Prostate Cancer Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

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Changes to This Summary (07/21/2017)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Treatment Option Overview for Prostate Cancer

Added text to state that side effects of each of the treatment approaches are covered. Patient-reported adverse outcomes differ substantially across the options for management of clinically localized disease, with few direct comparisons, and include watchful waiting/active surveillance/active monitoring, radical prostatectomy, and radiation therapy. The differences in adverse outcomes can play an important role in patient choice among treatment options. Detailed comparisons of these outcomes have been reported in population-based cohort studies, albeit with relatively short follow-up times of 2 to 3 years (cited Barocas et al. as reference 1 and Chen et al. as reference 2).

Added text to state that recovery of penile length to pre-operative measurements within 1 to 2 years has been reported in some, but not all, case series in which men were followed longitudinally (cited Kadono et al. as reference 58).

Added text to state that in a multicenter trial, 1,206 men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer were randomly assigned in a noninferiority-trial design to receive conventional radiation therapy versus hypofractionated radiation therapy. Also added that after a median follow-up of 6 years, the primary endpoint of biochemical clinical failure was nearly identical with each radiation therapy schedule (cited Catton et al. as reference 73 and level of evidence 1iiDiii). Added that the trial was severely underpowered to detect any differences in overall or prostate-specific mortality and provided the number of deaths from prostate cancer in each arm and the percentage of deaths attributable to prostate cancer. Both short- and long-term genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicities were similar in both study groups.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Adult Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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