HEALTH REPORT - Prostate Cancer Update

HEALTH REPORT - October 2, 2002: Prostate Cancer Update

By Nancy Steinbach

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Scientists in Sweden have shown that removing a cancerous prostate gland¹ reduces
the chance of dying from prostate cancer. Yet their findings have failed to stop
debate over how best to treat the disease.

The prostate is a small gland in men. A gland is a tissue or organ that produces a
useful chemical substance. The prostate is important for sexual² activity.

Prostate cancer cells

Cancer of the prostate usually develops in men over the age of fifty. Prostate cancer
is most common in northwestern Europe and North America. In the United States alone, the disease will be
discovered in one-hundred-eighty-nine-thousand men this year.

Prostate cancer can kill if it spreads to other parts of the body. Yet it can be cured if discovered early. Men in
need of treatment have a number of choices. One is an operation to remove the cancerous prostate. Another is
radiation. Both treatments affect the patient in other ways. They can make a man unable to perform sexually³. Or
they can make him unable to control the release of liquid waste from his body.

Many doctors say that men with early prostate cancer may not need any immediate⁴ treatment. Prostate cancer
grows slowly. Treatment can be started later if the cancer grows. Medical experts had no evidence that an
operation or other treatment was better than doing nothing.

The Swedish study attempted to answer that question. Its results were published in the New England Journal of
Medicine. The study involved almost seven-hundred men with prostate cancer. Half had operations to remove the
cancerous gland between nineteen-eighty-nine and nineteen-ninety-nine. The other men received no treatment.

After about six years, thirty-one men in the no treatment group had died of prostate cancer. The disease killed
sixteen of the men who had the operation. However, survival⁵ rates for men in both groups were about the same.

Supporters of the aggressive treatment praised the findings. Other doctors say the study does not help prostate
cancer patients because it did not look at other treatments, such as radiation. They say men still do not really
know what treatment choice is best. Medical experts say men with prostate cancer must understand their own
situations and make the decision with their doctors.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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1 gland   

n.腺体，(机)密封压盖，填料盖

参考例句：

• This is a snake's poison gland.这就是蛇的毒腺。
• Her mother has an underactive adrenal gland.她的母亲肾上腺机能不全。

2 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

3 sexually   

adv.性别上地；按性别地；性欲地；两性之间地

参考例句：

• to be sexually promiscuous 性生活淫乱
• I was depressed,withdrawn and sexually frigid. 我郁郁寡欢，离群索居，没有什么性要求。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。