Patients hear these treatments are terrible. Well, most patients get out of the hospital two days after surgery and are back to full activity in three weeks. They're back playing golf, tennis, riding horses, living their lives. McConnell said his role as physician often turns into that of psychologist when he reviews treatment options. Patients have different views about how they feel about one thing vs. another.
Stage lays out the choices simply.
Since many prostate-cancer treatments can have side effects, older men often decide to wait and see if the cancer advances. Prostate cancer, often a slow-growing cancer, may be less of a risk to an older man than treatment. But McConnell warns that only men whose cancer is slow-moving and only causing symptoms that can be treated should consider watchful waiting. But the biggest risk of nontreatment is death. The two primary areas of treatment are surgery and radiation therapy.