Watchful Waiting Active Surveillance in Prostate Cancer Patients - a Population-based Study Using the Seer-medicare Linked Database.
Year: 2008
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: By TZUYUNG DOUG KOU, M.P.H., M.A. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis and the second most common cancer-related death among men living in the United States. The increase in incident prostate cancer diagnosis was attributed partially to the widespread use of prostate cancer screening. African American men have higher risk of prostate cancer and cancer related mortality. In patients diagnosed with early and localized tumors, the risk of cancer specific mortality is low. Elderly men with early and localized tumors are less likely to die from prostate cancer. Various treatment options are available, but each has its own set of complications. Therefore, the dissertation study examined whether a less aggressive treatment strategy, watchful waiting active surveillance (WWAS), had any survival benefits in elderly patients. The dissertation study had three main goals. The first goal addressed two methodological issues on how treatment modalities should be captured and how WWAS should be defined. The second goal examined the effect of WWAS on survival outcomes in elderly patients over the age of 75 years. The third goal explored whether survival disparities between African American and Caucasian could be explained. The dissertation study was a population-based study using the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database. The study recommends that treatment modalities can be defined at 2 years following diagnosis. The
Author: Tzuyung Doug Kou
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Urology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Cancer Institute
OpenAlex ID: W22949663