Management of early prostatic carcinoma.

It is important to make a diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma as early as possible, because early treatment gives the best results whether radical prostatectomy is done or endocrine therapy used. Open perineal biopsy is the most accurate method of making a diagnosis. Perineal needle biopsy or the newer approach of transrectal needle biopsy is probably about 75 per cent accurate in making a diagnosis.Ten-year survival with conservative therapy, as determined in a review of a series of cases, was 50 per cent-about the same as that following radical prostatectomy; but the patients with prostatectomy are clinically free of malignant disease whereas the former are not. Radical prostatectomy is indicated in a few selected cases. The results from endocrine therapy begun immediately after diagnosis are significantly better than those from delayed treatment. Orchiectomy and estrogens promise a little longer survival than estrogens alone.