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Prostate Cancer Diagnosis- Treatment vs. Quality of Life- You Choose…
“More than 90 out of every 100 men with localised prostate cancer do not die of prostate cancer within 10yr, irrespective of whether treatment is by means of monitoring, surgery, or radiotherapy.”
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with prostate cancer (PCa), regardless of stage, there is no better study published that I’m aware of, that explains the risks and rewards of three basic prostate cancer therapy scenarios, than the one linked below. The basic treatment parameters are:
- Active Monitoring (AM) (sometimes called active surveillance)
- Radical Prostatectomy (surgically removing the entire prostate)
- External Beam Radiotherapy
It’s important to point out that there are a number of treatment choices if you’ve received a prostate cancer diagnosis. Depending on your age, symptoms, diagnostic testing, stage, PCA, Gleason score, etc. you should learn about PCa
- integrative therapies,
- chemotherapy regimens,
- HIFU,
- Cryotherapy,
- Hormone therapy, others-
The point of this post is to point out several key points if you’ve been diagnosed with PCa and are struggling with your treatment options. First and foremost, a prostate cancer diagnosis will not kill you at 10 years regardless of your therapy plan. That’s great.
However, as the study below clearly illustrates, the more treatment the PCa patient undergoes, the less he has to worry about his prostate cancer yet the more he must worry about treatment side effects. To quote the study:
“Side effects on sexual and bladder function are much better after active monitoring, but the risks of spreading of prostate cancer are more common.”
To fine tune general therapy thinking for a prostate cancer diagnosis:
Active monitoring doesn’t have to mean do nothing. Nutrition, supplementation, exercise, are three of the many evidence-based non-toxic therapies that can reduce your risk of your PCa increasing.
Further, as I mentioned above, there are many, many PCa therapies, both conventional (FDA approved) and non-conventional to choose from. The point of the study below is simply to illustrate the risk-reward ratio of treatment vs. no treatment.
To learn more about evidence-based, integrative and/or complementary PCa therapies, scroll down the page, post a question or a comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- Cancer Survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Prostate Cancer Diagnostic Testing-Gleason score, PSA, Stage, Biopsy
- Take Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance a step Further
- Testosterone Therapy Benefits Prostatectomy for Prostate Cancer
Ten-year Mortality, Disease Progression, and Treatment-related Side Effects in Men With Localised Prostate Cancer From the ProtecT Randomised Controlled Trial According to Treatment Received
“The ProtecT trial reported intention-to-treat analysis of men with localised prostate cancer (PCa) randomly allocated to
- active monitoring (AM),
- radical prostatectomy, and
- external beam radiotherapy-
Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Health-related quality of life impacts on
- urinary,
- bowel, and
- sexual function
were assessed using patient-reported outcome measures. Analysis was carried out based on treatment received for each cohort and on pooled estimates using meta-analysis…
Conclusions: Analyses according to treatment received showed increased rates of disease-related events and lower rates of patient-reported harms in men managed by AM compared with men managed by radical treatment, and stronger evidence of greater PCa mortality in the AM group.
Patient summary: More than 90 out of every 100 men with localised prostate cancer do not die of prostate cancer within 10yr, irrespective of whether treatment is by means of monitoring, surgery, or radiotherapy.
Side effects on sexual and bladder function are much better after active monitoring, but the risks of spreading of prostate cancer are more common.”
Ten-year Mortality, Disease Progression, and Treatment-related Side Effects in Men With Localised Prostate Cancer From the ProtecT Randomised Controlled Trial According to Treatment Received
“There was also strong evidence that metastasis (AM 5.6%, surgery 2.4%, radiotherapy 2.7%) and disease progression (AM 20.35%, surgery 5.87%, radiotherapy 6.62%) were more common in the AM group.
Compared with AM, there were higher risks of sexual dysfunction (95% at 6mo) and urinary incontinence (55% at 6mo) after surgery, and of sexual dysfunction (88% at 6mo) and bowel dysfunction (5% at 6mo) after radiotherapy.
The key limitations are the potential for bias when comparing groups defined by treatment received and outdating of the interventions being evaluated during the lengthy follow-up required in trials of screen-detected PCa.
Conclusions: Analyses according to treatment received showed increased rates of disease-related events and lower rates of patient-reported harms in men managed by AM compared with men managed by radical treatment, and stronger evidence of greater PCa mortality in the AM group.
Patient summary: More than 90 out of every 100 men with localised prostate cancer do not die of prostate cancer within 10yr, irrespective of whether treatment is by means of monitoring, surgery, or radiotherapy. Side effects on sexual and bladder function are much better after active monitoring, but the risks of spreading of prostate cancer are more common.”