"A new study suggests a way to help men with early lowrisk prostate cancer avoid being overtreated for a disease that in most cases will never threaten their lives. It found that a drug can slow the growth of these tumors in men who opt to be monitored instead of having treatment right away.  This is the first time that a drug for treating enlarged prostates also has been shown to help treat prostate cancer in a rigorous study. It may persuade more men to choose active surveillance or watchful waiting instead of rushing to have treatments that can leave them with urinary or sexual problems httpsmedicalxpress.comtagssexualproblems doctors say. However the results also show that most of these men do very well with no treatment at all. Were identifying men who are not likely to need even a pill said Dr. Maha Hussain a University of Michigan cancer specialist. But Americans fear cancer so much that they want some kind of treatment and underestimate the financial and medical risks of treating lowrisk cases she added. She is program chair of a cancer conference in Florida where the study will be presented later this week. Results were released Tuesday in a telephone news conference sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Roughly half of the  men diagnosed each year in the United States with prostate cancer have lowrisk disease  PSA blood levels under  and low tumor aggressiveness scores. The American view of cancer is that its always best to treat so about  percent of these men choose to have that right away said Dr. Otis Brawley a prostate cancer expert who is chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. In Europe though most choose watchful waiting  close monitoring and treatment only if the cancer progresses or causes pain or other problems. Doctors know that drugs that shrink the prostate  GlaxoSmithKline httpsmedicalxpress.comtagsglaxosmithkline PLCs Avodart and Merck  Co.s Proscar  can help prevent prostate cancer. But federal health advisers recently recommended against taking them for this purpose because of potential risks. The new study tested Avodart not to prevent cancer but to prevent the progression of it in men who already have the disease which may be a much better use of such drugs said the studys leader Dr. Neil Fleshner of University Health Network and Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. We know the vast majority of these men are not destined to die from that cancer and wanted to see if Avodart could make watchful waiting safer Fleshner said. The study enrolled about  men in the United States and Canada with lowrisk cancer that was confirmed by a biopsy. They were given daily Avodart or dummy pills and new biopsies   and three years later. Prostate cancer got worse in  percent of men taking Avodart and  percent of those on dummy pills. Final biopsies showed no signs of cancer in  percent of men on Avodart versus  percent of those on dummy pills. Doctors say this last result shows how tiny many of these cancers were to start with that they couldnt even be found when new biopsies were done. Doctors dont think Avodart can cure cancers but it seems to suppress it said Dr. Howard Sandler a prostate cancer httpsmedicalxpress.comtagsprostatecancer specialist at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He had no role in the study but is involved with the cancer conference. Researchers gave no details on Avodarts side effects but said no new ones appeared in the study. Avodart and Proscar are known to cause sexual problems for some men but many men httpsmedicalxpress.comtagsmen over  have this anyway and only about  percent more do when taking these drugs said Brawley who helped test Avodart for cancer prevention. The new study was sponsored by Avodarts maker GlaxoSmithKline. Avodart and Proscar cost about  a pill generic versions of Proscar are available for about . Proscar is similar to Avodart but has not been tested for treating early cancer as this study did. Sandler said Avodart might relieve some mens anxiety about monitoring their disease and may make them more comfortable not having immediate treatment. If it was me Id choose active surveillance he said. Avodart has the potential to be an important help.  More information  Prostate cancer info  http and tinyurl.comASCOanswers httptinyurl.comASCOanswers Risk calculator tinyurl.comriskcalculator httptinyurl.comriskcalculator"