A research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows
that use of conservative prostate cancer treatment plans is on the increase among U.S.
veterans with low-risk prostate cancer.
The researchers studied 125,083 men from January 2005 through November
2015 and stratified the results by age. Of the 59,941 men (48%) who received
conservative treatment, the under-65 group choosing conservative treatment
grew from 27% in 2005 to 72% in 2015, while the over-65 group went from
35% to 79% over the same ten-year period.
The increases were mainly attributed to active surveillance, which
increased 10x from 2005-2015 among the under-65 group and over 13x during
that period among those over 65.
“Utilization of conservative management has increased significantly among
U.S. veterans with low-risk prostate cancer, suggesting a substantial
reduction in overtreatment during the past decade,” the authors write.
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Read the original article: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2681802
