ABSTRACT
Patients diagnosed with a clinically localized prostate cancer face a daunting variety of management choices, including deferred treatment with observation, brachytherapy and/or external beam irradiation therapy with or without neoadjuvant hormonal therapy, cryotherapy, and radical prostatectomy. Physicians have long sought to guide patients through these choices based on their best judgment about the threat posed by the cancer, the effectiveness of treatment, the lifeexpectancy of the patient, as well as the potential for complications. Because screening programs have resulted in the identification of cancers much earlier in their natural history, the expection is that an individual patient will have a prolonged life-expectancy. In weighing treatment options, the patient and physician must consider the ability of the treatment to provide a durable cure while minimizing any negative impact on quality of life.
