Prostate Cancer Health Center

Prostate Cancer: PSA Change May Be Key to Risk

Great Information -- but What Can a Man Do About It? continued...

"I think the only thing the patient can really take home from this, if they fall into one of the unfavorable categories, is knowing they might not do as well with standard treatment," Anscher tells WebMD. "We cannot yet say whether additional treatment would be more successful -- that has to be studied."

D'Amico and Freedland readily admit this is true.

"We identified who needs treatment, now we need to figure out how to treat them," Freedland says. "There is still a lot we need to do. Even if we told a guy, 'You are in trouble,' we still don't know what to do about it. But at least now we have a good handle on who needs the aggressive treatments."

And what would this aggressive treatment look like? Nobody is sure.

"I would in general urge patients to be cautious and not jump to any conclusions from these studies, or seek to change what they would do," Anscher says. "They are good studies, but they are not going to change the standard of care just yet."