While there is no doubt that prostate cancer is among the most contentious diseases of all, it has been found in a recent report that there are chances that many men are actually going through prostate cancer surgery even if it’s not called for. It has been revealed under the Prostate Intervention Versus Observation Trial (PIVOT). This study was started in the year 1994 in which some 731 men with prostate cancer of the average age of 68 were examined to know about the treatment and its effects. For some 12 years, patients were tracked and it was found that in many of the cases, the surgery performed was not required at all as the tumours were going very slowly.

It was found by Dr. Timothy Wilt, of the University of Minnesota, that those who have undergone the surgery for the same have almost same survival rate as of those who didn’t go through any treatment. It was further told that the current treatment for prostate cancer in the name of ‘radical prostatectomy’ could have dire effects on patients, thereby leaving in excess of half of the men infertile while one in ten incontinent.

The study, which was unleashed at a meeting of the European Association of Urology, claimed that the treatment has not changed anything considerably in the life of prostate cancer patients, thereby raising huge question on the need of conducting the surgery.

“Early data from the PIVOT trial certainly suggests that surgery to remove the prostate does not provide any significant survival benefit for men with low to medium risk prostate cancer”, said Dr Kate Holmes, Head of research at The Prostate Cancer Charity, who is of the say that it’s too early to declare surgery as ineffective.

With as many as 37,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in Britain every year, and some 10,000 dying of the same, it has become all the more imperative that further research is being done to find out the best possible manner to treat one prostate cancer patients.