Prostate cancer A new method can be used to detect deadly processes

Tool calculates probability of dying of prostate cancer within ten years

An examination of the prostate is not a pleasant thing. Nevertheless, it is necessary to protect people from prostate cancer. Researchers have now developed a tool that can predict with 90 percent accuracy the likelihood of people dying from prostate cancer.

• The tool can determine the likelihood of prostate cancer dying with an accuracy of 90 percent.
• Unnecessary treatments with strong side effects can be avoided if the likelihood of dying of prostate cancer is low.
• Treatments of prostate cancer are not individual enough and are based on a universal approach.
• Predictive model will be available for patients and doctors on the Internet later this year.
• Radical treatments can cause impotence and incontinence.

Experts at Cambridge University have developed a tool that can calculate with 90 percent accuracy whether people will die from prostate cancer. The results of the study will be presented at the European Association of Urology conference in Copenhagen.

Many people with prostate cancer are not treated optimally, which leads to strong side effects and an unnecessarily high risk of deadly disease. (Image: Kateryna_Kon / fotolia.com)

Tool calculates the best treatment methods

The new model also calculates how much each patient benefits from surgery, radiotherapy, or other radical treatment, and whether simple medical monitoring is sufficient. For about one-third of prostate patients, the likelihood of their disease becoming dying, according to the researchers, is so low that the benefits of treatment are minimal.

Accuracy is 90 percent

The current study has medically monitored 10,000 British patients for a decade. Then the researchers tested the tool on another 2,500 men in Singapore. The scientists found after their tests that the accuracy of the tool was 90 percent.

Previously used model has only an accuracy of 60 percent

So far, men with prostate cancer from the NHS have been divided into three groups, depending on how severe their illness was. However, the model used so far only had an accuracy of 60 percent. Therefore, when men develop prostate cancer, treatment often depends on what a doctor has been talking about. However, the new model based on a number of measurable factors, which facilitates the right decision to treat, is quoted study author Vincent Gnanapragasam of Cambridge University from the "Independent Online".

Treatment of prostate cancer is based on universal approach

The treatment of prostate cancer is still far behind the treatment of breast cancer. Part of the problem is that breast cancer treatments are increasingly tailored to the patients. Treatments for prostate cancer, however, are still based on a universal approach.

Predictive model will be posted on the Internet this year

The predictive model, which will be posted on the Internet for patients and their physicians later this year, uses age, medical history, blood tests, and biopsy results to calculate a man's personal chance of survival over the next decade or so. Men with aggressive cancer improve their chances of survival significantly if they are treated properly. However, people with localized, slow-growing cancers rarely notice a difference in treatment because they often die from other causes.

For some people, radical treatment does not make sense

For example, a 72-year-old man with so-called low-grade prostate cancer might have a six percent chance of dying from prostate cancer within a decade. In addition, however, there is a 24 percent chance of dying from something completely different. This results in a total mortality risk of 30 percent. Radical treatment such as radiotherapy or removal of the prostate would reduce prostate mortality to just three percent. His total mortality risk would drop to 27 percent and thus be minimally reduced.

The exhausting and strenuous treatment for the affected person would therefore hardly be of benefit, but could cause side effects such as impotence and incontinence. However, a 71-year-old man with more aggressive cancer would reduce prostate cancer mortality from treatment by 26 percent to 13 percent, the experts explain. This reduces the overall mortality of the person affected from 46 percent to 33 percent.

Tool leads to fewer cases of over-treatment

The tool can reduce the rate of over-treatment. At least 30 percent of men with a diagnosis of prostate cancer do not seem to benefit from treatment because of the models, experts say. If men see that their absolute risk of dying is very low, scientists say they will rather agree to just have their cancer monitored instead of undergoing treatment. Too many men are now undergoing radical treatments for prostate cancer, and in some cases sufferers suffer severe side effects that alter their entire lives, a form of cancer that would never have harmed them, the researchers concluded. (As)