Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Gets Needlessly Aggressive Treatment

Even as more studies show less benefit and more harm from aggressive treatment of prostate cancer, the practice marches on. The Wall Street Journal reports on a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine that found that more than 75 percent of men with low risk cancer –as measured by that PSA reading, stage of the cancer, and Gleason score— were treated with a radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy. The paper reports that men whose cancer was
found via PSA screening were 49 percent more likely to receive that surgery and
39 percent more likely to have radiation than men whose cancer was detected in
other ways — even though they were less likely to have high-grade
disease.

Read more in the Wall Street Journal.