A trial comparing immediate treatment with active surveillance for newly diagnosed prostate cancer (ProSTART)

If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, your doctor may suggest that you have treatment such as surgery to remove the prostate gland, radiotherapy or brachytherapy. If the cancer is completely contained inside the prostate gland, the aim of these treatments is to cure the cancer. You may hear them called radical treatments.

But all treatments have side effects. For some men, the side effects of treatment are worse than any problems the cancer might cause. Prostate cancer can grow so slowly that it never causes any symptoms. So, some men have active surveillance. This means you don’t have treatment straight away. Your doctor keeps a close eye on you to check for any signs that the cancer is growing. If it does, then you and your doctor will decide which treatment is best for you.

This trial was for men who had prostate cancer that their doctors thought was unlikely to grow or spread for some years. The aim of the trial was to compare active surveillance with treatment intended to cure the cancer, to see which was better for this group of men.