prostate-report.org

Hormonal therapy for localized tumors are not doing any favor to patients

One in six American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. Guidelines promulgated by national organizations recommend one of three approaches for treating such tumors: surgical removal, radiation therapy or expectant management, better known as watchful waiting.

A new study at the University of Michigan Medical School suggests that physicians who recommend hormonal therapy for localized tumors are not doing their patients any favors.

The rationale for watchful waiting is that most tumors grow so slowly that the elderly patient is likely to die of something else before the tumor can kill him.