(September 15, 2009 - Insidermedicine)

These days, conservatively managing early prostate cancer may be a more reasonable and viable option than it was 20 years ago, according to research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Here is some information about prostate cancer:

•    After skin cancer, it is the most common cancer among men

•    Surgery and/or radiation of early prostate cancer has a 90% or better cure rate

•    Once the cancer spreads outside the prostate, it is much more difficult to cure

Researchers from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway looked at the 10-year outcomes among men who were diagnosed with early prostate cancer between 1992 and 2002 and underwent conservative treatment, meaning they received no surgery or radiation. All the men were at least 65 years of age when they were diagnosed, and in no case had the cancer begun to spread outside the prostate.

After an average follow-up period of just over 8 years, less than 10% of the men had died of prostate cancer during the ten years following their diagnosis, provided their cancer could be easily differentiated from surrounding healthy tissue. Meanwhile, the risk of dying of another cause during this same period was nearly 60%. Among men aged 66 to 74 at the time of diagnosis, the risk of dying of prostate cancer during the 10 years following their diagnosis was 60 to 74% lower that it had been for similar men diagnosed in the 1970s and 80s.

Today's research suggests that conservative management of prostate cancer should be considered an option among certain men who are diagnosed with the disease in its very early stages.