About half of the men who received focal therapy for prostate cancer in the United States over the past decade fell outside the risk groups that current treatment guidelines support for the procedure, according to a national analysis published in JAMA. Some were treated more aggressively than their cancer warranted. Others had diseases for which guidelines say focal therapy should not be used at all outside a clinical trial.
For men currently weighing treatment options, the finding is not a warning about the technique itself. It is a warning about matching. Focal therapy is a genuinely appealing option for the right patient, and the study's senior author said as much. The question the data raise is whether the men receiving it are the men most likely to benefit.
