Men who opt to have cancerous prostates surgically removed have higher long-term survival rates than those who delay the operation, and the benefits of surgery may be greatest for men under 65, Swedish researchers said on Wednesday. The study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, is designed to help doctors and their patients find the best strategy for treating tumors found in 230,000 U.S. men each year. The issue is complicated because prostate cancer often grows so slowly that patients die from other causes first, Reuters reported . The new findings update research begun in 1989 that showed 347 men assigned to a surgery known as radical prostatectomy had death rates comparable to the 348 men who were put in a "watchful waiting" group. The new study, which looked at an additional three years of data, suggests patients can't wait forever. The team, led by Anna Bill-Axelson of University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, found that during a 10-year period, men who received the surgery were 44 percent less likely to die of prostate cancer, 26 less likely to die from any cause, and 67 percent less likely to have their tumors grow or reappear. --More 2203 Local Time 1903 GMT
