A new study on prostate cancer, which is the world's biggest randomised trial of the disease, is likely to indicate that the current standard surgical treatment used to fight the disease is ineffective.

The study says that surgical removal of the prostate gland is like watchful waiting", which means doing nothing. It also found that the surgery does not extend the lives of the patients. Health experts are unsure about how to respond to the study as any other alternative treatment is not yet available.

The findings of the study titled, Prostate Intervention Versus Observation Trial (PIVOT), which is led by Timothy Wilt, showed that the patients who underwent the surgery had less than a three per cent survival chance compared to those who had no treatment. It is pointed out that the difference in the number is not significant and might be due to statistical calculations.

They study began in 1994 with 731 men and was carried out for as long as 12 years. The findings were presented at a meeting of the European Association of Urology in Paris in February.