How Does Prostate Cancer Kill You In The End
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer after skin cancer in men in the US and the second leading cause of cancer death. Prostate-specific antigen testing has made the detection of prostate cancer easier in its early stages. Ninety-two out of 100 men get diagnosed when the cancer is limited to the prostate.
Most men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in their senior years and only 1 out of 36 men die from it. Death from prostate cancer most often happens when cancer has spread to other organs in the body. This is known as the advanced stage of prostate cancer.
The chances of survival decrease as cancer spreads beyond the prostate. If cancer has metastasized to other parts of the body, only three out of 10 men will survive for five years after the diagnosis.
Advanced stage prostate cancer or metastasized prostate cancer
Cancerous cells may spread to organs other than the site of origin. In the case of prostate cancer, this tendency is decreased, but it can happen. Advanced stage prostate cancer is defined based on the Gleason score, which is based on the TNM staging of cancer. T stands for tumor size, N stands for lymph node involvement and M stands for metastasis.
Prostate cancer can kill in the end through metastases that can develop in
Metastasis to the liver can affect the livers ability to filter out toxins from the body. This can eventually lead to jaundice, nausea, loss of appetite and weight loss.
Staging Spread And Survival Rates
As with all cancers, doctors use the term stage to describe the characteristics of the primary tumor itself, such as its size and how far prostate cancer has spread when it is found.
Staging systems are complicated. The staging system for most cancers, including prostate cancer, uses three different aspects of tumor growth and spread. It’s called the TNM system, for tumor, nodes, and metastasis:
- T, for tumor describes the size of the main area of prostate cancer.
- N, for nodes, describes whether prostate cancer has spread to any lymph nodes, and how many and in what locations.
- M, for metastasis, means distant spread of prostate cancer, for example, to the bones or liver.
Using the TNM system, each man’s prostate cancer can be described in detail and compared to other men’s prostate cancer. Doctors use this information for studies and to decide on treatments.
As far as survival rates for prostate cancer go, however, the staging system is pretty simple. As we’ve mentioned, in terms of survival rates, men with prostate cancer can be divided into two groups:
What Caregivers Can Do
- Help the patient turn and change positions every 1 to 2 hours. It’s best to time any position changes to be about 30 minutes after pain medicine is given.
- Speak in a calm, quiet voice and avoid sudden noises or movements to reduce the chances of startling the patient.
- If the patient has trouble swallowing pain pills, ask about getting liquid pain medicines or a pain patch.
- If the patient is having trouble swallowing, do not give them solid foods. Try ice chips or sips of liquid.
- Do not force fluids. Near the end of life, some dehydration is normal.
- Apply cool, moist washcloths to head, face, and body for comfort.
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Where Does Prostate Cancer Usually Spread First
If prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it almost always goes to the bones first. These areas of cancer spread can cause pain and weak bones that might break. Medicines that can help strengthen the bones and lower the chance of fracture are bisphosphonates and denosumab.
What Are Some Ways To Provide Emotional Support To A Person Who Is Living With And Dying Of Cancer
Everyone has different needs, but some worries are common to most dying patients. Two of these concerns are fear of abandonment and fear of being a burden. People who are dying also have concerns about loss of dignity and loss of control. Some ways caregivers can provide comfort to a person with these worries are listed below:
- Keep the person company. Talk, watch movies, read, or just be with them.
- Allow the person to express fears and concerns about dying, such as leaving family and friends behind. Be prepared to listen.
- Be willing to reminisce about the person’s life.
- Avoid withholding difficult information. Most patients prefer to be included in discussions about issues that concern them.
- Reassure the patient that you will honor advance directives, such as living wills.
- Ask if there is anything you can do.
- Respect the person’s need for privacy.
- Support the persons spirituality. Let them talk about what has meaning for them, pray with them if theyd like, and arrange visits by spiritual leaders and church members, if appropriate. Keep objects that are meaningful to the person close at hand.
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Medical Memo: Length Of Survival And Causes Of Death In Men With Prostate Cancer
For many men, a diagnosis of cancer may seem like a death sentence. That’s no surprise. Cancer can be a dreadful disease, and it remains the second leading cause of death in America, taking some 560,000 lives a year. But once the shock of a cancer diagnosis begins to wear off, patients should realize that cancer is not one disease, but many. Some, like cancer of the pancreas, are very bad actors indeed, while others, like many malignancies of the lymph system, respond beautifully to medical therapy. And prostate cancer belongs to a third category, since this most common internal malignancy of men can sometimes be aggressive and deadly, but is more often slow growing and indolent.
