@stew80 You mention in passing that you are 84 and that changes the treatment options because PC (prostate cancer) is typically a slow-growing cancer. The fact that you are dealing with lesions like many of us have 20 years earlier (on average) also might indicate that the cancer is slow-growing. You don't mention what other health problems you might be facing, but the single life expectancy table (for instance, here https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/irs-single-life-expectancy-table) is 8.7 years at 84.
More recent studies including ProtecT mentioned here https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-03-13-study-shows-delaying-treatment-localised-prostate-cancer-does-not-increase-mortality show that you may well have (statistically) the same likelihood of living 15 years with no treatment as with treatment given the results you did mention in your original post.
So what I'm saying is that the nurse who called you summed up a lot in a few words, but what she said is not on its face outside current medical opinion. It reminds me of my aunt, about your age, who as soon as she heard I had cancer said, "Well, you should take it out. You don't want that in you." My response, which I didn't say to her, was, "You may be right, you may be wrong." Since any medical treatment will have side effects, risks, and costs, opting for no treatment when that is likely to give you twice your all-cause life expectancy for this specific cause is a very good option to consider.
Here is a recent summary statement summarizing the status quo regarding biopsy technique: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-research-shows-little-risk-of-infection-from-prostate-biopsies-202402123013. Here are a few research articles listed under my google search of "risk of transrectal biopsy": https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4548577/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10057203/ https://www.auajournals.org/doi/10.1097/JU.0000000000003788
and another consumer-level article: https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2024/09/new-prostate-biopsy-technique-lowers-infection-risk including the following quote:
"Prostate biopsies are an essential tool for detecting prostate cancer, and about 3 million people worldwide undergo the procedure each year. Dr. Hu noted that physicians collect about 90% of these biopsies in the United States via a transrectal procedure. Yet studies have found that 5% to 7% of patients develop infections after biopsy, and 1% to 3% require hospitalization for these complications, he said. To help prevent infections, physicians typically prescribe a prophylactic course of antibiotics before the procedure."
[For perspective, Johns Hopkins (a center of excellence) quotes overall survival rates with PC of 100% for 5 years, 98% for 10 years, and 95% for 15 years. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/prostate-cancer/prostate-cancer-prognosis.%5D