A new study conducted by researchers in Sweden indicates that men under the age of 65 suffering from prostate cancer are best served by electing for surgery. Surgery cut the death rate for those patients by more than half. No definite conclusion was reached for those over the age of 65, however.

Those with non-aggressive forms of prostate cancer often face difficult decisions. Surgery is the most effective way to treat the condition but the side effects of impotence and incontinence are troublesome. Those over 65 often die of something else before the cancer spreads so they seek to avoid operations and merely monitor the tumor closely and leave it alone as long as it does not spread. This 'watch and wait' method can work for 20 years in roughly half of non-aggressive cases of prostate cancer.

The study, published in the latest edition of the 'New England Journal of Medicine and lead by Dr. Anna Bill-Axelson, recommended that those under 65 elect to have surgery. 'The more immediate, though stable, side effects associated with surgery should be weighed against the increasing incidence of symptoms and use of treatments after the progression of disease in the watchful-waiting group.'

In the study, those under age 65 who elected to have surgery had a death rate of only 11 percent after 10 years while those who did 'watch and wait' had a rate of 19 percent.

There are differences between the Scandinavians involved in this study and Americans. In the United States, prostate cancer is usually detected by a blood test. In Scandinavia, it is usually detected later by a rectal exam and is much further along than when detected by the blood test.

Still, the study indicates that despite short-term complications, men under 65 have better chances in the long run if they elect to have surgery.