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Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery

Survival Of Prostate Cancer

Surviving Prostate Cancer without Surgery, Drugs or Radiation – Peter Starr (March 2021)

Survival depends on many factors. No one can tell you exactly how long you will live.

Below are general statistics based on large groups of people. Remember, they cant tell you what will happen in your individual case.

Survival for prostate cancer is generally good, particularly if you are diagnosed early.

If The Cancer Comes Back

If your prostate cancer comes back at some point, your treatment options will depend on where the cancer is, what types of treatment youve already had, and your health. See Treating Prostate Cancer that Doesn’t Go Away or Comes Back After Treatment. For more general information on recurrence, see Understanding Recurrence.

Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer

If the cancer has reached an advanced stage, it’s no longer possible to cure it. But it may be possible to slow its progression, prolong your life and relieve symptoms.

Treatment options include:

  • hormone treatment
  • chemotherapy

If the cancer has spread to your bones, medicines called bisphosphonates may be used. Bisphosphonates help reduce bone pain and bone loss.

Recommended Reading: Drinking Alcohol During Radiation Treatment For Prostate Cancer

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery

The new book Surviving Prostate Cancer

Without Surgery begins with the shooting of a urologist and includes a

WWII Battle. The book exposes the big lie about radical prostate surgery,

is filled with cartoons and simple diagrams, and is written for the average

layperson in easy-to-understand style.

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery quotes Dr. Gary Onik, M.D.,

Cryosurgeon and Director of Surgical Imaging at Celebration Health

Hospital, Celebration, Florida, who says: I expect that within five years

we will see the death of the radical prostatectomy as a treatment for

prostate cancer.

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery quotes oncologist Dr. Robert

Leibowitz of Compassionate Oncology Medical Group, who says: If radical

prostatectomies worked, the data would be there. The reason the data is not

there is because radical prostatectomies dont work. Dr. Leibowitz adds:

No prospective randomized trial has ever found radical prostatectomy to be

both necessary and effective.

Urologist W. Reid Pitts, Jr., M.D., FACS, wrote an outstanding

letter-to-the-editor of the Journal of Urology lambasting the radical

prostatectomy. When interviewed for Surviving Prostate Cancer Without

Surgery, Dr. Pitts said: Although I did the first ever nerve sparing

radical prostatectomy at New York-Cornell Hospital, Ive abandoned the

radical prostatectomy for my prostate cancer patients. There is always a

better treatment option.

If Treatment Does Not Work

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery: The New Gold Standard ...

Recovery from cancer is not always possible. If the cancer cannot be cured or controlled, the disease may be called advanced or terminal.

This diagnosis is stressful, and for some people, advanced cancer may be difficult to discuss. However, it is important to have open and honest conversations with your health care team to express your feelings, preferences, and concerns. The health care team has special skills, experience, and knowledge to support patients and their families and is there to help. Making sure a person is physically comfortable, free from pain, and emotionally supported is extremely important.

People who have advanced cancer and who are expected to live less than 6 months may want to consider hospice care. Hospice care is designed to provide the best possible quality of life for people who are near the end of life. You and your family are encouraged to talk with the health care team about hospice care options, which include hospice care at home, a special hospice center, or other health care locations. Nursing care and special equipment, including a hospital bed, can make staying at home a workable option for many families. Learn more about advanced cancer care planning.

After the death of a loved one, many people need support to help them cope with the loss. Learn more about grief and loss.

Also Check: Prostate Cancer Spread To Colon

Prostate Cancer Caregiver Podcast Series

We are proud to announce a new podcast series geared toward helping give support, hope and guidance to prostate cancer caregivers. The goal of this Prostate Cancer Caregiver Podcast Series is to help others connect with a diverse group of people who have felt the impact of prostate cancer in their lives and empower them on their journey.

How Is Prostate Cancer Treated

Lorenzo asked his doctors about survival and side effects and talked to friends and family members before deciding on treatment. He shares his story in this blog post.

Different types of treatment are available for prostate cancer. You and your doctor will decide which treatment is right for you. Some common treatments are

  • Expectant management. If your doctor thinks your prostate cancer is unlikely to grow quickly, he or she may recommend that you dont treat the cancer right away. Instead, you can choose to wait and see if you get symptoms in one of two ways:
  • Active surveillance. Closely monitoring the prostate cancer by performing prostate specific antigen tests and prostate biopsies regularly, and treating the cancer only if it grows or causes symptoms.
  • Watchful waiting. No tests are done. Your doctor treats any symptoms when they develop. This is usually recommended for men who are expected to live for 10 more years or less.
  • Surgery. A prostatectomy is an operation where doctors remove the prostate. Radical prostatectomy removes the prostate as well as the surrounding tissue.
  • Radiation therapy. Using high-energy rays to kill the cancer. There are two types of radiation therapy
  • External radiation therapy. A machine outside the body directs radiation at the cancer cells.
  • Internal radiation therapy . Radioactive seeds or pellets are surgically placed into or near the cancer to destroy the cancer cells.
  • Also Check: What Is Prostate Gland Enlargement

    What Affects Survival

    Your outlook depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. This means how big it is and whether it has spread.

