The results published in the New England Journal of Medicine were presented by the authors of the research at the European Urology Society’s conference in Milan last Saturday. Freddie Hamdy, a researcher at the University of Oxford and the lead author of the study, said that there is no need to panic and make a sudden decision about the nature of treatment for those who are found to have localized prostate cancer there is, because in most cases there is time to consider carefully, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each treatment method. He added that in certain – rarer – cases, when the disease is already in an advanced stage, or if the patient belongs to a high-risk group, urgent treatment is unavoidable.
During the British research, the cases of more than 1,600 men diagnosed with cancerous changes limited to the prostate were followed up, and they were randomly assigned to radiotherapy treatment, surgery, and regular check-ups. The research was started in 1999, and 15 years later, they found that the cancerous lesion spread further in 9.4 percent of cases in the control group, 4.7 percent of those who underwent surgery, and 5 percent of the radiation therapy group. Death due to the disease was recorded in 3.1 percent of the control group, 2.2 percent of the surgical group, and 2.9 percent of the radiation therapy group, which is not a statistically significant difference.
The researchers highlighted that nowadays, they can monitor possible changes in prostate cancer with much more effective tools, as when the investigation began. Currently, they are able to make decisions about the necessary treatments based on the results of MRI scans and genetic tests, which give an increasingly accurate picture.
Hamdy emphasized that during the study, they saw that the rate of cancer spread was different after ten years with the three different approaches, and based on this, they expected that after 15 years this difference would already be noticeable in the survival rates, but in the end, this was not the case. happened. According to the researcher the spread of the lesion alone does not predict that prostate cancer will cause the patient’s death.
Cover image: Getty Images
Leave a Comment