Evidence Review of Active Surveillance in Men with Localized Prostate Cancer. Executive Summary

摘要

In 2011, more than 240,000 men are projected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 33,000 are projected to die from the disease in the United States. In the United States, most cases of prostate cancer are detected via prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening. The cancer is usually localized, and most tumors have low histological grades and low Gleason scores. Indeed, more than half of prostate cancers detected by PSA screening are expected to be early-stage, low-risk tumors. Such cancers are an infrequent cause of death, and those affected are more likely to die of unrelated causes.