Cancer Digest

Tests for prostate cancer underestimate tumor aggressiveness

THE GUARDIAN – April 10, 2014 – More than half of prostate cancers thought to be slow growing turned out to be aggressive, faster growing tumors, a new British study shows. Scientists at Cambridge University compared the staging and tumor grades of 800 men with prostate cancer before and after surgery to treat the disease. The found that of the 415 patients who were classified before treatment as having slow growing tumors confined to the prostate, 209, a little more than half, actually had more aggressive tumors, and 131 of them had tumors that had spread beyond the prostate. The researchers concluded, "There is an urgent need for development of a means by which to exclude aggressive PC (prostate cancer) in patients wishing to undergo conservative treatment." They published their findings in the British Journal of Cancer.

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