Impact on quality of life of different treatments for localised prostate cancer: insights from the PROTECT trial

Men who are diagnosed with localised prostate cancer are often faced with difficult treatment decisions. If they have a good life expectancy, they will generally need to choose between surgery, radiotherapy, and surveillance. Studies on prostate cancer therapy have to date not shown clear superiority of any of these treatment approaches in appropriately selected patients, with all being effective and safe. Men with low risk disease have less than 2% 10-year cancer-specific mortality, whichever approach they choose (1-3).