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EXPECTANT MANAGEMENT OR ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE
Watchful Waiting OK for Prostate Cancer
Prostate Surgery or Watchful Waiting: Which Is Better?
Watchful Waiting is sometime called Expectant Manage or Active Surveillance and perhaps others. But none of the title mean that you sit back and wait - you must be very pro-active with WW.
The PSA blood test can help detect prostate cancer at a very early stage. This allows many men to choose watchful waiting as a treatment option. In watchful waiting (also known as observation, expectant therapy or deferred therapy), regular follow-up blood tests, rectal exams and possibly biopsies may be performed to monitor for evidence of progression of your cancer.
During Watchful Waiting no medical treatment is provided. Medications, radiation and surgery aren't used. Watchful Waiting may be an option if your cancer isn't causing symptoms, is expected to grow very slowly, and is small and confined to one area of your prostate.
Watchful waiting may be particularly appropriate if you're elderly, in poor health or both. Many such men will live out their normal life spans without treatment and without the cancer spreading or causing other problems. But Watchful Waiting can also be a rational option for a younger man as long as you know the facts, are willing to be vigilant, and accept the risk of a tumor spreading during the observation period, rendering your cancer incurable.
The information below will help you make a decision to Watchful Wait.
EXPECTANT MANAGEMENT OR ACTIVE SURVEILLANCE
The Brady Urological Institute has achieved world renown for discoveries that led to improvements in the surgical treatment of prostate cancer. However, not every man will benefit from treatment since some cancers will never progress to a harmful state. Researchers at the Brady Urological Institute have a commitment to learn how to identify those men who can safely forego treatment -instead undergoing careful follow up for any evidence of progression of their disease. An expectant management program at the Brady Urological Institute under the direction of Dr. Ballentine Carter and Dr. Jonathan Epstein is currently following more than 250 men who are thought to have tumors that can be safely managed without immediate treatment.
Click "here" to read the complete paper.
A video is also available from Johns Hopkins with Dr. Ballentine Carter. Click "here" to listen to the combination slides and verbal presentation.
Watchful Waiting OK for Prostate Cancer
Most older men with early-stage prostate cancer can safely choose close observation instead of active treatment and all of its potential side effects, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined data on more than 9,000 older men with localized prostate cancer who were not initially treated for the disease. Ten years later, about four-fifths were alive without any complications of their disease or had died of other causes. . . . . . .
Click "here" to read the rest of the story.
Prostate Surgery or Watchful Waiting: Which Is Better?
Men who opt for prostate cancer surgery -- especially when they're under age 65 -- are less likely to die of their disease than those who choose no treatment, Scandinavian researchers report in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.
The findings come on the heels of a US study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association that suggested some men can safely skip treatment -- a strategy known as watchful waiting. . . . .
Read the rest of the paper by clicking "here".
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Erectile Dysfunction
Brachytherapy / Seed Implants
Hormonal Ablation Treatment
Radiation External - All Kinds
Surgical Removal - All Kinds
Watchful Waiting
Other Conventional Treatments
