So, looking over one's shoulder for the remaining time...

Thank you all for your responses. Pretty clear it is important to stay positive and on top of post procedure PSA tests so if it returns it is caught early.

With the general average age of diagnosis being around 70 years, with a 10-15 year lifespan post diagnosis/treatment looks pretty good. But, as a 57 year old (me) 10-15 years (gulp) puts me at 67 to 72... With my numbers that has me thinking a bit like there is a greater likelihood of something popping up in my late 60's or early 70's. But, as some of you had indicated, live each day to the fullest and focus on that and I believe it is sound advice.

I will continue to check in here as my surgery is in one month (Happy Fourth of July to me LOL). I will probably spend my holiday observing first-hand all the wonders of a catheter while making sure the potato salad doesn't sit in the sun too long 😉

@thig350
I was diagnosed at 62 with 4+3 after surgery. I have BRCA2, which makes it much more aggressive. I’ve had four reoccurrences, Salvage radiation and a few different drugs.

I’m still here at 78 and undetectable for the last 31 months.

If you did not have large cribriform Then it’s not a major factor.

At this point, you just have to live long enough for the next breakthrough in drugs, which is going to happen in the next five years. The current drugs and treatments will keep you going into your 70s. By then they might cure prostate cancer.

The future is brighter than you think.

@thig350 In 2021, with my cancer already metastasic, they told me I had 18–24 months until castrate-resistance and escalation of treatment, and 3–5 years total survival (but maybe I'd be extremely lucky and live up to 7 years, since I was only 56 and otherwise healthy).

So it's 2026 now, and my health is much better than it was in 2021/22. I tolerate the ADT + Apalutamide well, and they still keep my cancer undetectable. There has been no treatment escalation, and obviously, I'm still here to type this reply.

YMMV, but just ignore any survival stats, because they're mostly based on outdated data in a fast-changing field.

My husband got diagnosed at 55 a year ago.... stage 4!
First was just some ED and peeing frequently so he reluctantly went to the Dr...
PSA was almost 300! Then that triggered a pelvic CT which showed it outside prostate, also biopsy and Gleason score mostly 8 and 9s a few 7s ... Oncologist did a psma pet scan and it was everywhere!!! Lungs, bones, spine, lymph nodes and of course prostate!
They started him on ADT (firmagon and zytiga) and he did chemo over the summer.
Next scan showed great improvement.
Another scan recently still showed some improvement on whatever stubborn spots were left, hes hesitant about radiology and the radiologist agreed to wait another 6m for another scan as he's not in pain!
He eats pretty perfectly and works out every day!
He's not in pain but just more tired and weaker and has hot flashes and of course no sex life!
I do miss it, but would rather have a tired husband and no sex life than no husband and still no sex life!
They told us 30% make it 5 years and that aft would probably work 18m more so. Every month we go up for the firmagon injection and are anxious about the PSA number but it's very low now 0.09
Hang in there. Cancer sucks!

I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 58 and I thought, I always wondered how I was gonna die and now I know. Median survival rates back then was 3-4 years. That was in 2007. Turns out the lymphoma has been the least problematic. Prostate cancer followed in 2018. After my first reoccurrence I expected more relapses to follow. With the ever increasing arsenal of meds, news of rising PSA is not met with doom and gloom. Ironically, it’s chronic kidney disease, diagnosed in 2022, that presents the most risk because unlike PSA, the GFR, a measure of kidney filtration capacity, cannot be reversed. So with kidneys, it’s more like — Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on. And that is the attitude I’ve adopted with those three big conditions as well as a half dozen non-fatal issues (including ED and incontinence ) that actually make my daily life a lot more difficult than the Big-3. We get used to and accept our new realities. Good luck