Prostate Cancer Survival Rates - What Do They Tell Us?

Prostate cancer survival rates offer an indication of how long a patient, diagnosed with prostate cancer, can expect to survive with the disease. While they are not an accurate measure of the life expectancy of the individual patient, survival rates do offer a prediction of the likely outcome for each patient, within a certain time-frame.

Survival rates are dependant on the type of cancer, the degree of its spread when first diagnosed and the treatment decided upon. The statistics give the numbers of previous patients with similar type, spread and treatment as the individual patient. They are a guide, so the patient and their family have an idea of what to expect if a certain course of treatment is followed.

Generally, prostate cancer is found in men over the age of fifty years. Some prostate growths are benign, but the presence of abnormal cells in the prostate can indicate cancer.

Prostate cancer can be present for many years without being detected; because there are no symptoms, the patient is not even aware he has prostate cancer at this stage. The first indications will be pain while urinating, difficulty passing urine and erectile dysfunction.

Generally, prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer, occurring more in developed countries than in third world countries. The reason for this could be the fact that men in developing countries usually have a shorter life expectancy, and prostate cancer does not have a chance to take hold before they die of other causes.

Prostate cancer has one of the highest survival rates of any cancer. In the US, only 3% of all patients diagnosed with prostate cancer will die from the disease. The five year survival rate, measured for five years from when the first diagnosis was made, is 100%. The ten year survival rate sits at 92%, while the fifteen year survival rate sits at 70%.

The reason for these very strong survival rate figures is because early detection is common in the United States, when the cancer has not spread outside the prostate gland, making treatment more successful.

The Gleason system is used to grade prostate cancers on a scale from one to ten. The grades are based on the degree of differentiation of the abnormal cells found in the prostate gland. Using the Gleason scale, when a positive diagnosis of abnormal cells is made, a score is given.

A grade of 2 to 4 is low; a 5 to 7 is intermediate and an 8 to 10 is considered high grade. The higher the score, the greater the differentiation of the cells, and the faster the cancer cells will grow and spread.

The patients with the lowest survival rates are those whose cancer has spread outside the prostate gland. Of these, an average of 46% will die within 22 months of having been diagnosed, as the disease was already aggressive and spreading to other parts of the body (metastasized). In this group, less than 32% will reach the five year survival statistic.

After prostate cancer has been detected and diagnosed, your doctor will formulate a prognosis, based on the statistics of survival rates for the type and stage of your cancer. A prognosis is an educated guess, based on data gathered over many years of treating prostate cancer.

Different treatment options have to be considered when looking at prostate cancer survival rates.