Just in time for Men's Health Month, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have shown that detecting and treating prostate cancer early on not only saves lives but can also make a guy's life more worth living. That's because the intervention can relieve the annoying Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) that about 40% of patients experience – a percentage that rises with age. These men report the frequent or urgent need to urinate, especially during the night.
The study, which should be considered preliminary, was presented at the American Urological Association Annual Meeting. A release from the medical center quoted lead author Martin G. Sanda, MD, Director of the Prostate Center at BIDMC and Professor of Urology at Harvard Medical School as saying, “Possible benefits of prostate cancer treatment in alleviating lower urinary tract symptoms have been largely overlooked . . . The burden of obstructive lower urinary tract symptoms . . . is underappreciated and deserving of greater emphasis in prostate cancer care decisions.”
Coauthors of the study included investigators from the PROSTQA Consortium, funded by the National Cancer Institute, and a team of collaborators from Spain.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and currently ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide.
