There are many ways to treat your prostate cancer, and a new study has shown why it’s wise to consider all of them. Findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine have shown that, 15 years after surgery or radiation treatment, nearly all of the older men in the study had some problems having sex, and the wellness of one-fifth was affected by bladder or bowel trouble.
Dr. David Penson of Vanderbilt University, one of the leaders of the study, explained that prostate cancer isn’t usually a death sentence, but there are no good ways to tell which ones really need treatment, men need to be realistic about side effects they might suffer. He said that men should tell themselves: ‘no matter what I choose, I’m going to have some quality-of-life effect and it’s probably greater than my doctor is telling me.’
In the first few years after treatment, men who had surgery had more problems than those given radiation, but by the end of the study, there was no big difference. At 15 years, 94% of the radiation group and 87% of the surgery group were impotent, but when you take out other risk factors such as age and tumour size, the difference between the groups was considered possibly due to chance. Penson added, ‘These men do get some help from pills like Viagra, Cialis, Levitra,’ and less than half of men said they were bothered by their sexual problems.
However, no study is perfect and this one certainly has its limits. These men were all aged between 70 and 89 at the end of the study, and research suggests that even healthy members of that age group have sexual problems. Further, they were not compared to others who did not treat their cancers and the study isn’t a rigorous test of surgery and radiation. Yet, one plus point of the study is that it is the longest follow-up of some men who chose those treatments.
According to Dr. Timothy Wilson, urology chief at City of Hope, a cancer centre in Duarte, California added that men who are having problems are more likely to complete follow-up surveys, which could skew results. He noted, ‘There’s no question we over-treat’ many cases of early prostate cancer, and ‘we need to better sort out who really needs treatment.’
adsadsadsa a