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Researchers Criticize Recent Report On Advanced Prostate Cancer

By Frida Sarpadi | Update Date: Jul 22, 2016 10:37 AM EDT

Researchers are not on the same page on recent findings that there is an increase in cases of advanced prostate cancer. The report published on Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases journal claimed a staggering increase of 72 percent has been recorded in the last 10 years.

Authors of the study attribute the rise in numbers to the aggressiveness of the disease through the years.

Some researchers have discredited the findings, pointing out very few men are being screened, raising questions about the reliability of the data presented to the community.

However, Dr. Edward Schaeffer, the chair of urology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Medicine, was quick to discredit any claims, stressing out that any change in screening provides no impact to the results of the study.

"The other idea is since screening guidelines have become laxer when men do get diagnosed, it's at a more advanced stage of the disease. Probably both are true. We don't know for sure but this is the focus of our current work," experts said.

Using the information from the National Cancer Data Base, the researchers examined an estimated 767,000 male subjects who were diagnosed with prostate cancer from 1,089 facilities in the country from 2004 to 2013.

Experts looked into metastatic cases, CBS reported. These cases involve those determined to spread from the prostate to other parts of the body when patients were diagnosed. Data indicated that only 3 percent constitutes patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

Looking closely at the analysis of the study published in the Prostatic journal, CBS learned that the most number of increase was apparent to men between 55 to 69 years old. This age group recorded soaring 92 percent from 702 cases in 2004 to 1, 345 in 2013.

The study finds that the overall rate of metastatic prostate cancer soared 72 percent from 1, 685 (2004) to 2,890 (2013.) It is said that the surge of these cases began before 2012.

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