Age remains a controversial factor in prostate cancer, with younger age at diagnosis perceived to be associated with more aggressive disease and poorer prognosis. Consequently, physicians tend to recommend more aggressive treatments, such as radical prostatectomy, to younger patients, even those with local, non-metastatic disease. Older patients diagnosed with similar organ-limited disease, however, are offered more choices, including external beam radiation therapy. Recently studies have shown that radiation therapy is effective in treating localized prostate cancer in elderly patients and in men under 65 years of age.
Andre Konski, M.D., M.B.A., M.A, Clinical Research Director, Radiation Oncology Department at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and colleagues compared how men 55 and under fared five years after diagnosis compared to men between 60 and 69 and men 70 and over, looking at survival, disease progression, and whether blood tests (PSA) showed signs of disease recurrence. All the men had localized prostate cancer and were treated with external beam radiation.
They found no statistically significant differences in the outcomes of these three age groups after five years: 94 percent, 95 percent and 87 percent of patients in each respective age category were alive five years after diagnosis; 96 percent, 97 percent and 98 percent of patients in each respective age category were wi
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Contact: Amy Molnar
amolnar@wiley.com
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
8-May-2006