Despite the ” Catchy Title” what we in the business call a Proxy Headline, the following gives credence to active surveillance and at the very least….that the newly diagnosed prostate cancer patient had time to arrive at a well thought out decision.
Here’s the main thing and something often overlooked in all the stuff you read and something, I might add, that was the impetus for my book. That is, often what patients do about their cancer is all about what they can live with. If you have laid back patient he will be more likely to do active surveillance than the hyper type A type of patient that worries about things.
A lot about what a patient ultimately does depends on ” Who are you” factors. Personality, job, family, health, specifics of the disease all play into the decision. I am sensitive to patients that are one-dimensional, i.e. “I want the robot” or ” You ain’t cutting on me.” There is not much a doctor can do or advise with this type of person or personality.
To summarize, I like that the momentum is shifting a bit toward surveillance, however if the patient’s mind can’t embrace it, i.e. ” I can’t live with knowing a cancer is in me,” then all the statistics in the world won’t matter.
September 2nd, 2010 Posted in prostate cancer A new study in Sweden finds that patients who delayed surgery by over a year had similar outcomes as those who opted for immediate treatment.
Using a national cancer database, Swedish researchers found that among 2,566 men with cancer confined to the prostate gland, there was no evidence that men who delayed surgery were in worse shape once they did have the procedure.
Their tumors, on average, were no more likely to have extended beyond the prostate or have abnormalities that indicate a more aggressive cancer than men who had surgery soon after diagnosis.
Moreover, their long-term survival was nearly the same, according to the study findings published in the Journal of Urology.
Prostate Diaries 
Ah, but how do you know for sure the cancer is confined to the prostate gland until you check the surrounding areas after surgery?
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