nce in the death rates due to cancer of those who elected treatment within one year and those who did not. Only 1% of those who elected immediate treatment and 2% of those who didn't eventually died of their cancer. While this difference is twofold, it involves such a small total number of men that it's statistically no difference at all. It's similar to the difference between finding a penny inside of your couch and finding two pennies. The difference is only a single penny.
HPFS began in 1986 and is ongoing. It collects detailed medical information on a variety of topics and is not specifically about prostate cancer. Information is updated by questionnaire every two years. At some point during the study, 3,331 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Only 342 of these men—just over 10%—opted to defer treatment for a year or more.
Most of the men who elected to defer treatment had been diagnosed with low−risk tumors or were elderly; none were under 50. At the study's end, half of them still had not undergone any treatment. And they were doing fine. On average, this was 7.7 years after their cancer had been diagnosed.
Sanda notes that this is a compelling reason for men with low−risk tumors to consider watchful waiting as a treatment option.
These three studies all suggest that more men should consider treating their prostate cancer with watchful waiting. There's still much disagreement among doctors about who is and isn't an appropriate candidate. Each case of prostate cancer has to be assessed individually.
To anyone who has recently received a diagnosis of prostate cancer, deciding on an appropriate course of treatment is not easy. There's too much information and too much uncertainty. Fortunately, with prostate cancer, an immediate decision on treatment is rarely necessary. There's usually time to think the matter out. One place to get an overview of the many issues involved is at the National Cancer Institute's website. There's a prostate cancer summary available, as well as detailed information on many prostate cancer related topics.