Surgery Reduces Prostate-Cancer Mortality

Surgery reduced the 15-year mortality rate of prostate cancer by 59 percent overall, according to preliminary U.S. study data.

The overall survival advantage was 8.6 years and was 6.8, 5.5 and 10.4 years for patients with grade 1, 2 and 3 disease, respectively, according to the report in the journal Urology.

Randomized studies comparing conservative therapy to definitive therapy in men with prostate cancer are under way but not yet available. However, Dr. Ashutosh Tewari of the Weill Medical College of Cornell University analyzed the outcomes of 3,159 U.S. men treated either conservatively or with radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy — prostate removal — from 1980 to 1997.

Radiotherapy patients also experienced a survival advantage with a reduction in mortality of 33 percent. Radiotherapy or prostate removal reduced the death rate from prostate cancer by 38 percent and 63 percent, respectively, compared with patients treated conservatively.