Hey Bud, it’s ONE opinion, OK? Just because someone says that you “could” live 10-15 yrs, doesn’t mean you will. I read similar articles years ago when I was diagnosed at age 64. I did the math and said “nah” and had surgery because #1. - I was young-ish and #2 because it was higher risk Gleason 7 and could come back (it did).
In your case at age 78, I personally would have leaned more toward radiation (again, doing the math), but with a PSA of .36 right after surgery, you must have had metastasis somewhere that didn’t show up on a PET scan ( assuming you had one!).
So even if you chose radiation you still might be in the same situation - with perhaps even less treatment choices - just a life of continual hormones and drugs even worse, as far as sex is concerned.
As far as having NO treatment goes, I don’t think even the most open-minded progressive oncologist today would tell you to do nothing; many men live into their 90’s and who wants to play Russian Roulette with cancer??
What would you have said if 2 or 3 yrs from now, with no treatment, a doctor told you that you were gonna die because you had prostate cancer in your liver or wherever….it DOES happen as evidenced by the thousands of men who DO die every year from this disease.
So you can beat yourself up all you want for treatment choices (we all do sometimes) but as far as no treatment goes? I wouldn’t even consider it no matter how many studies they throw in my face…