Private MD News

Older men rarely get aggressive prostate cancer treatment

Category: Prostate

Following PSA testing that reveals an elevated risk of prostate cancer, older men are less likely to be offered the most treatment options than younger men, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The researchers from the University of California, San Francisco said that their findings raise questions about the information that doctors are using to base their treatment recommendations on. Rather than clinical evidence, the findings suggest that age too often is the determining factor.

For the study, investigators looked at the medical records of nearly 19,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer. They found that men over age 75 are rarely offered aggressive treatment options, such as surgery or radiation. Instead, they frequently are prescribed watchful waiting or hormone therapy.

"There is a disconnect between risk and treatment decisions among older men," said Matthew R. Cooperberg, who led the study. "Patient age is strongly influencing treatment decisions. We found that under-treatment of older-men with high-risk disease might in part explain higher rates of cancer mortality in this group.”