Characteristics of prostate cancer in men less than 50-year-old

Objective. - To report the characteristics of prostate cancer (PCa) in men less than 50-year-old and the results of different treatments of PCa in this population. Method. - A bibliographic research was performed using Pubmed database. The keywords that we used were: prostate cancer, age, young, radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy, radiotherapy, active surveillance. The studies which included a significant number of patients were selected. A total of 38 articles were used as bibliographic references. Results. - PCa in young men does not seem to have different characteristics than in older men. Nevertheless, young men seem to have a lower risk of severe urinary and sexual sequelae, particularly following radical prostatectomy. Conclusions. - There is no recommendation regarding management of PCa in men less than 50-year-old. In case of localized cancer, two options may be considered. First option consists in decreasing the urinary and sexual complications of radical prostatectomy. A minimally-invasive treatment, such as brachytherapy or even active surveillance, may reach this objective. Second option consists in being more aggressive. To propose a radical prostatectomy offers to the patient the possibility of salvage radiation therapy in case of locally-advanced tumor or local recurrence. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.