Summary for a General Audience:
A new Swedish study has found that most men diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer according to modern guidelines live long lives and usually die from other causes, not the cancer itself.
Researchers from Uppsala University looked at outcomes up to 30 years after diagnosis and found that life expectancy—how long a man is likely to live based on age and other health issues—plays a major role in the prognosis. This means a man's overall health should be carefully assessed when deciding on treatment.
Prostate cancer often grows slowly and is usually diagnosed in older men. The study showed that:
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Men with low-risk prostate cancer and shorter life expectancy had only an 11% risk of dying from the cancer, compared to an 89% risk of dying from other causes.
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Men with high-risk cancer and longer life expectancy had a 34% chance of dying from prostate cancer.
The findings are based on national health data from Sweden and are meant to help doctors and patients better understand the long-term risks and choose the most appropriate treatment; ranging from simple monitoring to more aggressive approaches.
In short, for most men, recommended treatments work well and prostate cancer is not likely to be the cause of death.
