Prostate cancer can be managed effectively with active surveillance according to a recently 10 year study.

About 14 years ago, the approach to prostate cancer was that it needed to be treated aggressively which left many men with other problems from the treatment. The common gamma knife, radioactive seeds and excision left men impotent and in many cases incontentent.

Most of these cancers are a sign of aging rather than a life threatening disease process as we have learned over time. My dad was made incontinent from radiation treatment that resulted in incontinence 20 years later.

In healthcare, there is a growing awareness that less is more and that the treatment should avoid a harmful result.

This new information suggests that men have non invasive options that do no harm.

Check out the new information regarding the watchful waiting approach. In most cases, which are not in any way aggressive, this approach has growing evidence that it should become mainstream going forward.

Check this article out.

More Evidence Backs Active Surveillance for Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

— Half of patients did not have grade reclassification or treatment after 10 years of follow-up

by Charles Bankhead, Senior Editor, MedPage Today

Half of men with low-risk prostate cancer remained free from progression or treatment 10 years after diagnosis when followed in a protocol-directed active surveillance program.

At 10 years, 43% of more than 2,000 patients had biopsy grade reclassification, and 49% had treatment for prostate cancer. Patients who received treatment after confirmatory or subsequent surveillance biopsies had a low rate of recurrence and distant metastasis, suggesting that delayed treatment did not lead to worse outcomes versus earlier treatment.