A new study has revealed that about 75 per cent men often go through aggressive treatment that leads to either radical prostatectomy, complete removal of the gland, or radiation therapy despite having low-risk prostate cancer.

The factors taken into account when treatment decisions are made is PSA. Level of prostate-specific antigen PSA, has to be more than 4 nanograms per millimeter for getting worried but men with lower than this also have taken aggressive treatments.

Researcher Mark N. Stein, MD, a medical oncologist at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and assistant professor of medicine at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, said, “The decisions are difficult, as guys with PSAs under 4 could have lethal cancers. Managing a balance between under-treatment and overtreatment gets difficult”

Stein and his colleagues stated, "There have been concerns about the potential overdiagnosis and overtreatment of localized prostate cancer."

Stuart Holden, MD, medical director of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and head of the Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles said the reason for low-risk getting aggressive treatment is lack of knowledge in experts.