Prostate cancer treatment drug can encourage active surveillance
Prostate cancer treatment drug can encourage active surveillance
Prostate cancer treatment for men in the early stage of the disease can involve the use of the drug Avodart "not to prevent cancer, but to prevent the progression" of the disease.
Physicians know that drugs like Avodart and Proscar can cause an enlarged prostate to shrink, but health officials just recently withdrew their recommendation for their use because of some risks.
The standard prostate cancer treatment for this group of patients is active surveillance or "watchful waiting" -- a period which may prevent the overtreatment of prostate cancer. About 50 percent of men diagnosed with this cancer have low-risk disease and unlikely to be killed by prostate cancer in the long-term if active surveillance is done.
But some patients, particularly Americans, choose to have some form of treatment even though their case is not aggressive instead of opting for "watchful waiting". Giving them Avodart seems to slow down the progression of the disease according to the study, which is to be presented this week by the American Society for Clinical Oncology.
Some oncologists think that Avodart can relieve patients' anxiety about their disease in addition to the actual benefit of delaying progression. The study authors did not report any new side effects from taking Avodart that past studies did not already identify. Proscar and Avodart have been show by previous research to cause sexual problems. But this was not specific since many men with no disease who are over 50 have some loss of sexual function due to aging.
The new study seems to back the desire of American patients with low-risk cases to go one step further and take the drug on top of the recommended "watchful waiting" prostate cancer treatment.
Posted by
George Daniels
on Thursday February 17 2011, 3:52 AM EST.
Ref: AP.
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Filed under Featured News, Health.
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