Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Laurence Klotz, MD, speaks with PCRI about management of low-risk prostate cancer with Active Surveillance. 

What is active surveillance, and how does it compare with other methods of treating prostate cancer?

The concept of conservative management for prostate cancer is not new. In fact, in Scandinavia and England in the 70s, basically no one was treated until they had metastatic disease. And the idea was that treatment....

This summary is from the 2015 Prostate Cancer Conference where in his lecture, Matthew Cooperberg, MD, spoke on Active Surveillance. Dr. Cooperberghas has been invited to present his research findings at many national and international conferences. 

The surprising finding, after 12 years, was that there was no difference in survival between surgery and watchful waiting in the Low-Risk or in the Intermediate-Risk group.  On the other hand, men who were in the High-Risk category did benefit with improved 12-year survival when treated with immediate surgery compared to the men with High-Risk disease who did watchful waiting.