Patients' reports may aid prostate cancer treatment choice

CHICAGO (AP) — Men with early-stage prostate cancer face a dizzying quandary over which treatment to choose but two new studies on side effects may make those decisions a bit easier.

The research bolsters evidence that sexual problems and urinary incontinence are more common after surgery than after radiation or "watchful waiting" without treatment.

Given earlier research showing comparable survival rates, the results also support observation as a reasonable option for men with early disease, especially those with less aggressive tumors, said Dr. Daniel Barocas of Vanderbilt University, leader of one of the studies.

The research provides a road map to help guide patients' choices, "and that takes a lot of the terror out of the decision-making," said prostate cancer survivor Ralph Conwill of Nashville, Tennessee.

Conwill said the diagnosis put him "in shock mode," and hearing doctors talk about cancer stage, tumor size, treatment options and potential side effects was like a foreign language.

Patients in both studies who opted for treatment had newer kinds, mostly robotic surgery with small incisions to remove the prostate or external precision radiation that helps spare surrounding tissue.