“A doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center performs a robotic prostatectomy.” M. SPENCER GREEN/AP
by Karen Weintraub
“Nearly 30 years after it began, a study of prostate cancer patients shows both that the disease will not cause harm to the majority of men who have it, and that aggressive treatment is warranted for men with an intermediate risk of spread.
“The nuanced results come from a new update to a landmark study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, that has followed 695 Swedish men since they were diagnosed with localized prostate cancer between October 1989 and February 1999.
“The study’s duration and insights into one of the most common forms of cancer make it ‘arguably one of the most important publications of the year,’ said Dr. Adam Kibel, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and chief of urology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who is not involved in the research.”
