Long-term outcomes promising for patients with localized, low-grade prost...( tive risk of prostate cancer progressio...),Health

"Our data provide what are likely overestimates of prostate cancer progression when men are treated by observation or androgen withdrawal therapy alone. Only through randomized controlled trials designed to measure the efficacy of screening and treatment for prostate cancer can we answer questions concerning which patients may truly benefit," the authors conclude.

(JAMA. 2005;293:2095-2101. Available post-embargo at JAMA.com)

Editor's Note: This study was funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Editorial: The Natural History of Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer

In an accompanying editorial, Peter H. Gann, M.D., Sc.D., and Misop Han, M.D., of the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, comment on predicting the natural history of prostate cancer.

"Over the next 20 years there will be pronounced improvements in the ability of models to predict not only true stage but outcomes based on blood or biopsy samples available at diagnosis. These predictors will come not only from more detailed analysis of routine biopsy features, but from the application of new molecular technologies. Indeed, one thing that is safe to predict right now is that in 20 years, commentators discussing on the natural history of prostate cancers diagnosed in the early 21st century will conjecture that what happened to those cases is too difficult to interpret or altogether irrelevant," they write.

(JAMA. 2005;293:2149-2151. Available post-embargo at JAMA.com)

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Contact: Carolyn Pennington
860-679-4864
JAMA and Archives Journals
3-May-2005