    The type of prostate cancer and grade of the cancer also affects your survival. Grade means how abnormal the cells look under the microscope. The most common system used to grade prostate cancer is the Gleason score. Men with a higher Gleason score have a poorer outlook.

    Your outlook also depends on your PSA level. A high PSA level may mean your cancer grows more quickly.

    Your general health and fitness also affect survival. The fitter you are, the better you are able to cope with your cancer and treatment.

    What Is A 5

    Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery,Drugs or Radiation

    A relative survival rate compares people with the same type and stage of cancer to people in the overall population. For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific stage of prostate cancer is 90%, it means that men who have that cancer are, on average, about 90% as likely as men who dont have that cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.

    Recommended Reading: T3b Prostate Cancer Survival Rates

    Outlook For Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer

    While it isnt possible to cure advanced prostate cancer, treatments can help keep it under control, often for several years. Treatments will also help manage any symptoms, such as pain.

    Some men may not respond well to one treatment, but may respond better to another. And when your first treatment stops working, there are other treatments available to help keep the cancer under control for longer.

    Where Do These Numbers Come From

    The American Cancer Society relies on information from the SEER database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute , to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.

    The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for prostate cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages . Instead it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages.

    • Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside the prostate.
    • Regional: The cancer has spread outside the prostate to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
    • Distant: The cancer has spread to parts of the body farther from the prostate, such as the lungs, liver, or bones.

    Read Also: Stage 3 Prostate Cancer Survivor Stories

    Survival Rates For Prostate Cancer

    Survival rates can give you an idea of what percentage of people with the same type and stage of cancer are still alive a certain amount of time after they were diagnosed. These rates cant tell you how long you will live, but they may help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that your treatment will be successful.

    Keep in mind that survival rates are estimates and are often based on previous outcomes of large numbers of people who had a specific cancer, but they cant predict what will happen in any particular persons case. These statistics can be confusing and may lead you to have more questions. Ask your doctor, who is familiar with your situation, how these numbers may apply to you.

    Survival For All Stages Of Prostate Cancer

    [ðPDF] Surviving Prostate Cancer without Surgery: The New Gold Standard ...

    Generally for men with prostate cancer in England:

    • more than 95 out of 100 will survive their cancer for 1 year or more
    • more than 85 out of 100 will survive their cancer for 5 years or more
    • almost 80 out of 100 will survive their cancer for 10 years or more

    Survival of prostate cancer is also reported in Scotland and Northern Ireland. But it is difficult to compare survival between these countries because of differences in the way the information is collected.

    Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019Office for National Statistics

    These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account the background mortality that they would have experienced if they had not had cancer.

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    Treatments For Localized Prostate Cancer

    is only in the prostate. Localized prostate cancer is divided into based on the risk of the cancer coming back after treatment. Treatment is based on these risk groups. Lower-risk localized prostate cancer grows very slowly and is unlikely to become life-threatening. Higher-risk localized prostate cancer has a higher chance of growing or spreading.

    Choosing a treatment for localized prostate cancer can be complicated, especially if the cancer is lower risk and growing slowly. Prostate cancer treatments can seriously affect your quality of life and cause side effects such as erectile dysfunction and incontinence .

    It’s important to consider the likelihood that cancer will cause problems before deciding what to do. You may not need to be treated right away. You will also need to consider how side effects of treatment may affect your quality of life. Some people are less concerned about these side effects and are more concerned about getting rid of the cancer.

    People in higher-risk groups are usually offered aggressive treatment. Those in lower-risk groups may be offered active surveillance without immediate treatment.

    If you are older or have other serious health problems and the cancer is growing slowly, it might be helpful to think of prostate cancer as a chronic disease when you consider your treatment options. If you are younger and otherwise healthy, you may be more willing to accept possible side effects if they give you the best chance of a cure.

    Prostate Cancer Survival Rates

    Answering the question of how curable is prostate cancer? first requires understanding what doctors mean when they refer to curability. Regardless of the type of cancer, doctors consider cancer cured when a patient remains cancer-free for a specified period after treatment. The higher the number of patients who stay cancer-free for five years or longer, the higher the curability of that particular disease.

