"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

Study investigates treatment regret in prostate cancer survivors.

As they become old, do men with prostate cancer regret their treatment decisions? A brand new one the study Some of the boys diagnosed within the mid-Nineties indicate that a few of them will.

Richard Hoffman, a professor of internal medicine and epidemiology on the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City, led a team that analyzed survey data on men one, two, five years after prostate cancer treatment. And it was 15 years. . All 934 men within the study were 75 or younger at diagnosis, each with localized tumors confined to the prostate gland. About 60% of men had low-risk prostate cancer that was expected to grow slowly, and the others had dangerous cancer. Most men (89%) were treated with surgery or radiation. The rest were lumped together due to conservative treatment: either drugs to suppress testosterone (a hormone that makes prostate cancer grow faster), or “watchful waiting,” meaning doctors delayed treatment until then. Unless there may be evidence of cancer spread.

Overall, 14.6% of your entire group expressed some regret about treatment—16.6% of men treated with radiation, 15% of men treated surgically, and eight.2% of men treated conservatively. Among the explanations for regret, treatment-related bowel and sexual problems were incessantly cited. Surgically treated men reported the best rate of great sexual unwanted effects (39%), while radiation-treated men reported the best rate of great pelvic problems (15.6%). Notably, urinary incontinence complaints differed little between groups, starting from a low of 15.5% for men treated conservatively to 17.6% in men treated with radiation. % is higher.

The results also showed that regret increased over time, suggesting that when initial concerns about surviving prostate cancer fade, the quality-of-life consequences of treatment change into more apparent. Regrets were particularly expressed amongst men who felt they’d not been adequately consulted by their doctors before deciding on a selected treatment option, and amongst men who had specific prostate problems. were engaged in altering antigen levels, a blood test used to watch for possible cancer. Returns

Given these findings, the authors emphasize how necessary it’s that men are properly counseled and informed of the risks and advantages related to various treatments. But men also needs to be reassured that prostate cancer treatments have improved because the mid-Nineties, and bowel and urinary unwanted effects particularly “are no longer as frequent as the men in this study were diagnosed with.” It happened,” says Shrek. Author Peter Albertson, professor of surgery and chief of the division of urology at UConn Health in Farmington, Connecticut.