Prostate Cancer Survival Rates
If you or someone you care about has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer, it might bring some sense of reassurance to know that prostate cancer has a relatively high survival rate. With modern methods of detection and treatment, the majority of prostate cancers are found in the early stages of the disease and can be treated with a high degree of success.
When discussing prostate cancer survival rates, it is important to be aware of what the statistics can tell you and what they cannot about your personal situation. Survival statistics can tell you about the percentage of men who survived prostate cancer within a specific amount of time after they were diagnosed with the disease. The statistics can be useful in providing an estimate of possible outcomes, but they cannot guarantee an outcome on an individual basis.
Survival Rate Statistics
The overall five-year survival rate for men diagnosed with prostate cancer is 98 percent. This statistic means that 98 of every 100 men diagnosed with prostate cancer (of all ages, all health conditions, and all stages of prostate cancer) were still alive five years after their diagnosis. (Source: Mayo Clinic)
According to the most recent data, the overall five-year relative survival rate for 1999 to 2006 was 99.1%. (Source: National Cancer Institute)
The stage of prostate cancer at diagnosis and the five-year relative survival by stage for 1999 to 2006 was: localized cancer (confined to primary site) had a survival rate of 100 percent and accounted for 80 percent of the cases; regional cancer (spread to nearby lymph nodes) had a survival rate of 100 percent and accounted for 12 percent of the cases; distant cancer (cancer that has metastasized, or spread) had a survival rate of 30.2 percent and accounted for 4 percent of the cases; unstaged cancers had a survival rate of 75 percent and accounted for 3 percent of the cases. (Source: National Cancer Institute)
Using Survival Rate Statistics
Survival rate statistics can help you and your doctor understand your prognosis (the expected outcome of the disease) and develop a treatment plan, but they cannot precisely predict your survival or tell you which treatments to use.
Your individual prognosis will be affected by many factors, including:
- your age
- your overall health condition
- the type, stage, and grade of prostate cancer when diagnosed
- your response to treatment method(s) being used
Statistics are estimates only and your outcome may be better or worse than the overall survival rate. The overall survival rate does not take into account the stage of the prostate cancer when diagnosed, does not tell you whether the cancer survivors were in remission (cancer-free), progression-free (have cancer, but it isn't progressing), or still undergoing treatment.
Survival rates cannot tell you which treatments to use or give you information about the newest treatments. The latest prostate cancer statistics are usually based on the information of patients who were diagnosed more than five years ago and the outcomes do not reflect the results seen with the most recent treatments.
Surviving Prostate Cancer
In general, the earlier that prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated, the more likely it is that the disease can be "cured" and cancer eliminated from the body. More than 90 percent of all prostate cancers are detected in the local and regional stages - and nearly 100 percent of these men are alive five years after diagnosis.
Even when prostate cancer returns after treatment, recent studies show that men are more likely to die of other causes. According to a newly released study that included 623 men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1991 and 1995 and followed for up to 16 years after treatment, by the end of 2006, of the 387 men (62 percent) who had died, only 48 (12 percent) of the deaths were due to prostate cancer. (Source: Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(15):1390-1395)
Another recent study, which followed 2,900 men for an average of six years, looked at men who were sick for other reasons in addition to prostate cancer. What they found during follow-up was that of the men who had died (420 men), only 3 percent (86 men) had died from prostate cancer. (Source: Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(15):1397-1399)
These studies highlight the dilemma men and their doctors face when trying to determine a treatment plan for prostate cancer - whether to treat cancer aggressively and live with the side effects or to take a more conservative approach. While these studies show, that the phrase "most men die with prostate cancer, not of it" is based in truth, they also point to the importance of taking into account your age, overall health, and grade/stage of prostate cancer in regards to choosing a treatment plan and understanding your own prognosis.