A new study found that men with prostate cancer who undergo immediate surgery have lower chances of dying from the disease than those who wait to see the cancer's prognosis.
According to the American Cancer Society, surgery is a common choice to try to cure prostate cancer. The operation involves removal of the entire prostate gland and the tissue around it. However, there were few side effects which may the reason of men opting out such as urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, changes in orgasm and penis length.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health studied 695 men with prostate cancer and randomly divided them into two groups: one which received radical prostatectomy and the other who waited for the cancer's prognosis. The participants were followed for 24 years.
While the study was being conducted, 200 men from surgery group died while 247 men in the "watchful waiting" group lost their lives. Of these deaths, 63 men in the surgery group died due to their cancers while 99 died in the waiting group.
Further data analysis revealed that men who received surgery were 44 percent less likely to die due to the disease than those who chose to wait. However, it was noted that this reduced risk is only evident for men below 65 years old and whose tumors only have a medium risk of spreading throughout the body.
On the other hand, researchers also discovered that 40 percent of those who were in the waiting group were still alive 20 years after being diagnosed with the disease, even if they did not receive surgery.
These results "really shows that there is this large percentage of men with localized prostate cancer who can live for a very long time without any sort of major health consequences of their diagnosis," researcher and assistant professor of Harvard School of Public Health's Department of Epidemiology, Jennifer Ridder told LiveScience.
She added that some men who opt for immediate surgery might be over-treated and surgery, in some cases, results to side effects including erectile dysfunction.
This study was published in the March 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.