Prostate cancer in the older man: conflict between tumor biology and medical advancement.

As overall life expectancy grows, clinicians will be confronted more often with diseases that although devastating in the young individual, will not affect survival and possibly even quality of life for those in the older age groups. Prostate cancer is an example of this. The challenge for the physician caring for these patients is to distinguish who is at risk and how much risk so that decisions can be made regarding the propriety of prostate cancer detection and treatment of each individual. In this article, these issues are discussed in a way that helps the clinician guide older men to better decisions regarding prostate cancer detection and therapy. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.