Prognosis

Prognosis

Prostate cancer can be treated best when the cancer is found early and is still confined to the prostate. In many cases, the cancer does not go away after treatment but stops growing or shrinks in size. Men usually return to normal or near normal good health. This may last for months or years. Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the U.S. Only lung cancer causes more cancer deaths in American men. The lifetime probability of developing prostate cancer is about 16%. Each year, approximately 218,890 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about 27,050 will die from the disease.

According to the American Cancer Society, 5-year survival rates for all stages of prostate cancer have increased during the past 20 years from 67% to nearly 100%. A survival rate indicates the percentage of patients who live a specific number of years after the cancer is diagnosed. For prostate cancer, the 10-year survival rate is 93% and the 15-year survival rate is 77%. After 15 years, survival rates stabilize.

A 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that men who are diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancers have a minimal risk of dying from prostate cancer up to 20 years after diagnosis. However, men diagnosed with more severe forms of prostate cancer have a higher risk of dying within 10 years.

• Prognosis for Early Stage Disease

Because so many prostate tumors are low-grade and slow growing, survival rates are excellent when prostate cancer is detected in its early stages. Cure rates can be as high as 98% in some cases.

• Prognosis in Late Stage Disease

Locally Advanced. If the disease is at the locally-advanced stage, in which it has spread beyond the prostate but only to nearby regions, it is more difficult to cure, but survival rates can be prolonged for years in many men. (When cancer has metastasized to the pelvic lymph nodes, the outlook is worse than if it has spread to other areas.)

Metastasized Cancer. If prostate cancer has spread to distant organs (metastasized), average survival time is 1 - 3 years, but some of these patients may live longer or die of other causes.

• Prognosis After Recurrence

If cancer recurs after initial treatment for early-stage tumors, it is still potentially curable if it is contained within the prostate, although in most cases the cancer has spread. Hormone treatments for such recurring cancers can often prolong survival for years, although the cancer almost always returns again.