Contemporary Role of Active Surveillance in Prostate Cancer: To Whom, When, How?

Due to the widespread use of prostate-specific antigen testing and the increase in the elderly population, many asymptomatic patients have started to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.This leads to the reality of overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer.Since most of the initial diagnoses are clinically insignificant, a concept called active surveillance (AS) has emerged in the treatment of prostate cancer, especially for patients in the low-risk group.Some authors also recommend this approach to selected intermediate-risk group patients.The main goal of AS is to prevent the negative effects of radiotherapy and surgery.Several well-known clinicians reported their results on AS, and their criteria appear to differ in terms of patient selection and follow-up.We aimed to review the criteria for patient selection, follow-up principles, and the outcomes of AS.