Value in prostate cancer treatment

Value in health care is measured by outcomes and expense. An agreed upon desirable outcome can be indexed against the health care expenditure required for procurement. Prostate cancer treatment is an especially difficult subject for investigation of value. The late onset of the disease, coupled with competitive mortality risk, confounds value analysis. When cost considerations are made paramount, observation is the apparent treatment of choice. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;114:288–290. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.