Word: cancers
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...largest analysis of its kind, new research pinpoints how long older men who are diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer can expect to live if they opt for a conservative, "watchful waiting" approach to their cancer treatment - as opposed to seeking immediate, aggressive therapies such as surgery and radiation...
Epidemiologists at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey examined national cancer-registry data involving 14,516 men over age 65 who were diagnosed with localized prostate cancer (that which has not spread beyond the prostate) from 1992 to 2002 and delayed surgery or radiation for at least six months after the diagnosis - the wait-and-see strategy commonly referred to as watchful waiting. In the majority of these patients - those who were diagnosed with early-stage disease at a median age of 78 - the 10-year risk of cancer-related death was less than 10%. Researchers also calculated the risk...
...lead author of the new study, which was published on Sept. 15 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, but it may be chalked up to a variety of factors, many of which have little to do with actual improvements in survival. For one: the classification of prostate-cancer stages has changed over the past 15 years. What might have been considered a Stage 3 or 4 cancer in 1990 would now be considered Stage 5, 6 or 7 - that is, a substantially more advanced cancer, says Lu-Yao. So it would stand to reason that men diagnosed with...
Another factor, says Lu-Yao, is the widespread use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screen beginning in the 1990s. The controversial screen measures PSA levels in the blood to determine whether prostate cancer may be present. Since the screen can detect the tiny, early-stage cancers that in years past would have gone unnoticed, the number of patients diagnosed with (and cured of) prostate cancer in the modern era has gone up. Within the over-65 set in her study, Lu-Yao says, more patients were probably diagnosed with early-stage, survivable cancer compared with patients diagnosed from...
Still, the new findings confirm what oncologists have long known - that, in general, aggressive treatment for older prostate-cancer patients does not significantly improve survival. Indeed, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the 10-year survival rate for prostate-cancer patients over age 65 who pursue aggressive treatment (surgery, radiation or chemotherapy) is 97%, slightly higher than the survival rate of the 66-to-74-year-old patients in the current study who chose no treatment. "Cancer is the scariest word in medicine for many patients. The first thought is, Oh, my God, I'm going...