When Is Watchful Waiting Warranted? Advances in Soft Tissue Sarcoma—An Editorial Commentary

Watchful Waiting

Radical prostatectomy trumps watchful waiting in early prostate cancer. Commentary on: Radical prostatectomy or watchful waiting in early prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND Radical prostatectomy reduces mortality among men with localized prostate cancer; however, important questions regarding long-term benefit remain. METHODS Between 1989 and 1999, we randomly assigned 695 men with early prostate cancer to watchful waiting or radical prostatectomy and followed them through the end of 2012. The primary end points in the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Gro...

Watchful waiting is useful for children with recurrent throat infections.

Hoes AW. Current indications for (adeno)tonsillectomy in children: a survey in the Netherlands. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2003;67:603-7. 8 Blair RL, McKerrow WS, Carter NW, Fenton A. The Scottish tonsillectomy audit. Audit Sub-Committee of the Scottish Otolaryngological Society. J Laryngol Otol 1996;110(suppl 20):1-25. 9 Donnelly MJ, Quraishi MS, McShane DP. Indications for paediatric tons...

Watchful waiting for small renal masses.

Small renal masses (SRMs; < 4 cm in diameter) account for most renal tumors treated today. Incidental early detection of SRMs by abdominal imaging results in favorable grade and stage migration to renal cell carcinoma, and also increases detection of benign renal tumors. As a result, most SRMs manifest indolent biological behavior with excellent prognosis. Despite the increased use of minimally...

Active surveillance: not your father's watchful waiting.

Active surveillance is becoming a very reasonable and appropriate “treatment” strategy for men with low-risk localized prostate cancer, as Large and Eggener eloquently describe in this review article. It is important to recognize that active surveillance is not what was once referred to as “watchful waiting,” which I believe many patients interpret as “watching and waiting to die.” As the name ...