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Surgery or Radiation Often Favored Over Monitoring for Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients

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Physicians seldom recommended active surveillance

Very few physicians, when suggesting treatment options for patients with low-risk prostate cancer, recommend active surveillance. Instead, surgery or radiation is often pursued, according to a Mayo Clinic study presented at the North Central Section of the American Urological Association’s annual meeting last week in Chicago.

Although active surveillance is generally considered an effective approach for managing low-risk prostate cancer, results from a study involving 643 urologists and radiation oncologists show that only 21% of the physicians suggested the strategy. Surgery was recommended by 47% of physicians, and 32% proposed radiation therapy.

In general, treatment recommendations followed the physician’s area of expertise. Surgery was recommended by most urologists, and radiation therapy was recommended by most radiation oncologists.

“Our results may explain in part the relatively low use of active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer in the United States,” says lead author Simon Kim, MD, MPH, a urologic oncologist at Mayo Clinic.

Source: Mayo Clinic.