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Prostate most cancers statistics can look scary: 34,250 U.S. deaths in 2024. 1.4 million new instances worldwide in 2022. Dr. Bruce Montgomery, a UW Medication oncologist, hopes that sufferers will not see these numbers and simply throw up their arms in worry or resignation.
“Being diagnosed with prostate cancer is not a death knell,” mentioned Montgomery, senior creator of a literature and trial assessment that appeared in JAMA in the present day. Montgomery is the scientific director of Genitourinary Oncology at Fred Hutch Most cancers Heart and College of Washington Medical Heart, and a professor of drugs and urology on the UW College of Medication.
He encourages sufferers to ask their primary-care physician particular questions on this most cancers too. Montgomery additionally encourages his fellow medical doctors to deliver up the query of prostate most cancers screening with their sufferers.
“Knowing whether there is prostate cancer and how risky it is can be the first step. Not every cancer needs to be treated,” he mentioned. “Sometimes it’s safe to just watch and use active surveillance.”
A 2024 examine coauthored by UW Medication urologist Dr. Daniel Lin confirmed that energetic surveillance may be extraordinarily secure: 0.1% of males who opted for surveillance died of prostate most cancers after 10 years.
“We need to realize that prostate cancer is not one disease,” Montgomery mentioned. “As a provider, you need to personalize your approach to the patient you’re seeing and to the disease that they personally are dealing with.”
For instance, if a 50-year-old man develops prostate most cancers that’s solely within the prostate, then extra aggressive measures might must be thought-about. Nevertheless, if the illness, which may be slow-moving, develops in an 80-year-old affected person, the dialogue could also be fairly totally different.
“I’ve seen men that age (80s) develop prostate cancer and they’ve opted for no therapy,” he mentioned. “They know that treatment, such as radiation, might make them feel terrible … so they just say ‘no.'”
“You, as their physician,” he famous, “must respect that.”
“But if you’re 50 and have 25 to 30 years in which prostate cancer can become a bigger issue, even with the downsides, most patients should get therapy,” he mentioned.
For extra superior prostate most cancers, the variety of efficient remedies developed has markedly elevated, as has the survival price of males whose prostate most cancers has unfold to different elements of their our bodies.
“Metastatic prostate cancer needs therapy and research over the past 10 to 20 years has improved and continues to improve survival substantially,” he mentioned. “Knowing who needs treatment, which treatment to use and when is both an art and a science.”
The article lined info that males and their medical doctors ought to know, together with:
Roughly 1.5 million new instances of prostate most cancers are recognized yearly worldwide. Roughly 75% of instances are first detected when the most cancers continues to be localized to the prostate. This early detection was related to a five-year survival price of practically 100%.
Administration contains energetic surveillance, prostatectomy surgical elimination of the prostate, or radiation remedy, relying on danger of development.
Roughly 10% of instances are recognized after the most cancers has unfold. This stage of prostate most cancers has a five-year survival price of 37%.
The commonest prostate most cancers is adenocarcinoma, a kind that begins in gland cells, and the median age at prognosis is 67 years.
Greater than 50% of prostate most cancers danger is attributable to genetic components and older age.
Prostate most cancers got here to public consideration, each nationally and internationally final yr, when famed native journey author, Rick Steves, introduced he had developed prostate most cancers. He proclaimed final month by way of his X account, previously Twitter, that after radiation and surgical procedure at UW Medication and Fred Hutch, he was most cancers free.
Extra data:
Ruben Raychaudhuri et al, Prostate Most cancers: A Assessment, JAMA (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2025.0228
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College of Washington College of Medication
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Prostate most cancers ‘is just not a dying knell’: Early detection and customized care enhance outcomes, examine exhibits (2025, March 10)
retrieved 10 March 2025
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