Is grade group 1 (Gleason 6 in old money) really prostate cancer? Wouldn't life be a little easier for patients (and the rest of the world) if we could somehow remove the label "cancer" from this relatively indolent condition??
Well this decade-old discussion seems to have developed a lot of momentum in the past year, driven by urologists like Dr Scott Eggener (University of Chicago) and Dr Matt Cooperberg (University of California San Francisco), who with others have written some nice articles to argue the case for "re-branding" grade group 1 as a non-cancer. This would certainly deal with the lingering issue of over-treatment of low-risk prostate cancer which persists to a variable extent around the world.
Alas, it's not so simple. Expert GU pathologists like Dr Eva Comperat (University of Vienna) point out that this is cancer. Period. If the clinical community have an issue with over-treatment, then we should deal with this another ways, rather than ask for the impossible.
Today we thrash this out with Scott, Matt and Eva. A great listen/watch. And maybe a way forward...
Even better on our YouTube channel