Evidence-based medicine in prostate cancer: where do we stand in 2006?

A majority of medical decisions relating to the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of prostate cancer are based on low levels of evidence. This article reviews the recommendations of currently available evidence-based practice guidelines that relate to the management of patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer. The article further introduces a selection of recent studies that are relevant to the evidence-based patient care.

Updated clinical practice guidelines on the management of prostate-cancer patients provide an evidence-based summary of the literature and have recently been made available through the National Cancer Center Network and the European Urological Association. In addition, several recent high-quality studies have made major contributions to our knowledge of the natural history and therapy of prostate cancer.

The efforts of professional associations to generate evidence-based guidelines are reflective of an increased awareness that the care of prostate cancer should--to the greatest possible extent--be evidence-based. Practicing urologists should seek to become involved in the evidence-based medicine process by supporting the accrual to high-quality clinical trials, demanding the highest standards to the timely and unbiased dissemination of research findings and ultimately, strive to apply the best available evidence to the care of individual patients.