Prostate Cancer Severity Increases With Age

Prostate cancer patients aged 75 or older tend to be diagnosed with more aggressive cancer which they are more likely to die from than younger men, according to a new study.

The research, published in the journal Cancer, analyzed data from 464,918 men in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Results indicated that men aged 75 and older made up over one quarter of all prostate cancer cases as well as 53 percent of all the deaths. The severity of the cancer increased with age.

The findings raise important questions about the how often men should get screened for prostate cancer. Recently, a government health panel recommended that healthy men over age 50 should no longer be tested routinely for prostate cancer because the screening process can result in pointless suffering. Many experts have disagreed with this, and it has become a controversial topic.

Science Daily quoted Guan Wu, lead author of the study, as saying, "We hope our study will raise awareness of the fact that older men are actually dying at high rates from prostate cancer. With an aging population it is important to understand this, as doctors and patients will be embarking on more discussions about the pros and cons of treatment."

The researchers say that more studies are needed to identify ways to manage prostate cancer in older men.