Private MD News

Study shows good results for surgery in men with positive PSA test

Category: Prostate

Following a positive PSA test, men have many choices for treating their prostate cancer. These range from simple monitoring to invasive surgery that completely removes the prostate.

A new study conducted by researchers from the Mayo Clinic and the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia has found that the course of action that men choose to pursue should depend largely on the severity of cancer discovered by PSA testing.

For the most aggressive types of cancer, investigators found that radical prostatectomy, which completely removes the prostate, is the most effective form of treatment.

After analyzing the medical records of 1,847 men who were treated for aggressive prostate cancer between 1988 and 2004, they found that men who had surgery had an average 10-year survival rate of 92 percent. This compared to an 88 percent survival rate in men who underwent radiation therapy.

Stephen Boorjian, who led the study, said that the findings contradict the current standards of treatment, and could lead to changes in the way men deal with prostate cancer.

"It's long been believed that patients with aggressive prostate cancer are not candidates for surgery," he said. "We found that surgery does provide excellent long-term cancer control for this type of prostate cancer."