i didn't go to this one but my friend did. There was no real revelations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting regarding prostate cancer. Some significant studies:
1> Trock et al. This is the study at Johns Hopkins on Active Surveillance and Delayed RP. There is only a small change in Trocks position on AS. It's in the results and conclusion of this link:
abstract.asco.org/AbstView_74_50542.html"Results: At surgery, men initially managed with AS were significantly more likely to have non-organ-confined tumor (p=0.009) and high-grade tumor (Gleason score ≥ 3+4; p=0.0001) than matched immediate RP men. "
"Conclusions: In the largest cohort to date, AS patients who undergo delayed RP in the absence of biopsy grade progression have similar risk of adverse pathology as matched men who undergo immediate RP. The message to men considering AS must balance the overall low rate of adverse pathology with the knowledge that a small fraction of men upgraded at biopsy will have a potentially noncurable tumor."
What that second quote tells you is that as long as men leave the AS program for RP BEFORE a biopsy indicates adverse results, then they will likely have similar results to an immediate RP guy. The same is not true when a followup biopsy detects a reason to switch off AS.
Glad I didn't have a choice to wait.
Tony