Month: September 2026

For years, men with low-risk prostate cancer had two options and nothing in between: remove or irradiate the whole gland, or leave it alone and watch. About half who chose watching later quit, and most of them had no evidence their cancer had changed at all. Focal laser ablation closes that gap, and it changes the calculation entirely. keep reading

No study has ever compared focal laser ablation and radiation head to head. The two fields even define failure differently, one by the need for retreatment and the other by a rising PSA. That makes a fair comparison harder than it looks, and makes understanding what each number actually measures essential before choosing. keep reading

Most prostate cancer treatments ask men to trade something away. Surgery risks incontinence in up to 30% of patients. Radiation carries a 27% cumulative risk of a secondary cancer. Focal laser ablation reports side effect rates under 1% while matching whole gland cancer control. The catch is smaller than most men expect, and worth knowing before deciding. keep reading

For years, focal therapy carried an unofficial label: promising, but unproven. A 2026 analysis of 3,477 men with localized prostate cancer changes that. Ten years after treatment, almost none had died of prostate cancer, and almost none saw it spread beyond the gland. The same cancer control as surgery, with far less damage along the way. keep reading

Nearly every man treated for low-risk prostate cancer survives it. That shifts the real question from whether treatment works to what life looks like once it is over. A five-year study followed 866 men and asked them, year after year, about leaking, bowel habits and sexual function. Focal therapy held up best across almost every measure. keep reading

By age 80, up to 90% of men have an enlarged prostate, and for many the first sign is a urinary symptom that will not go away. Standard procedures push the urethra open from within. A newer option, transperineal laser ablation, works from the outside instead, reducing prostate tissue so the passage reopens on its own over time. keep reading

Roughly 60% of men with low-risk prostate cancer start on Active Surveillance, and half walk away within five years, usually because PSA keeps climbing. A new trial asked whether two everyday supplements could steady those numbers. The findings were striking enough to publish, though the researchers stop well short of calling them a recommendation. keep reading

A 490-man trial found that a shorter prostate MRI matched the longer version almost exactly at detecting significant cancer. That result is pushing health systems worldwide toward the faster scan. Yet certain cases still hinge on the contrast sequence the shortcut leaves out, including ambiguous PI-RADS 3 lesions and small Gleason 7 tumors. keep reading

A test that prevents harm can still create a problem. Pre-biopsy mpMRI keeps men out of the biopsy suite when nothing suspicious turns up, and guidelines increasingly call for it. The result is a flood of scans arriving faster than imaging centers and expert readers can absorb, with AI now stepping in to help carry the load. keep reading

Testosterone falls with age. Prostate cancer becomes more likely with age too. When the two arrive together, an old rule of thumb has said replacement therapy is off-limits after treatment. A November 2025 review analyzed hundreds of journal articles, then narrowed to 12 well-designed studies to see whether that rule still holds up. keep reading