HJAR Mar/Apr 2024

54 MAR / APR 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS DIALOGUE COLUMN UROLOGY WHEN is cancer not cancer? That’s not a riddle. It’s a question that’s been posed in recent years by a growing number of doctors and healthcare experts. The question is a sensitive one, as nearly two million Americans are diagnosed with can- cer each year. When assessing the question and its implications on prostate cancer diagno- ses, some doctors advocate that low-grade prostate cancers shouldn’t be referred to as cancer or carcinoma at all. The truth is, these tumors are so slow- growing that they will not affect the life of the men with this diagnosis. By changing the nomenclature related to low-grade cancers, doctors believe that individuals won’t turn to aggressive forms of treatments. But might there be a better way? According to doctors in favor of this change who were interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, “those words scare men, their families and sometimes even their doctors into seeking more aggressive treatment than patients need — leaving men with debilitat- ing side effects.” A wait-and-see approach, called “active surveillance,” is the preferred method of treatment for most men. Patients under- go regular visits to their doctor for close monitoring of cells in slow-growing can- cers. Should a patient’s symptoms worsen, “active treatment” is recommended. Prostate cancer is the most common can- cer diagnosis and second-most deadly in American men. The severity of the disease and its growth is placed on a 1-5 grade, with 5 representing the highest risk. Roughly one quarter of men in the U.S. are diagnosed with grade 1 prostate cancer. In years past, we did not have the abil- ity to reliably stratify prostate cancers into risk groups. Men were hesitant to discover a prostate cancer diagnosis knowing that most treatment options were aggressive. It’s The Importance of Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer Patients