Who Should Get Treatment for Prostate Cancer?
When deciding upon a treatment for a patient with prostate cancer, the patient’s life expectancy is very important to take into consideration. For a patient to obtain the benefits that are achieved when a patient undergoes definitive treatment such as radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, the patient’s life expectancy should be at least 10 years, as this is the point post-procedurally that survival benefits will be seen. It is for this reason that oftentimes, a man over 80 with an elevated PSA may go untreated. This group of patients is far more likely to die from a disease other than prostate cancer. Certain situations such as metastatic prostate cancer do warrant treatment in this group of patients; however, these treatments are not intended to cure, but are intended to keep the prostate cancer in control. Despite the criticism of PSA and PSA testing, it remains the best tool that we presently have to diagnose prostate cancer. It has saved many lives by detecting significant di
