Effective Treatment for Early-Stage Prostate Cancer — Possible, Necessary, or Both?

Abstract

In 2010, prostate cancer was diagnosed in approximately 217,000 men in the United States. More than 90% of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer have localized (clinical stage T1 or T2) disease.1 Men with early-stage prostate cancer face the treatment dilemma posed by the urologist Dr. Willet Whitmore: “If treatment for cure is necessary, is it possible? If possible, is it necessary?” The Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group Study 4 (SPCG-4) has provided important evidence that effective treatment is both necessary and possible for many men with early-stage prostate cancer. In a 2008 report of SPCG-4, radical prostatectomy, as compared with . . .