The most favorable scenario for a newly diagnosed patient is that the disease is confined to the prostate, which then is either surgically removed or radiated. Both treatments commonly result in impotence or reduced sexual potency and urinary incontinence. However, in about 20 percent to 30 percent of cases where a cancerous prostate gland is surgically removed, it later turns out that cancer cells had escaped into the body before the surgery. The good news is that when confined to the prostate and treated, five-year survival statistics are 100 percent. And over the past 20 years, the survival rate for all stages of the cancer combined has risen from 67 percent to 89 percent, thanks to early detection and treatment.
Survival starts to fall off after five years.
Early detection is imperative. If the disease spreads to the bones, death usually results within 18 months to two years. And death does not come peacefully. Andrew Von Eschenbach and Christopher Wood of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, two top prostate cancer researchers. Men have been famously reluctant to talk about prostate cancer, mainly because the disease and its treatments often curtail sexual and urinary function.