A new longitudinal study conducted by a group of Swedish physicians and funded through the Swedish Cancer Society demonstrated a link between prostate surgery (compared to treatment) and prolonged life , the Wall Street Journal reported.

The study refuted previous reports, which found prostate surgery, in which the cancerous prostates are removed, as effective as "watchful treatment" but with more negative side-effects, according to the WSJ.

Tracking over 700 patients with early-stage prostate cancer spanning 18 years revealed 13 percent fewer deaths from any cause and 11 percent fewer deaths from reasons related directly to their prostrate among those that had surgery.

Further dividing the groups by age and seriousness of prostate condition showed that surgery is likely most effective when the patient is under the age of 65 (25.5 percent fewer deaths from any cause/15.8 percent fewer deaths from prostate-related causes) with an intermediate condition (24.2 percent from any cause). In mild or severe cases, the difference between survival rates was barely significant. For individuals older than 65, there was no difference between the surgery and non-surgery groups in terms of survival rates.

Thus, doctors advocate for better screening when it comes to potential prostate surgery. For one improvement, doctors and patients must work together for earlier detection. The average age of diagnosis is 66 -- past the cut-off point for more effective surgery rates -- according to the American Cancer Association.

"On first pass, this looks like a green light to go operating on everyone, but what it really does is shed a lot of light on the subset of patients who will benefit from surgery," James McKiernan, the director of urologic oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center (not part of the study), told the WSJ. "The younger patient with relatively aggressive cancer is the patient who will benefit most from treatment."