(HealthDay News) — New research suggests that men with localized prostate cancer have low prostate cancer-specific mortality at 15 years, regardless of the treatment they receive.
This research was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 38th Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU23).
The study included 1643 men with localized prostate cancer. They were randomly assigned to active monitoring (n=545), prostatectomy (n=553), or radiotherapy (n=545). Outcomes were compared at a median follow-up of 15 years. Follow-up was complete for 1610 patients.
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The rate of prostate cancer-specific mortality was 2.7% overall, 3.1% in the active monitoring group, 2.2% in the prostatectomy group, and 2.9% in the radiotherapy group. Overall, 21.7% of patients died of any cause, with similar numbers seen across the 3 treatment groups.
The rate of metastasis was 9.4% in the active monitoring group, 4.7% in the prostatectomy group, and 5.0% in the radiotherapy group. Long-term androgen-deprivation therapy was initiated in 12.7%, 7.2%, and 7.7%, respectively. Clinical progression occurred in 25.9%, 10.5%, and 11.0%, respectively.
At the end of follow-up, 24.4% of patients in the active monitoring group were alive and without any prostate cancer treatment.
“After 15 years of follow-up, prostate cancer-specific mortality was low regardless of the treatment assigned,” the researchers wrote. “Thus, the choice of therapy involves weighing trade-offs between benefits and harms associated with treatments for localized prostate cancer.”
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