Management of localized prostatic cancer

The choice of radiation therapy or radical prostatectomy as potentially curative treatment for apparently localized carcinoma of the prostate is controversial. Currently, radical prostatectomy is becoming more popular. Perhaps most important to referring primary care physicians is that they choose specialists who are serious students of this disease and who have at their disposal the modern techniques that have produced the current low morbidity rates. It is especially important that the primary care physician make this choice directly and with confidence, because the nuances of the disease and our knowledge about them are very complex and can easily distress and confuse the patient and his family.