Prognosis

• A prognosis is a statement about the expected survival and recovering from a disease. You may want to ask, “Can I survive this?” Here are some facts that may help answer your questions about this subject.
  
  Your chance of recovery depends on these things:
  • Type and location of the cancer
  • Stage of the disease
  • How quickly the cancer is likely to grow and spread
  • Your age
  • Your general health
  • How your cancer responds to treatment

To form a prognosis for you, your doctor will consider all the things that could affect your disease and treatment to make a prediction of what seems likely to happen. To do that, the doctor will look at what researchers have found out over many years about thousands of men with prostate cancer. When possible, the doctor will use statistics for groups of men whose situations are most like yours to make a prediction.

You may find it easier to deal with prostate cancer when you know your prognosis and the statistics for how well a treatment might work. The doctor who is most familiar with your situation is in the best position to discuss your prognosis with you and explain what the statistics may mean for you.

• What are the survival rates for prostate cancer?
  The prognosis for men diagnosed with prostate cancer before it has spread is excellent. These are the most recent statistics, according to the National Cancer Institute:
  • The five-year relative survival rate for cancer that is still confined to the prostate is nearly 100 percent.
  • The five-year relative survival rate for cancer that has grown just outside the prostate or has reached nearby lymph nodes is nearly 100 percent.

  • The five-year relative survival rate for cancer that has spread to distant parts of the body is about 29 percent.The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer for all men combined is higher than 99 percent. This is largely because most prostate cancers are found at an early stage.
    
    (These survival rates are adjusted to account for the fact that some men with prostate cancer will die of other causes.)

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