It’s natural for a man with prostate cancer to worry about dying from the disease, and it’s important for every patient to explore all his treatment options. Still, fear of prostate cancer can have unintended side effects, including depression and anxiety that sap energy and interfere with quality of life. And a diagnosis of prostate cancer can also distract both the patient and his doctors from attending to other important diseases.
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Definitions Of Disease Categories
ICD codes used in the disease categories were the following : myocardial infarction , other coronary heart disease , cerebrovascular accident , arterial disease , heart failure , pneumonia , chronic lower respiratory disease , external causes , complications of diagnostic or surgical procedures , complications of therapeutic drug or vaccine usage , suicide , traffic accident , falls , other heart disease , gastrointestinal disease , dementia , diabetes , complications of heart disease , urinary system disease , symptoms , pulmonary circulation , nervous system disease , hypertensive disease , other bacterial disease , psychic disease , anemia , tumors other than prostate cancer , and prostate cancer .
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Diseases Of The Pulmonary Circulation
Pulmonary embolism, often caused by a venous thromboembolus, is the major death cause in this category. Van Hemelrijck and coworkers found a higher incidence of pulmonary embolism and venous thromboembolism in PC patients receiving treatment, especially those treated with ADT, during the first 6 months after the diagnosis of PC . Similarly, a substantial proportion of PC patients undergoing prostatectomy have a thrombotic event shortly after the surgery . Thrombotic events are well-known complications of various medical procedures, most notably after surgery in cancer patients . Thrombotic events may even be the first manifestations of malignancy . A previous Swedish study concluded that cancer diagnoses, PC included, are frequent within 6 months after a diagnosis of deep venous embolism. Some cancer-related mechanisms have been proposed explaining the thrombotic tendency in cancer patients, sometimes referred to as Trousseau’s syndrome . Possible mechanisms include protease-induced activation of coagulation factors and upregulation of procoagulative enzymes by tumor hypoxia and oncogenes.
Many Men With Metastatic Prostate Cancer Die From Noncancer Causes
Approximately 1 in 6 deaths among men with metastatic prostate cancer are due to noncancer causes, according to a recent study.
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are among the most common noncancer causes of death.
These findings may provide insight into how men with metastatic should be counseled regarding future health risks and highlight the importance of multidisciplinary care for such patients, a team led by Omar Alhalabi, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, reported in JAMA Network Open.
Using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program database, the investigators studied 26,168 men diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2016. Of these, 16,732 died during follow-up. Most deaths occurred within 2 years of diagnosis. The mean age at death was 74 years.
Of the total number of deaths following a diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer, 13,011 were from prostate cancer, 924 were from other cancers, and 2797 were from noncancer causes, Dr Alhalabi and colleagues reported.
Men with metastatic prostate cancer had a significant 34%, 31%, and 19% higher mortality rate from cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and COPD, respectively, compared with the age-matched US male population in adjusted analyses, according to the investigators.
References
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Deaths From Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 41 will die of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer can be a serious disease, but most men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. In fact, more than 3.1 million men in the United States who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today.
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
American Cancer Society. Facts & Figures 2021. American Cancer Society. Atlanta, Ga. 2021.
National Cancer Institute. SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Prostate Cancer. Accessed at https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html on March 15, 2019.
Noone AM, Howlader N, Krapcho M, Miller D, Brest A, Yu M, Ruhl J, Tatalovich Z, Mariotto A, Lewis DR, Chen HS, Feuer EJ, Cronin KA . SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2015, National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, MD, https://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2015/, based on November 2017 SEER data submission, posted to the SEER web site, April 2018.
American Cancer Society. Facts & Figures 2021. American Cancer Society. Atlanta, Ga. 2021.
National Cancer Institute. SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Prostate Cancer. Accessed at https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/prost.html on March 15, 2019.
Last Revised: January 12, 2021
Prostate Cancer Is Common With Aging
After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. About 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. And these are just the men who are diagnosed. Among very elderly men dying of other causes, a surprising two-thirds may have prostate cancer that was never diagnosed.
