For senior men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer the decision about deciding to undergo surgery to eradicate the prostate is often a difficult decision for the patient and the doctor. Trying to decide if this type of surgery or other therapy is the best course of action depends in large measure on the probability that the procedure will be curative. If the cancer has already spread beyond the prostate gland, then the surgery will probably not cure the disease. In this case the doctors will not recommend surgery. In many cases the surgeon does not know the extent of the cancer prior to performing the surgery.
Fortunately a newly developed test has been identified that offers hope of revolutionizing the evaluation of cancer prior to deciding on a treatment. This new test measures the circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the bloodstream by both detecting them and allowing a genetic assay of them. The circulating tumor cells are the seeds that allow the cancer to spread or metastasize to other parts of the body. In recent tests patients suffering from prostate cancer who had PSA scores greater than 10 were tested using the CTC test. The ones who tested positive on the CTC test all had potential surgical failure, but those who tested negative on the CTC test showed greater than an 85% chance of a surgical cure.