Active surveillance for early prostate cancer: current status and problems
Sugimoto, M.
Nihon Rinsho. Japanese Journal of Clinical Medicine 74(1): 91-97
2016
ISSN/ISBN: 0047-1852 PMID: 26793886 Document Number: 689376
Widespread use of prostate-specific antigen(PSA) testing has resulted in dramatic increase in localized prostate cancer(PC), especially early staged and favorable risk. Although early diagnosis and treatment may lead to better outcomes for some PC patients, not all should undergo radical treatment. The criticisms of overdiagnosis and overtreatment have emerged. For avoiding or reducing overtreatment, active surveillance (AS) for favorable risk PC is a sole realistic solution to now. However, AS is still underused in Japan compared with other countries. There are a lot of problems for proceeding AS in clinical practice. In this article, we will try to elucidate them and want to propose some solutions.