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Survival Rates By Cancer Stage
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Mar 29 4:06pm | Replies (22)Comment receiving replies
For clinical practitioners, it seems to depend on the treatment and the outcome. Regardless of stage, if you can achieve < 0.1 PSA, whether by surgery, radiation, hormon, or combination of the three, you outcome will be very good. The reason is that at that level, at least 99% of the cancer cells are either dead or dormant. It also seems that with the progress of science, more people get to that < 0.1 level all the time. That is why you see the warning on these stats that they are based on old data and may be not applicable.
Also with the progress of science, they can now detect smaller amounts of PSA, as little as 0.003. However, the jury is out as to whether that represents < 99% cancer free, or whether the outcome is better? There is no study until recently. So no definitive answer for some years. The doctors for now will tend to play it safe and tell you there is no difference. May be that is true, Intinctively, there must be a difference. We all wish there is a difference, of course. But until there is scientific proof, no one can say anything.
Sorry this got a bit long winded. Dont mind me. I am just another layman trying to make some sense of the whole thing.
Replies to "For clinical practitioners, it seems to depend on the treatment and the outcome. Regardless of stage,..."
I feel we all want to know how long we have or what’s going in our bodies after treatment. Even with modern medicine, it’s difficult to get a straight answer from our medical team. I know each of our journeys are different, but relying on active surveillance at least for me is nerve racking.
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I would add it also depends on the type of prostate cancer you may have. For example, do you have BRAC1 or BRAC2, or some other genetic marking. Did you start with adenocarcinoma, small cell, basal cell, or neuroendocrine. Some doctors now believe that at the time you are diagnosed you have a mix of prostate cancer cell types. And that micro mutations of those cells can sit around and fester over time and then emerge later because those cells were resistant to treatment all along. This is why doctors now believe in hitting the cancer hard up front with triplet therapy. The idea is to kill as many micro metastases as possible. Cancer cells are kills with radiation and or chemotherapy. ADT and the 2nd generation drugs like Xtandi, Darolutamide, Apalutamide stop cancer cells at the cellular level. Both starve cancer cells of testosterone. But some of cells can go dormant and rise up later. The good news is that all cancer cells must die. They do not die on schedule but they do die. My strategy was kill as much cancer as possible up front - hopefully leaving nothing to come back. But everyone is different and can only handle what they can handle. Some people are afraid of radiation and chemo so they settle for just ADT or one of the other drugs. I wanted to carpet bomb the cancer. I wanted to kill as many cells without killing myself for the greatest outcome. It was hard but the Lord got me through it.
No doctor can tell you your expected outcome. Some cancer just give up and become indolent and others mutate into something more aggressive. They do not know. But, we have lots of treatment options to extend our lives Thank God.