specific mortality as a result of radical prostatectomy was greatest among, or even limited to, patients younger than 65," they concluded. The study didn't include enough older men to be definitive. However, because the actual numbers were small -- 8.6 percent of the men assigned to surgery died from prostate cancer, compared to 14.4 percent in the "watchful waiting" group -- there's still a lot of ambiguity about which treatment is best, the Bill-Axelson team said. They predicted the benefits of the surgery will increase during longer periods of follow-up. Since the study began, more doctors have been measuring levels of the chemical PSA in patients' blood to monitor whether a tumor has reappeared and started to grow. That technique might increase the success rate of the watchful waiting strategy, the researchers said. But so far, they said, there is no evidence that adding PSA testing and treating men based on those levels "will yield better results than will watchful waiting as used in this trial."
