Objective:

Prostate cancer mortality decreases with widespread screening programs; however the controversy is increasing frequencies of overdiagnosis and overtreatment of localized prostate cancer. Active surveillance is an alternative to radical treatments in terms of decreasing overdiagnosis and overtreatment and also decreasing treatment related side effects. Recent and ongoing studies conducted for active surveillance are revised in this paper.

New findings:

Considering the recently published series, active surveillance is safe in terms of cancer specific and overall survival for short term. Despite minimal differences in study protocols, the most important parameters for follow-up are PSA kinetics and histology. Effects of delayed intervention cannot be predicted in terms of survival with available data and long-term follow-up data are needed.

Conclusion:

Active surveillance prevents overdiagnosis and overtreatment without increasing mortality in short term. Patients should be offered active surveillance in daily practice for providing widespread use and long-term data after defining strict follow- up protocols and counseling.

Keywords: Prostate cancer, active surveillance