Low risk prostate cancer: active surveillance does not increase unfavourable outcomes, study finds

Active surveillance of men with prostate cancer with a low risk of metastasis is an appropriate alternative to immediate surgery or radiation, a long term, prospective, multicentre study of 2155 men has found.1The Canary Prostate Active Surveillance (Pass) study was conducted at 10 North American medical centres, with findings reported in JAMA. It found that 10 years after diagnosis disease had not progressed in almost half (49%) of the men. Fewer than 2% of the men developed metastatic disease, and fewer than 1% died from prostate cancer.“The rates of unfavorable outcomes—including adverse pathology at surgical procedure, recurrence after treatment, or metastasis—do not appear to be higher among patients who were treated after several years of surveillance compared to those treated immediately following the confirmative biopsy,” the authors reported.Before the Pass study reported its results the American Cancer Society had said, “In the studies that have been done so far, it…
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