Effectiveness of Therapies for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer

[Guest guest]

MedScape has distributed a report by the

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

which analyzes existing studies on the effectiveness of different PCa

treatments.

The key paragraph:

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Uncertainty about the comparative effectiveness and harms of the

primary treatments for localized prostate cancer is the major gap in

knowledge. This is mainly due to the paucity of direct head-to-head

RCTs and the excess reliance on nonrandomized data to compare the most

common treatment options: WW, RP, EBRT, brachytherapy, and ADT.

Emerging technologies such as IMRT, proton beam radiation,

laparoscopic and robotic assisted prostatectomy, and cryotherapy are

increasingly being used despite the absence of long-term comparative RCTs.

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The URL for the 4-page " Executive Summary " (which is all that MedLine

distributed):

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/580896