All men have the potential to develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives, but a recent study by oncologists at UNC-Chapel Hill is likely to assist patients diagnosed with the disease.

According to Dr. Ronald Chen, a researcher at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the study focuses on side effects related to the most current treatments for prostate cancer.

“Patients until yesterday were using information to form their decisions — and doctors, too — based on really old types of treatment, and technology has evolved dramatically over time,” he explained. “Radiation has changed, surgery has changed, and men need this modern information about the quality of impact of robotic surgery, about the quality of impact of modern radiation.”

By researching the efficacy and potential complications of modern solutions to prostate cancer, Chen and his team determined that all treatments are similar in nature but different in degree.

“If a patient has multiple options and they lead to very similar survival outcomes and curative rates, then quality of life between these different options becomes a very important point of consideration for each man to make his own decision about treatment,” he stated.

Findings from the study indicate that surgical intervention for prostate cancer may produce more complications than comparative treatments involving a radiological component.

“Of the four options we compared, surgery still caused more leakage than the other treatment options, and surgery did cause more erectile disfunction than other treatment options, too,” revealed Chen.

The study also found that intensity-modulated radiation therapy produces its own set of symptoms that may resolve themselves more quickly than those associated with surgery.

“With radiation and [radioactive implant] seeds, there were more irritation-type issues with urination, but that seemed to be short-lived and recovered over time,” relayed Chen. “There’s also short-term diarrhea and bowel symptoms that also seemed to recover over time.

Complications notwithstanding, Chen noted that diagnosing patients with prostate cancer at an early stage will give them more control over their approach to treatment.

“When you see your primary care doctor every year, they check your blood pressure, they check your blood for cholesterol, sugar levels […] and oftentimes they also check a [prostate-specific antigen] blood test,” he reported. “If a PSA blood test is high, that triggers a biopsy, and that is a way to try to diagnose prostate cancer at an early stage.”

Chen also explained that the study may dispel prostate cancer treatment myths that are based on dated techniques and defunct medical science.

“I think a lot of the impressions that patients and physicians had about the damage treatments cause based on older types of treatments are no longer true today,” he claimed.

The study was published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, with the abstract available through the online branch of the publication.

Photo by Allen G. Breed.