Prostate cancer for the internist

Shikha Jaiswal, Rehan Sarmad, Sumant Arora, Radhikha Dasaraju, Komal SarmadNorth American Journal of Medical Sciences 2015 7(10):429-435In the United States, approximately 240,000 men are diagnosed annually with prostate cancer. Although effective treatment options are available for clinically localized cancer, the potential burdensome co-morbidities and attendant healthcare costs from over diagnosis and over treatment have escalated the discussion and controversy regarding appropriate screening, diagnosis, and optimal management of prostate cancer. Although the lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer is approximately 1 in 6 (~16%), the risk of dying from the disease is only ~2%. The discrepancy between the cancer incidence and lethality has led to widespread scrutiny of prostate cancer patient management, particularly for low-grade, low-stage (indolent) disease. The vast majority of men diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer are treated with interventional therapies despite studies demonstrating that even without treatment, prostate cancer-specific mortality is low. A MedLine/PubMed search was performed using PICO format (Patient, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome) identifying all relevant articles. No restrictions were used for publication dates. The terms "Prostate Cancer", "Screening", "Mortality", "Morbidity" yielded 307 results. "Diagnosis", "Prognosis" and "Survival"...
Source: North American Journal of Medical Sciences - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: research