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A new study shows how
important it is for men to carefully consider treatments for
early-stage prostate cancer. Fifteen years after surgery or radiation
treatment, nearly all of the older men in the study had some problems
having sex.
About one-fifth had bladder or bowel trouble, researchers found.
The study doesn't compare these men - who were 70
to 89 at the end of the study - to others who did not treat their
cancers or to older men without the disease. At least one study
suggests that half that age group has sexual problems even when
healthy.
The study isn't a rigorous test of surgery and
radiation, but it is the longest follow-up of some men who chose those
treatments.
Since early prostate cancers usually don't prove
fatal but there are no good ways to tell which ones really need
treatment, men must be realistic about side effects they might suffer,
said one study leader, Dr. David Penson of Vanderbilt University.
"They need to look at these findings and say, `Oh
my gosh, no matter what I choose, I'm going to have some
quality-of-life effect and it's probably greater than my doctor is
telling me,'" he said.
The study appears in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
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