Old age is no hindrance to benefiting from prostate cancer surgery and radiation therapy, but according to a new U.S. study men over 75 often get less effective treatment than their younger peers.

"It seems men in this age group are often undertreated, and that in turn may contribute to the higher mortality from prostate cancer among older men," said Dr. Matthew Cooperberg of the University of California, San Francisco, who led the research.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men, affecting about 160 per 100,000 men in the U.S. every year and killing a sixth of them.

Cooperberg and colleagues reviewed data from 40 urology practices across the U.S., including nearly 12,000 patients with prostate cancer.

They found 60 percent of those aged 75 and over received only hormone treatment for high-risk tumors, even though that's not considered a cure, and eight percent were followed by their doctors with no active treatment.

By contrast, hormone treatment for such cancers was given to just between 18 and 26 percent of younger patients, and no more than one percent of them were put on watchful waiting.

"If you look at the national practice pattern, there is no question that older men are treated very differently," Cooperberg told Reuters Health. "Age is a stronger driver of treatment pattern than risk, and I think that's troubling."

Source: Reuters Health