Prostate cancer is also the second leading cause of cancer death in men. However, most men who have prostate cancer will not die from prostate cancer or experience symptoms. Prostate cancer has an almost 100% five-year survival rate and a 99% 10-year survival rate. This high survival rate raises the question: do the available screening tools lead to overtreatment of a disease that would otherwise not cause problems in many men?
Screening Methods
While this method of screening has increased the number of prostate cancer diagnoses, has helped diagnose prostate cancer at an earlier stage, and has resulted in fewer prostate cancer deaths, it remains controversial because of the cost and danger of overtreatment of disease that would not necessarily cause problems. Unfortunately, questionable results received from the PSA test have led to large quantities of men with prostate cancer receiving aggressive, often unnecessary, forms of treatment (which can include hormonal, surgical, or radiation therapies). While these therapies can be beneficial to some groups of men with prostate cancer, many men whose prostate cancers are localized to the prostate, will not cause harm if left alone, and do not need to undergo aggressive treatment.
Diagnosing Prostate Cancer
Regardless of the high survival rate, the high prevalence means that many men still die from prostate cancer. Because of the costs— personal and monetary—of dying from prostate cancer, most people feel that patients and their physicians should make an attempt to diagnose prostate cancer before it spreads to other organs in the body to prevent human suffering. It is important to note that earlier detection of prostate cancer in the past few decades has been accompanied by a greater reduction in mortality than seen with any other cancer.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Dr. Michael Kaempf, Urologist
Dr. Michael Kaempf is a board-certified Urologist at The Oregon Clinic. He specializes in robotic minimally invasive surgery, prostate cancer, kidney stones, and other urologic medical conditions. Click here to schedule an appointment with one of our board-certified Urologists.