnosed with tumors that probably would have caused no problems indefinitely, and early treatment would not have improved their chances of achieving a complete recovery.

Because of this aggressive treatment, many men have had their prostate gland removed needlessly. This clearly shows a need to distinguish between those with cancer more likely to progress and those that will likely not. Over 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed in the United States in 2009, of these 90% were caught before they spread to other parts of the body.