Edward M. Schaeffer, MD, PhD

Active surveillance seems to be generally safe, yet African-American men tend to have more aggressive prostate cancers. Thus, it is imperative that we learn the characteristics and outcomes of African-American men considering surveillance.

The optimal treatment for clinically localized prostate cancer is an ongoing subject of controversy.[1] As pointed out by Drs. Mirhadi and Sandler, no randomized trial has compared radical prostatectomy (RP) to radiation therapy (RT), and no study has definitively “proven” the superiority of one technique over the other. Therefore, we disagree with the author’s conclusion that RT “is the ‘only way to go’ when managing early-stage prostate cancer.”