Older men with prostate cancer can wait and see

Men in their 70s and older who are diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer can safely "watch and wait" because they are not likely to die of it, which backs up the widely held belief that prostate cancer rarely kills men if it strikes late in life. Something else will kill them first, said Grace Lu-Yao of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Her study of more than 9,000 older men with prostate cancer that had not spread showed that just 3 to 7 percent of the men with low or moderate-grade tumors died of it after 10 years. "Because prostate cancer therapies are associated with significant side effects, our data can help patients make better informed decisions about the most appropriate approach for them and potentially avoid treatment without adversely affecting their health," Lu-Yao said in a statement at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and the Society of Urologic Oncology.

Bonnie - watchful waiting is done routinely in Israel and other countries for men over 70, and they have a lot less complications from unnecessary procedures. The death rate with or without the procedures is virtually the same.