EDITORIAL: Updated counselling for the patient with prostate cancer

For many years, prostate cancer has been the most common cancer in American men. The disease is now common in men in the Middle East and in Arab countries. The ever-expanding, seemingly conflicting literature on prostate cancer makes counselling patients with prostate cancer a difficult but often necessary part of clinical practice. The mass of information that can be supplied to the patient can be overwhelming and can contribute to increased anxiety about making the ‘best decision’. It is thus important to give the information in a simple, accurate and compassionate manner that allows the patient to understand the facts about prostate cancer. As a pathological entity, prostate cancer occurs in almost all men as they age. Autopsy studies indicate that some men start to show evidence of cancer in their prostates as early as their third decade, with an increasing incidence over the subsequent decades. Once diagnosed, the patient needs to under- stand these facts, as well as the modern management methods and their application to his particular condition.