Quotes of the Day

A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine may offer some long-awaited guidance to the thousands of patients with early stage prostate cancer weighing whether to undergo a risky surgery or wait and watch the cancer's progression. For some men, the report suggests, surgery may be the answer.

In 1989, an international research team led by doctors at University Hospital in Sweden began a 10-year study of 695 prostate cancer patients under the age of 75. Half of the men received surgery. The other half were assigned to "watchful waiting," a tack doctors often prescribe to avoid the risks of aggressive treatment—such as incontinence or impotence—and because many prostate tumors grow slowly enough that patients die of something else before the cancer affects them.

These latest findings suggest that having surgery reduces a patient's risk of death from prostate cancer by 44%, compared with watchful waiting. Surgery also significantly lowers the chance of cancer spreading to other parts of the body. The catch? The benefits of surgery apply almost exclusively to men under 65. For older men, unfortunately, the study came to no conclusive answers.

• Sora Song
• A new study finds that, on the balance, men might consider an operation