The WORST Way to Treat Prostate Cancer
I’ve seen the look on my own patients’ faces.
When guys learn they have prostate cancer, their inner Green Beret kicks in.
They want to fight that cancer with everything they’ve got.
So it’s no wonder that so many men get talked into aggressive, high-dose radiation.
The more the better, right?
Not exactly.
It turns out that high-dose radiation may be the single worst way to treat prostate cancer.
It won’t add a day to your life… and may end up wrecking it.
Let’s be honest. The whole point of treating ANY cancer is to help you live longer.
If you were diagnosed with a benign cyst, you probably wouldn’t be tempted to take any kind of drastic action—especially one with known risks—to remove it because you know it’s not life-threatening.
But when you hear the word cancer, all bets are off.
So when you’re presented with the option of either high or low doses of radiation therapy, you might be tempted to think that more is better.
It isn’t.
A study published in JAMA Oncology compared standard doses of radiation treatment to higher doses to see which treatment helped people live longer.
The study included 1500 men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer (this was defined as a PSA of 10-20 ng/ml and a Gleason score of 7).
After 5 years, 75% of the men receiving standard radiation were still alive, compared to 76% of men receiving the high dose.
In other words, there was basically no difference at all in survival rates.
But there WERE differences in side effects, with the higher dose group experiencing more side effects like urinary irritation and rectal bleeding.
Ultimately, my stance is that the best treatment is no treatment at all… as long as you don’t have an aggressive prostate cancer.
After all, studies have shown that aggressive treatment versus active surveillance (watching and waiting) had no difference in mortality outcomes.
How can you know whether you have an aggressive cancer or not? Simple.
Instead of relying on your PSA score alone, get a test called the 4Kscore test.
This test calculates your risk for aggressive prostate cancer. The test is incredibly accurate, with fewer than 2 percent of significant cancers being missed, and ZERO more aggressive (Gleason 8) cancers being missed.
Whether you’re deciding on high- or low-dose radiation, removing the tumor altogether, or doing nothing, it’s nice to have an option that takes the guesswork out of prostate cancer testing and treatments.
Then you can feel confident making the decision that’s right for you.
To a brighter day,
Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.