Results of conservative management of clinically localized prostate cancer

Clinical observation and delayed hormone therapy may be appropriate for treating patients with localized prostate cancer. Researchers evaluated 828 cases of prostate cancer treated conservatively with observation and hormone therapy for factors related to survival only among patients who did not die of other causes, or cancer-specific survival. Poorly differentiated tumors and age under 61 years had a significant effect on cancer-specific survival rates. Ten years after cancer diagnosis, cancer-specific survival was 87% among men with well-differentiated tumors, compared to 34% among men with poorly differentiated tumors. Eighty-one percent of men with localized cancer survived for ten years without spread of their cancer to other sites in the body, while only 26% of men with poorly structured tumors survived. Health status, noncancer survival rates and radiation therapy or surgery did not affect cancer-specific survival.