by Charles Bankhead, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today
After years of introspection, about 15% of men with localized prostate cancer regretted the decisions they made regarding treatment, a survey of almost 1,000 patients showed.
About twice as many men expressed regret after radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy as compared with active surveillance. The single biggest contributor to regret was treatment-associated sexual dysfunction, as reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
"Regret was a relatively infrequently reported outcome among long-term survivors of localized prostate cancer," Richard M. Hoffman, MD, of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and co-authors concluded. "However, our results suggest that better informing men about treatment options, in particular, conservative treatment, might help mitigate long-term regret. These findings are timely for men with low-risk cancers who are being encouraged to consider active surveillance."