Overtreatment of Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Has Declined Since 2010

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 28, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Low-risk prostate cancer (PC) has become less common at diagnosis since 2010, and low-risk patients are increasingly avoiding treatment, according to a study published online Oct. 26 in Cancer.Steven M. Monda, M.D., from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and colleagues analyzed localized PC in patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER; 2010 to 2023), Veterans Affairs (VA; 2020 to 2024), and Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium (MROQC; 2021 to 2025) to examine diagnostic risk-group trends. The definition of low-risk PC was grade group 1, prostate-specific antigen <10 ng/mL, and clinical stage ≤T2a.The researchers found that low-risk disease at diagnosis decreased from 28.8 to 24.0 percent in SEER and from 32.3 to 21.9 percent in VA among localized PC. Among diagnosed low-risk patients, there was an increase in receipt of neither radiation nor prostatectomy from 33.6 to 83.4 percent in SEER and from 51.6 to 96.3 percent in VA. There were decreases in the proportion with low-risk disease among the 207,196 patients treated with radiation for localized PC, from 33.7 to 6.5 percent in SEER and from 22.9 to 2.0 percent in VA, while the proportion remained stable at ≤4.2 percent in MROQC. After adjustment, the decreases persisted."We are seeing a moderate decline in the amount of low-risk prostate cancer being diagnosed, likely reflecting more magnetic resonance imaging use in screening," Monda said in a statement. "More so however, we are seeing that most of the low-risk prostate cancer is now being appropriately observed and not treated."Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Overtreatment of Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Has Declined Since 2010

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