Only 1 in 36 men, though, actually dies from prostate cancer. That’s because most prostate cancers are diagnosed in older men in whom the disease is more likely to be slow-growing and non-aggressive. The majority of these men eventually pass away from heart disease, stroke, or other causes — not their prostate cancer.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer
In most cases, prostate cancer causes no symptoms.
In rare cases, men may experience certain symptoms when they have advanced prostate cancer. However, these symptoms are also present in many men who do not have cancer, so it is best to discuss them with a doctor before jumping to any conclusions. Some of these symptoms can include difficulty emptying the bladder, blood in the urine, and bone pains.
Genetic Testing For Prostate Cancer
You may hear a lot about genetics or genomics. Both terms are related to genes and cell DNA, but they are different. These tests are being used to learn more about the DNA of cancer cells, and link DNA mutations with treatments. In the future, genetic testing may be the first step doctors take when diagnosing prostate cancer.
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Recent Study Shows Most Men With Prostate Cancer Die With The Disease Rather Than From It
A new international study led by researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital, published recently in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, shows that close to 50 per cent of the men studied posthumously harboured prostate cancer over the age of 60, but had died of other causes. The study provides further evidence that a large proportion of prostate cancer tumours are not destined to become life-threatening.
Led by Dr. Alexandre Zlotta, Director of Uro-Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospitals Murray Koffler Urologic Wellness Centre, a scientist with Mount Sinais Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, the new study advocates for an improved screening method that can detect cancers based on their clinical significance and level of aggressiveness, rather than screening for all forms of this disease. The current widespread use of prostate-specific antigen testing in North America for the disease increases the likelihood of the over-detection of low-risk prostate cancers, which can potentially lead to unnecessary treatment that may result in major lifestyle and emotional side effects for patients.
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Prostate Cancer Survival Rates Are Favorable Overall
Thinking about survival rates for prostate cancer takes a little mental stretching. Keep in mind that most men are around 70 when diagnosed with prostate cancer. Over, say, five years, many of these men will die from other medical problems unrelated to prostate cancer.
To determine the prostate cancer survival rate, these men are subtracted out of the calculations. Counting only the men who are left provides what’s called the relative survival rate for prostate cancer.
Taking that into consideration, the relative survival rates for most kinds of prostate cancer are actually pretty good. Remember, we’re not counting men with prostate cancer who die of other causes:
- 92% of all prostate cancers are found when they are in the early stage, called local or regional. Almost 100% of men who have local or regional prostate cancer will survive more than five years after diagnosis.
- Fewer men have more advanced prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis. Once prostate cancer has spread beyond the prostate, survival rates fall. For men with distant spread of prostate cancer, about one-third will survive for five years after diagnosis.
Many men with prostate cancer actually will live much longer than five years after diagnosis. What about longer-term survival rates? According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, for men with local or regional prostate cancer:
- the relative 10-year survival rate is 98%
- the relative 15-year survival rate is 96%
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Who Gets This Cancer
Prostate cancer occurs only in men, and it is more common in older men than younger men. It is more likely to occur in men with a family history of prostate cancer and men of African American descent. The rate of new cases of prostate cancer was 111.3 per 100,000 men per year based on 20142018 cases, age-adjusted.
Rate of New Cases per 100,000 Persons by Race/Ethnicity: Prostate Cancer
Males
SEER 21 20142018, All Races, Males
Half Of Patients Who Die From Prostate Cancer Have Metastases At Diagnosis
the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:
According to a new study published in the journal Prostate Cancer & Prostatic Diseases, researchers sought to determine which types of patients die from prostate cancer in the modern era.
The researchers identified 190 men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treated between 2008 and 2011 and analyzed the characteristics of the 113 patients who died as a result of prostate cancer.
Of the 113 patients, 56% had identifiable metastases at the time of diagnosis. Of those, 67% had bone metastases, 111% had visceral metastases, and 43% had lymph node metastases. The median time to developing CRPC was 16 months and the median overall survival was approximately 5.2 years.
Among patients who died from prostate cancer, 46% of those initially diagnosed with localized disease had T stage 3 and 38% had a Gleason score 8. Overall, 26% had a Gleason score 6 and 64% were classified as having high-risk prostate cancer. The median overall survival was found to be 8.8 years.
The findings suggest that among those who die from prostate cancer, about half have detectable metastases at diagnosis. Therefore, the researchers recommend that more future studies should be conducted in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer.
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How Long Have I Got How Will I Die From Prostate Cancer
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