    Prostate cancer, therefore, has one of the highest curability rates of all types of cancer, thanks in large part to early detection standards and advances in treatment, such as the stereotactic body radiation therapy offered by Pasadena CyberKnife. When the cancer is detected in the early local or regional stages that is, before the cancer has spread or when it has only spread to limited areas in the pelvic regions the five-year survival rate is nearly 100 percent.

    Survival rates decline significantly when cancer is detected at later stages however, the good news is that only about five percent of men are diagnosed after the cancer has become widespread throughout the body. In short, more than 90 percent of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer live for five years or longer after treatment, making it one of the most curable forms of cancer.

    Read Also: What Does Malignant Neoplasm Of Prostate Mean

    Doctor Visits And Tests

    Your doctor visits will usually include PSA blood tests, possibly with digital rectal exams if your prostate hasnt been removed. These will probably begin within a few months of finishing treatment. How often you need follow-up visits and tests might depend to some extent on the stage of your cancer and the chance of it coming back. Most doctors recommend PSA tests about every 6 months or so for the first 5 years after treatment, and at least yearly after that. Bone scans or other imaging tests might also be done, depending on your medical situation and symptoms.

    Prostate cancer can recur even many years after treatment, which is why its important to keep regular doctor visits and report any new symptoms .

    Remission And The Chance Of Recurrence

    Peter Starr Interview – Alternative Prostate Cancer Treatments

    A remission is when cancer cannot be detected in the body and there are no symptoms. This may also be called having no evidence of disease or NED.

    A remission can be temporary or permanent. This uncertainty causes many people to worry that the cancer will come back. Although there are treatments to help prevent a recurrence, such as hormonal therapy and radiation therapy, it is important to talk with your doctor about the possibility of the cancer returning. There are tools your doctor can use, called nomograms, to estimate someone’s risk of recurrence. Understanding your risk of recurrence and the treatment options may help you feel more prepared if the cancer does return. Learn more about coping with the fear of recurrence.

    In general, following surgery or radiation therapy, the PSA level in the blood usually drops. If the PSA level starts to rise again, it may be a sign that the cancer has come back. If the cancer returns after the original treatment, it is called recurrent cancer.

    When this occurs, a new cycle of testing will begin again to learn as much as possible about the recurrence, including where the recurrence is located. The cancer may come back in the prostate , in the tissues or lymph nodes near the prostate , or in another part of the body, such as the bones, lungs, or liver . Sometimes the doctor cannot find a tumor even though the PSA level has increased. This is known as a PSA recurrence or biochemical recurrence.

    Read Also: What Is The Test For Prostate Cancer

    Hormone Therapy Side Effects

    Testosterone is the primary male hormone, and plays an important role in establishing and maintaining typical male characteristics, such as body hair growth, muscle mass, sexual desire, and erectile function, and contributes to a host of other normal physiologic processes in the body. The primary systemic …

    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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    Related: As Screening Falls Will More Men Die From Prostate Cancer

    In active monitoring, men with localized prostate cancer do not get surgery or radiation right after theyre diagnosed. Instead, they have regular biopsies, blood tests, and MRIs to see if their cancer is progressing. If it is, they can receive treatment.

    Although some oncologists advise men with early, low-grade prostate cancer to choose active surveillance and professional groups such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommend it many patients recoil at what sounds like lets just wait for your cancer to become really advanced. A decade ago fewer than 10 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer chose monitoring, UCLA researchers found. But that is changing. Now at least half of men do.

    That made sense to Garth Callaghan, author of the best-selling Napkin Notes, a book of missives he tucked into his daughters lunch box. Diagnosed with early prostate cancer in 2012, he said, none of the choices seemed particularly attractive to a 43-year-old man who dreaded the possibility of side effects of surgery or radiation, including incontinence and impotence. I was completely torn. My previous experience was, just get it out of my body. But after his doctor explained that prostate cancer is grossly overtreated in the United States, I did a complete 180 and chose active monitoring.

    Can I Lower The Risk Of Prostate Cancer Progressing Or Coming Back

    Surviving Prostate Cancer, Without Surgery, Drugs or Radiation (2010 ...

    If you have prostate cancer, you probably want to know if there are things you can do that might lower your risk of the cancer growing or coming back, such as exercising, eating a certain type of diet, or taking nutritional supplements. While there are some things you can do that might be helpful, more research is needed to know for sure.

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    Stage Iv Prostate Cancer Prognosis

    Prostate cancers detected at the distant stage have an average five-year survival rate of 28 percent, which is much lower than local and regional cancers of the prostate. This average survival rate represents stage IV prostate cancers that have metastasized beyond nearby areas to lymph nodes, organs or bones in other parts of the body.

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