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Sometimes when cancers are diagnosed and they’re felt to potentially be insignificant or non-threatening, a treatment approach called active surveillance is recommended. What does active surveillance mean? It means close monitoring of a cancer with periodic testing to make sure that it stays quiet, doesn’t grow or barely grows, so that safe monitoring can continue. If there’s any indication that a cancer is changing or growing or becoming more aggressive on active surveillance, the beauty of this approach is that it’s flexible. You can change at any time. You can convert from active surveillance to active treatment. Just one example of active surveillance is the treatment of prostate cancer. Most prostate cancers are not destined to cause harm or to cause death in a man over their lifetime. And active surveillance is a popular strategy to closely monitor men with what looks like non-threatening prostate cancer. And then the plan can change if the cancer seems to be progressing.
