Prostatectomy improves outcome of some men

LONDON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Men with early prostate cancer who have the prostate removed, have a lower rate of death than those who do watchful waiting, European researchers have found.

Dr. Lars Holmberg of the Kings College Medical School in London and colleagues from Finland and Sweden began the current trial in 1989 to examine the impact of radical prostatectomy relative to watchful waiting, or no treatment.

With a median follow-up of 10.8 years, the cumulative incidence rate for prostate cancer death was 13.5 percent in the surgery and 19.5 percent in the watchful waiting, for an absolute reduction of 6 percent.

For those patients followed at least 12 years, 12.5 percent of the men in the surgery group died due to prostate cancer compared with 17.9 percent of the men in the watchful waiting group, for an absolute reduction of 5.4 percent. Overall mortality at 12 years, however, was not statistically significantly different in the two groups at 32.7 percent and 38.5 percent, respectively.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, said contrary to predictions based on shorter follow-up, the absolute difference in cumulative incidence of distant metastasis and prostate cancer death did not further increase after seven years of follow-up.